Partners in Professionalism: Creating a Quality Field Experience for Preservice Teachers

Abstract

The study investigates a professional development school (PDS) collaboration focused on identifying and studying the elements of a quality field experience for preservice elementary teachers. Data were collected to investigate collaboratively identified issues: Definitions of a quality field experience, relationships between and among the participants, structures which supported development of teaching expertise, and the role of inquiry in promoting a sense of community. Five graduate preservice teachers spent one year at the PDS with “enhanced supervision” and participation in collaborative inquiry and discourse. Qualitative data analysis of interviews, student and professor journals, observations in the classroom, and artifacts (e.g., action research reports) provide evidence for the efficacy of “enhanced supervision” and the benefits of preservice teachers' design of second field experiences within the same school. A highly collaborative context in the school, promoted discourse among participants over mutually engaging activities, thus establishing and supporting a community of practice in which student teachers flourished.