Learning While Building: Enhancing Teacher Candidate Development Within Professional Development Schools Through Programmatic Analysis

• In Event: Perceptions of Partnership: Insights of Teacher Candidates, Schoolchildren, and Families on Professional Development School Partnerships

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of differing models of practicum placements on teacher candidates’ (TC’s) abilities to practice teaching skills and receive feedback on their teaching. Within the Professional Development School (PDS) model TC’s were placed as cohorts in a single PDS site with at least one college faculty member assigned as a liaison, and within the Traditional model TC’s were placed across a variety of school sites. Teacher candidates completed a survey to measure TC’s perceptions of how much time they spent teaching lessons and how much feedback they received within each model. T-tests were used to analyze the survey data, indicating TC’s within the PDS model reported receiving greater feedback from host teachers than TC’s in other models.

Authors

• Valerie Widdall, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Andrea M. Lachance, SUNY - College at Cortland