Linking Practice to Theory in Teacher Education: Teacher Candidates' Opportunities to Talk About Field Experiences

• In Event: Unpacking the Conception of Coherence in Teacher Education: International Perspectives

Abstract

Scholars steadily argue that practice and field placement is decisive for high quality learning for teacher candidates (Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005; Darling-Hammond et al., 2005; Grossman et al., 2008; Zeichner, 2012). Still, research finds that teacher candidates will not learn ambitious teaching practices if this is left to field placements alone (Britzman, 2003; McDonald, 2005), and scholars emphasize the importance of close links between what happens in the field placements and the coursework at campus (Grossman et al., 2008). There is little research, however, looking into the “black box” of teacher preparation (Cochran-Smith & Villegas, 2015), and we know little about how the field placement experiences are used and processed while the teacher candidates are at campus. This article examines the opportunities the teacher candidates have to talk about their field placement experiences at the campus site of their teacher education program.
Drawing on data and analytical framework from an international cross-case study of teacher education programs in the US, Norway, and Finland, we focus on survey data (n=269) and observation data covering a three-week period of language arts and mathematics methods courses (n=42 hours) from three teacher education programs in these countries. The three programs are University of Helsinki (UoH) in Finland, University of Oslo (UoO) in Norway, and Stanford University in California, US. We used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to investigate the survey data, and whether the three programs differed significantly in the extent to which their teacher candidates have the opportunity to discuss experiences from their field work; to use theory to analyze these experiences; and to make connections between educational theory and their classroom teaching. The analysis of the observation data focused on the characteristics of the talk about field placement, based upon an analytical framework grounded in research on teachers’ talk and related areas (Clarke et al., 2013; Little & Horn, 2007; Tigchelaar & Korthagen, 2004; Valli, 1997)
Findings from the survey data suggest that the teacher candidates at all programs have quite extensive opportunities to talk about field placement. However, the survey data also indicate that the candidates at two of the programs have less opportunity to link this talk to theory (see Figure 2). This is supported by findings from the observation data that suggest that the characteristics of the talk about field placement — that is how targeted, specific and linked to theory this talk is — varies considerably across the programs.
The article argues that just talking about field placement may not be effective, and that in order for such talk to enable the teacher candidates to link theory and practice, talk about field placement needs to be carefully and systematically designed and employed.

Authors

• Inga Staal Jenset, University of Oslo

• Kirsti Klette, University of Oslo

• Karen M. Hammerness, American Museum of Natural History