Becoming Reflective Educators: Exploring Teacher Candidates' Perspectives as They Translate Theory-Practice in Urban Schools

• In Event: Preparing Teachers to Work in Urban Settings

Abstract

This study highlights teacher candidates’ (TCs) perspectives of urban clinical experiences in their teacher preparation program, and what aspects contributed to development of their content knowledge and pedagogical skills. Additionally, we examined how TCs were able to translate theory to practice in their urban placement classrooms, and how this impacted their feelings of preparedness and gave them opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in professional teaching standards. Findings suggest that while clinical experiences positively contributed to the development of components of the Knowledge Base for Teaching framework (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005) and professional teaching standards, some TCs noted gaps in their clinical placements that did not allow some aspects to fully develop, making it difficult to connect theory to practice.

Authors

• Arthi B. Rao, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jennifer D. Olson, University of Illinois at Chicago