Understanding Preparation for Service-Learning Experiences in Teacher Education

• In Event: Service-Learing as Innovative Practice for Building Teacher Efficacy and Understanding

Abstract

Creating service-learning experiences with public school partners has been recognized to be an effective method for teacher education practices. What is being done in methods courses to prepare prospective teachers for those service-learning experiences also deserves study for best practices. Therefore, using a quasi-experimental repeated measures design, this study assessed the impact of an active-learning instructional sequence within the lecture part of a teacher education service-learning methods course on preservice teachers’ sense of teacher efficacy. Results indicated that measures having to do with preservice teachers’ sense of personal teaching confidence increased significantly as a result of experiencing the active-learning sequence.

Authors

• Larry Nelson, The University of Texas - Arlington

• Kathleen Tice, The University of Texas - Arlington

• Mary Lynn Crow