The influence of student teachers on the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction

Much attention has been given to the impact of cooperative teachers on the pedagogical behaviour of student teachers. In many cases, however, cooperating teachers gain as much from the student teacher as the student teacher acquires from them. This study was designed to elicit answers to the following two questions: (1) What are the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction in the Jordanian context? and (2) Does the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers engaging in early reading instruction change as a result of working with student teachers? The study targeted a sample of 25 cooperating teachers and 28 student teachers who participated in the study by completing a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews were also conducted with 13 cooperating teachers. Results of this study indicate that cooperating teachers endorse the phonics method more than the whole language (WL) approach. Unlike past research, the results of this study revealed that (1) the student teaching experience had no effect on the perspective of cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction and (b) the perspectives of cooperating teachers do not become similar to those of their student teachers who were WL-oriented. The results have implications for early childhood teacher education programmes and professional development for kindergarten teachers.     

Classroom practices of cooperating teachers and their relationship to collaboration quality and time: perceptions of student teachers

This study examined the complexities of the collaborative relationship between student teachers and cooperating teachers in secondary mathematics from the perspectives of the student teachers. Four cohorts of student teachers (N = 170) in secondary mathematics were surveyed using a questionnaire that measured their perceptions of two dimensions of their student teaching experience: collaboration with their cooperating teachers and the classroom practices of their cooperating teachers. Although analysis of the responses revealed that student teachers were generally satisfied with the amount and quality of the collaboration, two important results were revealed. First, about half of the respondents reported spending less than an hour collaborating weekly with their cooperating teacher in various contexts. Second, certain classroom practices of the cooperating teachers were found to be significantly associated with whether they spent more or less than an hour collaborating with their student teachers, and were significantly correlated in most cases. This explicit linkage suggests that the classroom practices of cooperating teachers may extend to the mentoring approach they take when working with student teachers. Suggestions for teacher education programs and cooperating teacher support are shared.     

Coteaching as professional development for cooperating teachers

Coteaching provides opportunities for teachers to collectively share responsibility for student learning. This paper reports on findings from a longitudinal study in which cooperating teachers cotaught science classes with student teachers. Through coteaching with student teachers, teachers expanded their teaching practice and developed new insights about their teaching. Coteaching served as professional development for the cooperating teachers. The experience provided them with renewed energy toward practice, opportunities to develop and implement curriculum, reflection as a catalyst for changing practice, and an expansion of professional roles into new arenas.     

The roles of the cooperating teacher and university supervisor in learning to teach

This paper examines “guided teaching” relationships between student teachers and their university supervisors and cooperating teachers, and the influence of these relationships on learning to teach. With few exceptions, the cooperating teachers and university supervisors in the study played limited roles in the process of learning to teach. Exceptions were a small number of cooperating teachers who believed that they could and should play and active role in student teachers' learning, conducted longer and more frequent conferences with their student teachers, and provided more extensive feedback. Based on these findings, we suggest changes in the roles of the university supervisor and cooperating teacher designed to maximize the likelihood that student teaching will be teacher education and will help student teachers explore new ways of teaching.     

Motivations and profiles of cooperating teachers: Who volunteers and why?

University teacher education programs often struggle to attract cooperating teachers. Given this situation, it is obviously of interest to determine what factors may attract teachers to, or repel them from, the cooperating role. It is also of interest to determine, in general terms at least, what characteristics cooperating teachers share.This paper develops a profile of cooperating teachers who agreed to work with student teachers, and discusses factors that encourage or dissuade them from taking on their important role. Results suggest that teachers’ positive motivations to take practicum students revolve around a solid set of professional commitments to self, students, and the profession. However, the actual experience of working with student teachers can run counter to these positive motivations, and may dissuade teachers from continuing in their cooperating role. The findings have strong implications for developing a cohort of motivated, committed and capable school-based cooperating teachers to work with the future generation of teachers.     

Examining a program designed to improve supervisory knowledge and practices of cooperating teachers

This article reports on how a program based on educative supervision supported the supervisory knowledge and practices of three cooperating teachers. The program was planned as a kind of practicum: the cooperating teachers participated in the program while working with a student teacher. The program included activities where the cooperating teachers reflected on their supervisory beliefs and practices in collaboration with each other. The case study method was used, where the case was the designed program. Data analysis indicated some changes in the supervision styles of the participating cooperating teachers toward educative supervision. First, the percent of speech given by the student teachers in the post-lesson conferences increased after the discussion of educative supervision in the program. Secondly, the amount and depth of talks on mathematics pedagogy increased. Thirdly, the cooperating teachers moved away from conveying their feedback directly to the student teachers; they started asking more open-ended questions to have the student teachers reflect on their teaching.     

