The Comprehensive Guide to Working with Student Teachers: Tools and Templates to Support Reflective Professional Growth

This is a must-have resource for clinical and field experience coordinators and all educators who find themselves in the position of guiding teacher candidates. The authors provide a comprehensive toolkit for the complex work of field instruction, including mentoring approaches; conversation stems; conferencing techniques; lesson debriefing questions; understandings of programmatic goals; observation, assessment, and feedback methods; and more. They also demonstrate how to use video viewing and conferencing to adapt support for candidate growth in digital environments. The book clearly defines what field instruction entails and shows how to move from a pre-prescribed technical approach toward one that fosters candidates’ abilities to embody the roles of empowered, self-directed, and agentic teachers. With the help of this text, new and seasoned teacher educators will guide candidates to not only learn how to meaningfully reflect on practice, but to also internalize these competencies for their own future professional development and continuous self-improvement. Chapters are accessibly written and filled with concrete examples, tips, worksheets, and activities.

Book Features:

• Clear directions, tools, templates, and protocols for how to do the job of field instruction.
• A “Voices From the Field” chapter with practical advice from field instructors across multiple programs.
• Annotated sample conversations with candidates.

Elizabeth Soslau is associate professor of education at the University of Delaware. Monique Alexander is assistant professor of elementary and early childhood education at Slippery Rock University.