Describing the Complexities of Field Instruction Practice: An Exploratory Case Study in a University-Based Teacher Education Program.

University Supervision;Field Instruction;Student Teaching;Case Study;Teacher Education;Positioning Theory;Education;Social Sciences;Educational Studies

Tan, Hui KiangBall, Deborah Loewenberg ;

University of Michigan

关键词: University Supervision;    Field Instruction;    Student Teaching;    Case Study;    Teacher Education;    Positioning Theory;    Education;    Social Sciences;    Educational Studies;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/97794/alisonta_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Pre-service teacher education programs that engage university supervisors and cooperating teachers to mentor teacher candidates during clinical practice depend heavily on the interaction of these triadic members to ensure student teacher learning. Yet, we know from reports and research that triad member interactions can be riddled with problems and do not always produce intended results. This qualitative study engages this issue by seeking to understand, from a social constructionist perspective, how members of student teaching triads engage with programmatic elements and with one another, and how these interactions influence the practice of university supervisors. Adopting Positioning Theory as a framework to analyze meaning –making patterns, this multiple case study of two university supervisors and their work with two student teaching triads surfaced five dominant storylines from which members were observed to draw their interpretations: Ivory Tower, Studenting, Sink or Swim, Practice Makes Perfect, and Natural Teaching Personality. The results revealed that members not only drew upon these storylines, they also reinforced and perpetuated them, often without explicit intention. Although university supervisors strongly desired to help student teachers learn, their efforts were hindered by these tacit but persistent narratives and their respective assumptions. As an increasing number of scholars are examining ways to improve teacher education, especially its field-based component, this research supplements their work by describing the powerful influences of tacit storylines on student teaching triadic member interactions and proposes that teacher education programs, as well as their field-based instructors, attend to their members’ tacit meaning-making patterns in their quest to improve teacher education.