Induction and Mentoring of Beginning Researchers at Academic Colleges of Education in Israel

This study focuses on similarities and differences in expectations of cooperating teachers and student teachers in the initial stage of the mentor relationship in the context of an Israeli practicum program for pre‐service student teachers. These expectations, particularly when they conflict, can serve as major obstacles to the formation of contexts for learning. A focus group technique was used to bring the expectations of the participants concerning the role of the cooperating teacher to awareness and articulation. The theoretical framework of Calderhead and Shorrock (1987) was used to analyze the participants’ expectations into categories of educational orientations. Expectations of a practical and technical nature were found to be prevalent among members of both groups, whereas the student teacher group held more expectations for a personal relationship than the cooperating teacher group. Suggestions are given for bridging the gap in expectations between cooperating teachers and student teachers in the initial stage of the practicum program.     

Understanding Candidates’ Learning Relationships with their Cooperating Teachers: A call to Reframe my Pedagogy

Abstract

This self-study frames the influences of cooperating (or mentor) teachers on teacher candidates in my teacher education classroom as an action-at-a-distance on my pedagogy of teacher education; that is, a tacit set of influences and expectations that teacher candidates develop about my course before it even begins. Interviews with teacher candidates enabled me to develop two conceptual metaphors to think about the relationships candidates develop with cooperating teachers on practicum. The first, freedom with foundation, reflects the fact that teacher candidates hope to have considerable autonomy in their practicum placements while simultaneously having the support from their cooperating teacher to receive meaningful, regular, feedback. The second, power and performance, names the tensions teacher candidates feel in experiencing the practicum as a site of performance rather than as a site of learning. I offer some specific pedagogical ways in which I have responded to these issues before making a turn to self. I examined journal entries from my own experiences as a teacher candidate 20 years ago with a view to understanding the ways in which the two metaphors may have played a role in my own development as a teacher. This research compels me to attend explicitly to action-at-at-distance forces in my teacher education classroom, such as candidates’ relationship with cooperating teachers and my relationships with my former cooperating teachers.     

What the teaching perspectives of cooperating teachers tell us about their advisory practices

This study drew upon the recently developed Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) to compare and contrast the teaching perspectives of cooperating teachers against a range of demographic data specific to cooperating teachers. The outcomes indicate, among other things, that a high percentage of cooperating teachers base their pedagogical relationship with learners upon a Nurturing perspective, that a Social Reform perspective among cooperating teachers is almost non-existent, and that a Transmission perspective is more prominent at the secondary school level than at other school levels. Collectively, the insights from this study provide one of the most comprehensive surveys of a single cohort of cooperating teachers reported in the literature.     

Capturing and assessing evidence of student teacher inquiry: A case study

In this paper, we present five principles underlying teacher inquiry and report a case study during which student teachers in a US teacher education programme used evidence-based decision support, an inquiry method designed to help teachers analyse and adapt their own teaching through the use of a video analysis tool. This case study examined interplay among tools designed to guide teaching practice, student teachers’ own self-guided inquiry, and feedback from cooperating teachers as they made instructional decisions. Preservice teachers initially accepted the guidance provided by teaching analysis tools, but abandoned the tools in favour of informal self-assessments and feedback from cooperating teachers when they assumed teaching responsibilities in their own classrooms. We discuss the role of external support and video evidence in guiding preservice teacher inquiry.     

从合法性走向合理性--中小学教师教学研究的定位问题

随着基础教育课程改革的深入,校本课程的开发和校本教学研究开始引起人们的广泛关注,这在客观上要求中小学教师必须在课堂中开展教学研究。但在现实中,当前的教师教学研究却表现出研究方法的机械化、研究成果的形式化与功利化过程的理性化等“不合理”的特征。教师教学研究既不同于教育理论的研究,又不同于经验总结和工作报告,它具有实践性、价值性和科学性的特征。     

Pedagogical influence of interaction with cooperating teachers on the efficacy beliefs of student teachers

Abstract

Cooperating teachers are often identified as some of the most important figures in the preparation of new teachers, and the reasons are not difficult to understand. Surprisingly, however, very little research has been conducted to quantify the effects of cooperating teachers on student teachers. This study examines the impact of student teachers' perceived interactions with their cooperating teachers and the influence that interaction has on student teachers' self‐efficacy for teaching. Results indicate a moderate correlation between perceptions of teaching efficacy and cooperating teacher‐student teacher interactions. Differences were found in the frequency of interaction based on the certification level of the student teacher, with elementary level student teachers perceiving a greater amount of interaction with their cooperating teachers. However, no differences based on certification level were detected in perceived efficacy. Student teachers' perceptions of the level of guidance offered by their cooperating teachers provided the most reliable predictor for their efficacy belief.     

Supervising an international teaching practicum: building partnerships in postcolonial contexts

Teaching practicum experiences, including those in international contexts, are based on partnerships between institutions and host schools, and the partnership between the pre-service teacher, the cooperating teacher and the university supervisor. This article explores the relationship between pre-service teachers and cooperating teachers in an international practicum in the Solomon Islands. It considers the way the cooperating teachers were positioned within the partnership, and raises questions about the way the university engages with host schools and teachers in international contexts, particularly in developing countries. Drawing on postcolonial theory, we investigate the complexity and contradictions in relationships between the pre-service teachers and cooperating teachers. We conclude by offering suggestions for valuing the role of cooperating teachers in these contexts.     

