Beginning Early Childhood Teachers’ Reflections on Their Student Teaching Experiences

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 310 - 330, 31.12.2019

Meral Beşken Ergişi

https://doi.org/10.17984/adyuebd.541170

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Student teaching experiences in teacher education programs hold a crucial part since they provide teacher candidates with practical experience before they enter the profession. This study inquires the role of split student teaching employed in early childhood teacher education program at a southwestern U.S. state universityon experiences of beginning teachers’ who graduated from this program.  In this qualitative research, participants’ reflections to their field experiences in the program were gathered through two in-depth individual interviews and one focus group interview.  An analysis of interview data revealed that beginning teachers’ student teaching experiences partially fulfilled their need of having adequate in-classroom experience before starting their teaching careers; yet they highlighted some suggestions for student teaching assignments to better prepare prospective teacher candidates in the program.The length and timing of student teaching has also emerged as an important result of this study.Furthermore, participants highlighted the role and importance of mentor-teachers during their student teaching. 

 

Keywords

student teaching, field experience, internsip, beginning teachers, early childhood teacher

References

• Akdağ, Z. (2014). Supporting new early childhood education teachers in public schools. Mersin University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 10(1), 35-48.
• Aranson, J. (1994). A pragmatic view of thematic analysis. The qualitative report, 2 (1). Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/BackIssues/QR2-1/aronson.html.
• Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Bullough, R.V. Jr., Young, J., Erickson, L., Birrell, J.R., Clark, D.C., Egan, M.W., Berrie, C.F., Hales, V., & Smith, G. (2002). Rethinking field experience: Partnership teaching versus single-placement teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 68-80.
• Boz, N., & Boz, Y. (2006). Do prospective teachers get enough experience in school placements? Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 32(4), 353-368.
• Burke, W. (2004). Empowering beginning teachers to analyze their students’ learning. In E.M. Guyton, & J.R. Dangel (Eds.), Research linking teacher preparation and student performance: Teacher education yearbook XII (pp. 181-203). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
• Carter, K., & Doyle, W. (1996). Personal narrative and life history in learning to teach. In J. Sikula, T. J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp.120-142). New York: Macmillan.
• Christensen, J. C., & Fessler, R. (1992). Teacher development as a career-long process. In R. Fessler, & J. C. Christensen (Eds.), The teacher career cycle: understanding and guiding the professional development of teachers (pp.1-20). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
• Ciyer, A., Nagasawa, M., Swadener, B. B., & Patet, P. (2010). Impacts of the Arizona System Ready/Child Ready Professional Development Project on preschool teachers’ self-efficacy. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 31 (2), 129-145. doi: 10.1080/10901021003781197
• Cochran-Smith, M. (2006). Policy, practice, and politics in teacher education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Darling-Hammond, L., Chung, R., & Frelow, F. (2002). Variation in teacher preparation: How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach? Journal of Teacher Education, 53(4), 286-302. doi: 10.1177/0022487102053004002
• Darling-Hammond, L., Hammerness, K., Grossman, P., Rust, F., & Shulman, L. (2005). The design of teacher education programs. In L. Darling-Hammond, & J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 390-441). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Epstein, A.S. (2007). The intentional teacher: Choosing the best strategies for young children’s learning. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• Eward, G., & Straw, S. B. (2005). A seven-month practicum: Collaborating teachers’ response. Canadian Journal of Education, 28(1&2), 185-202.
• Gallego, M. A. (2001). Is the experience the best teacher? The potential of coupling classroom and community-based field experiences. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(4), 312-325.
• Gerson, K., & Horowitz, R. (2002). Observation and interviewing: Options and choices in qualitative research. In T. May (Ed.), Qualitative research in action (pp. 199-224). London: Sage.
• Green, P., Hamilton, M. L., Kampton, J. K., & Ridgeway, M. (2005). Who stays in teaching and why?: A case study of graduates from the University of Kansas’ 5th-year teacher education program. In G. F. Hoban (Ed.), The missing links in teacher education design: Developing a multi-linked conceptual framework (pp.153-167). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
