Field Experience
Program Parameter : Field Experience
Programs should incorporate sequentially planned field experiences that will result in candidates’ increasing capacity to develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions necessary to help all students learn, including students with exceptionalities and students from diverse ethnic/racial, linguistic, gender, and socioeconomic groups. These experiences are characterized by collaboration and accountability, and represent a variety of early and ongoing school and community-based opportunities. Field experiences provide candidates with opportunities to observe, assist, tutor, instruct, participate in service learning, or conduct action research. Student Teaching, the culminating experience, provides candidates with experiences that allow for full immersion in the learning community to allow for the demonstration of the proficiencies required for teaching and learning in the 21st Century. Student teaching provides opportunities for candidates’ to interact with students’ families and communities.
Rationale:
Research and effective practice reveal the importance of practical experience in the work of learning to teach (Beeth & Adadan, 2006) and that becoming an effective educator is, in part, supported by combining theoretical knowledge with opportunities to experiment and develop knowledge (Darling-Hammond, Hammerness, Grossman, Rust, & Shulman, 2005). Further studies support the value of community-based learning in changing the ways in which preservice teachers think about learners, aid in the development of the preservice teacher’s ability to interact with and teach students from other cultures (Sleeter, 2001), and can impact where preservice teachers ultimately desire to teach (Burant & Kirby, 2002).
In addition to what research and effective practice tell us about field experiences we are also governed by accreditation standards which require the following:
· Candidates meet entry and exit criteria for clinical practice.
· Field experiences facilitate candidates’ development as professional educators by providing opportunities for candidates to observe in schools and other agencies, tutor students, participate in education-related community events, interact with families of students, attend school board meetings, and assist teachers or other school professionals prior to clinical practice.
· Both field experiences and clinical practice reflect the unit’s conceptual framework and help candidates continue to develop the content, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions delineated in standards.
· They allow candidates to participate as teachers or other professional educators, as well as learners in the school setting.
· Clinical practice is sufficiently extensive and intensive for candidates to develop and demonstrate proficiencies in the professional roles for which they are preparing.
Program Elements:
Sequentially planned field experiences will begin early in the preservice teacher’s career with a 100-Level Course requiring an Introduction to Education in the 21st Century. The 100-Level experience provides an opportunity for students to observe in schools, participate in education-related events, interact with students and families, and attend school board or other professional meetings. This first experience is followed by a 200-Level Teaching in the 21st Century. The 200-Level experience serves as the student’s first experience solely within their chosen discipline. The experience provides candidates with the opportunity to observe, tutor, and assist teachers or other school professionals. Each of the 200-Level experiences incorporates a common evaluation across all programs. At a time no later than the junior year candidates will engage in a 300-Level 21st Century Students in a Global Society. Candidates can fulfill the 300-Level experience by participating in University-Based Study Abroad programs, College-Based International Experiences, or College Coordinated (Approved) Community-Based Experiences. Candidates’ field experience programs will conclude with a continuous and extended year-long student teaching internship in the area in which the candidate is seeking licensure. Programs may/should institute additional field experience components/requirements as appropriate.