Cultivating relationships with school placement stakeholders: the perspective of the cooperating teacher

The aim of this paper is to analyse Irish school placement cooperating teachers’ supervisory experiences when involved in various structures of communities and explore factors which enabled or challenged them in cultivating relationships with school placement stakeholders where there is no formal system of supervision established in schools in the Republic of Ireland. Describing learning as a social process, research implies the significance of the development of relationships, membership within communities and identity construction. Using a qualitative approach, it was found that by formally engaging in a supervisory process, cooperating teachers experienced each of these characteristics to varying extents resulting in different supervisory experiences. The different configurations of membership allowed cooperating teachers to contribute towards school placement collaboration.     

Investigating the decision-making skills of cooperating teachers and student teachers of English in a Turkish context

Research on decision-making skills of teachers has indicated the importance of experience. Also, occupational culture has been found significantly related to teachers’ thinking and behavior in the class. This study investigates in what aspects experienced teachers (cooperating teachers) and less experienced teachers) (student teachers) differ when making instant decisions on diverting from their lesson plans as they teach, and what cultural/institutional influences can be related to these differences. The data for this qualitative study came from four cooperating teachers and seven student teachers through several research instruments: video-taping the participant teachers’ lessons, the interviews held at post-teaching meetings, the written retrospectives, and the questionnaire. The findings indicate that while ‘timing’ and ‘classroom management’ were major motives for student teachers to make changes in their plans, cooperating teachers were more concerned about discipline problems. Both groups of teachers were equally affected by ‘motivation’, ‘physical conditions’ and ‘language skills’ in making instant decisions. The paper ends with the implications of the study for teacher training and education.     

Training preservice teachers rapidly: The need to articulate the training given by university supervisors and cooperating teachers

This study evaluated the impact of a specific program on the training of preservice teachers; the program consisted of alternating periods of “condensed” and autonomous classroom work and training sequences with university supervisors and cooperating teachers in order to prepare for these practical work periods. Borrowing from an original theoretical conceptualization of teacher training and professional development based on the postulates of Wittgenstein's analytical philosophy (In G.E.M. Anscomb and G.H. Von Wright (Eds.). (1996). Remarques philosophiques [Philosophical Investigations]. Oxford: Blackwell.), this study (i) examined the circumstances in which preservice teachers are able to use experiences from training situations for professional growth in the training situations and/or in later classroom situations and (ii) proposes ideas for articulating the training work of university supervisors and cooperating teachers.     

Secondary mathematics cooperating teachers’ perceptions of the purpose of student teaching

This article reports on the results of a survey of 45 secondary mathematics cooperating teachers’ perceptions of the primary purposes of student teaching and their roles in accomplishing those purposes. The most common purposes were interacting with an experienced, practising teacher, having a real classroom experience, and experiencing and learning about classroom management. The most common roles were providing the space for experience, modeling, facilitating reflection, and sharing knowledge. The findings provided insights into the cooperating teachers’ perceptions about both what should be learned through student teaching and how it should be learned. These findings paint a picture of cooperating teachers who do not see themselves as teacher educators—teachers of student teachers. Implications for mathematics teacher educators are discussed.     

What factors support or inhibit secondary mathematics pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks during professional experience?

There is an acknowledged gap between the theory presented in university preparation programmes and the reality of classroom practice that has resulted in many secondary mathematics pre-service teachers failing to implement university-endorsed teaching strategies. Using responses to a questionnaire and interviews, this qualitative study examined the factors that support or inhibit secondary mathematics pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks during professional experience. The results showed that even though the majority of pre-service teachers reported having beliefs compatible with using problem-solving tasks, the secondary students’ ability, preparation time, and the cooperating teacher were key factors that inhibited pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks. It is recommended that pre-service teachers regularly visit classrooms to observe the evolving implementation of problem-solving approaches. Furthermore, cooperating teachers should be required to attend professional development before the professional experience so they understand the goals of the university preparation programme and have the requisite skills and knowledge to support the implementation of problem-solving tasks in learning mathematics.     

Styles of Scholarly Production

Abstract

This study examined the agreement between cooperating teachers’ and pupils’ assessments of student teachers. Each of 28 student teachers was evaluated by their pupils and cooperating teacher. Significant agreement between the two groups of evaluators was determined by a x2 formula suggested by Lawlis and Lu (5), and the proportion of agreement beyond chance was determined by using the formula suggested by Cohen (l).The results indicated agreement on three of four factors: control in the classroom, personality in relating to students, help given students to understand what they learn. Significant agreement did not exist between cooperating teachers and pupils on their assessments of the variety of learning activities used by student teachers.