• Henke, R. R., Chen, X., & Geis, S. (2000). Progress through the teacher pipeline: 1992-1993 college graduates and elementary/secondary school teaching as of 1997. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
• Hoffman, J. V., Roller, C., Maloch, B., Sailors, M., Duffy, G., & Beretvas, S. N. (2005). Teachers’ preparation to teach reading and their experiences and practices in the first three years of teaching. The Elementary School Journal, 105(3), 267-287.
• Hong, J.Y. (2010). Pre-service and beginning teachers’ professional identity and its relation to dropping out of the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1530-1543.
• Kane, R. G., & Francis, A. (2013). Preparing teachers for professional learning: Is there a future for teacher education in new teacher induction? Teacher Development, 17(3), 362-379. doi: 10.1080/13664530.2013.813763
• Kvale, S., & Brinkman, S. (2009). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Lucas, C. J. (1997). Teacher education in America: Reform agendas for the 21st century. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Locklear, C. D., Davis, M. L., & Covington V.M. (2009). Do university centers produce comparable teacher education candidates? Community College Review, 36(3), 239-260. doi: 10.1177/0091552108328656
• Mahmood, S. (2013). “Reality shock”: New early childhood education teachers. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 34, 154-170. doi: 10.1080/10901027.2013.787477
• McLean, V. (1999). Becoming a Teacher: The Person in the Process. In R. P. Lipka, & T. M. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp.55-91). Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.
• Meijer, P. C., Zanting, A., & Verlopp, N. (2002). How can student teachers elicit experienced teachers’ practical knowledge?: Tools, suggestions and significance. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(5), 406-419. doi: 10.1177/002248702237395
• Moghareban, C.C., McIntyre, C., & Raisor, J.M. (2010). Early childhood preservice teachers’ constructions of becoming an intentional teacher. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 31(3), 232-248. doi: 10.1080/10901027.2010.500549
• Oh, D. M., Ankers, A. M., Llamas, J. M., & Tomyoy, C. (2005). Impact of pre-service student teaching experience on urban school teachers. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 32(1), 82-98.
• Öztürk, M., & Yıldırım, A. (2014). Perception of beginning teachers on pre-service teacher preparation in Turkey. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators, 3(2), 149-166.
• Pfitzner-Eden, F. (2016). I feel less confident so I quit? Do true changes in teacher self-efficacy predict changes in preservice teachers’ intention to quit their teaching degree? Teaching and Teacher Education, 55, 240-254.
• Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Rushton, S.P. (2001). Cultural assimilation: a narrative case study of student-teaching in an inner-city school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 147-160.
• Schempp, P. G., Sparkes, C. S., & Templin, T. J., (1999). Identity and induction: Establishing in the self in the first years of teaching. In R. P. Lipka, & T. M. Brinthaupt (Eds.), The role of self in teacher development (pp.142-164). Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.
• Shepel, E.N.L. (1995). Teacher self-identification in culture from Vygotsky’s developmental perspective. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 26 (4), 425-442.
• Schuck, S., Aubusson, P., Buchanan, J., Varadharajan, M., & Furke, P.F. (2018). The experiences of early career teachers: new initiatives and old problems. Professional Development in Education, 44 (2), 209-221. doi: 10.1080/19415257.2016124268
• Schulz, R. (2005). The practicum: More than practice. Canadian Journal of Education, 28 (1&2), 147-167.
• Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R. (1984). Introduction to qualitative research methods: The search for meanings. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Timostsuk, I., & Ugaste, A. (2010). Student teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1563-1570. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.08
• Valencia, S. W., Martin, S. D., Place, N. A., & Grossman, P. (2009). Complex interactions in student teaching: lost opportunities for learning. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(3), 304-322. doi: 10.1177/0022487109336543
• Vartuli, S., & Rohs, J. (2009). Early childhood prospective teacher pedagogical belief shifts over time. Journal of Early Childhood Education, 30, 310-327. doi: 10.1080/10901020903320262
• Wegner, E. (1998). Communities of practices, genealogies, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Xu, H. (2013). From the ımagined to the practiced: A case study on novice EFL teachers’ professional identity change in China. Teaching and Teacher Education, 31,79-86.
• Zeichner, K.M., & Conclin, H.G. (2008). Teacher education programs as sites for teacher preparation. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D. J. McIntyre, & K. E. Demers, (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring questions in changing contexts (pp. 267-289). New York, NY: Routledge.