The Effects of Content-Specific Seminars on Student Teachers' Effectiveness

Abstract

This study compares the effects of two approaches to student teaching seminars: structured, content-specific training seminars and general education discussion seminars. The study was based on the premise that seminars during student teaching are potentially important avenues to assist prospective teachers in developing critical teacher behaviors. Student teachers were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: coping skills training, classroom management training, or general education discussion. During the ten-week student teaching period, five two-hour seminars were conducted for each group. Trained faculty observers collected observational data on the student teachers' classroom management abilities, their overall student teaching performance, and on the academic engagement of the student teachers' pupils. The results indicate that content specific training seminars positively affected the student teachers' classroom management skills, their overall classroom effectiveness, and the on-task behavior of their pupils.