The Difference Explicit Preparation Makes in Cooperating Teacher Practice

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-5 - Cooperating Teachers and Supervisors: Voices From the Field

Abstract

This quantitative study of 119 preservice and 146 cooperating teachers from 10 credentialing programs in California examined the relationship between cooperating teacher practice and preservice teacher perceptions of a high quality field experience. The study also considered background and placement factors contributing to cooperating teachers’ enactment of practices. The study revealed that cooperating teacher practice and the field experience rating correlated strongly (r = .79). Cooperating teachers who received procedural or other training to work with preservice teachers reported enacting reflective practices to a greater degree, as did teachers of color. Implications are for explicit preparation to disrupt norms of practice and counter social reproduction as cooperating teachers bring novices into the community of practice of K-12 schools.

Author

• Karen Elizabeth Lafferty, San Diego State University