Uncovering a Problem of Practice: Supervisors’ Field Observations of Preservice Teachers’ Approximations of Practice

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: The Work of University Supervisors in Supporting New Teachers’ Learning

Abstract

This “case-within-a-case” (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2013; Yin, 2009) examined the formal and informal observations of preservice teachers’ approximations of practice. The described study is part of a 4-year longitudinal study of a school situated, cross-disciplinary, iterative approach to teacher preparation. The qualitative study reported here emerged as a problem of practice within the context of the larger study and prompted our investigation of the following question: What facets of practice do methods faculty, university supervisors, and placement teachers privilege when observing preservice teachers’ approximations of practice?

Authors

• Shannon Coman Henderson, The University of Alabama

• Tracy L. Weston, The University of Alabama