Researchers say that what really differentiates mature age students is not age as much as it is life experiences. How and in what ways does that influence the preparation of pre-service teachers? What happens in the classroom is more related to the teacher than any other variable. All, and especially older student teachers, bring rich experiences and images into the classroom that affect their attitudes, approach, and decision-making. The overall purpose of this research was to learn how life experiences of mature age student teachers influence their learning to teach children in an elementary classroom. Participants are five students between the ages of 38 and 45, who did their student teaching practicum within a traditional teacher preparation program. Data was gathered from three in-depth interviews, three classroom observations with field notes and video tapes, and from selected documents. The Rainbow of Life Roles (Super, 1980) was used to supplement interviews about the life experiences of each participant. Stimulated Recall (Bloom, 1953 and others) was used to discover what past experiences influenced decision making and problem solving. Interview questions focused on participants' interpretation of their life experiences, their perspectives of themselves as learners, workers, and parents, and their ideas about teaching. Based on the data, the following conclusions were reached. (1) Life experiences, from activities such as other jobs, parenting, travel, reading, coaching, and community work were embedded in the perspectives of the emerging teacher serving as a lens or filter through which decisions were made in the classroom. (2) Life experiences provided connections to build upon or barriers to be reconstructed. Examination of prior experiences and beliefs will help to reconstruct these experiences into meaningful ideas about teaching that will be more than an overlay experience that may be washed out in the early rigors of learning to teach. Implications for teacher education include the need for promotion of the examination of prior life experiences to integrate self-knowledge with theory and practice and to remove possible barriers to the development of solid teaching practices.

This qualitative study evaluated the effects of implementing a peer coaching process with ten graduate interns during their student teaching experiences in an alternative, elementary education program. A peer coaching model was provided in combination with an existing and more traditional model of supervision from cooperating teachers and university supervisors. This study explored the ways in which a peer coaching process affected the preservice teachers' reflective and instructional practices, and how it impacted their acquisition and development of collaboration skills. The study also examined difficulties that were encountered and how the process might be adjusted to make it more successful for future use. The findings of this study suggest that a peer coaching process can provide a valuable component to a teacher education program. Having the opportunity to interact with peers provided immense affective support for the interns as well as opportunities for reflective interactions, some of which were centered on inquiry into the craft of teaching. The interns in this study also used the peer observation process to increase their teaching effectiveness by adding to and refining their pedagogical skills. The peer coaching experience offered additional support than that provided by the mentor teacher and resource person, with the interns suggesting that what they learned from peers was different but complementary from what they learned from their mentor teachers and resource staff. While the majority of the interns' perceptions of the peer coaching experience were positive, they were able to offer specific suggestions for improving the process, including the need for additional guidance on facilitating reflection conferences in order to provide more critical and honest feedback to peers. The following four factors appeared to contribute to the successful implementation of a peer coaching process within this teacher education program: (1) Overall opportunities for collaboration were an integral component of the teacher education program. (2) Cohorts of interns were placed in only two sites, one of which was an urban setting. (3) Structured preparation was provided in the peer coaching process. and (4) The peer coaching process was a required program component.

This case study investigated the planning, implementation, and assessment of a staff development project designed to reduce stress and provide a support base for improved learning by introducing Movement/Relaxation skills to an urban elementary school. Focus of the research was directed towards meeting the needs of differently-abled children in the low income African American community. It examined possible body/mind strategies for making the curriculum more accessible to the active learning style of African American children. The program also took into consideration concerns of the adult learners among the professionals. It acknowledged school improvement as an ongoing process that must appeal to the efficacy of teachers who may commit to change when they feel what they are doing will make a difference. During workshops and coaching sessions, an action team of volunteer educators explored aspects of nonverbal communication in space, ways of bringing Movement/Relaxation into the curriculum and techniques for developing body depth, or inner space, and relaxation. The action team generated a group dynamic that enabled the participants to: (1) share experiences; (2) clarify understandings; (3) encourage each other in the classroom practice of body/mind activities; (4) gain an awareness of nonverbal communication and how to improve teacher/student relationships; (5) realize the value of relaxation as basic to concentration, attention and learning; (6) excite the interest of other faculty members; and (7) foster a more nurturing school climate. Endorsement of the study by central administration strengthened the commitment of school personnel who contributed towards its implementation. Cooperation by the principal, math and reading coordinators, as well as the responsibility demonstrated by school aides were essential to the progress of this research. The time spent working together served to bond the participants and those who lent supportive assistance to their efforts.

Against a backdrop of pressure for change in teacher education (Carnegie Forum, 1986; Holmes Group Report, 1986; United Kingdom White Paper, 1983) Feiman-Nemser and Floden (1986) produced a comprehensive review of research in the area of teacher education. Amongst other issues, they identified three broad areas of teacher development--"A model of changes in teacher concerns, a model based on cognitive-developmental theories, and a style of inservice education emphasizing teachers' own perceptions of their needs." (Feiman-Nemser and Floden, 1986, p.522). Since the first two approaches seemed to possess some common characteristics in that Fuller's (1969) stages of teacher concern were similar to cognitive-developmental stages, it was decided to try to establish whether there was any relationship between cognitive-developmental stage level, and the levels of concern expressed by teachers. As this study was regarded as an initial exploration of the topic, and as empirical studies in the area had produced confusing results, it was seen as an appropriate project for a qualitative approach to research. Accordingly, two groups of volunteers (12 experienced teachers from a Massachusetts elementary school, and 10 education seniors from the School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) were administered David Hunt's (1978) Paragraph Completion Method (PCM) and George's (1978) Teacher Concerns Questionnaire (TCQ). On the basis of Conceptual Level scores, four students and four teachers were chosen for follow-up interviews, and the interview data collated and analyzed. The results of this analysis showed that cognitive-developmental level does affect the profiles of concerns of teachers, and it can be inferred from the study that it also affects the patterns of change of teachers' concerns. The results also cast some doubt on the validity of the TCQ instrument.

This study reported on a teacher training project designed by the District of Columbia Public Schools (D.C.P.S.) to develop a cadre of exemplary teachers from an indigenous population of D.C.P.S. graduates and outstanding educational aides. The context of the study reported on university collaboration with the public school system to improve its teacher training program and described the Systematic Teacher Preparation Program (STPP) based on the perceptions of the teacher trainee toward the program. Data for the study were collected through two basic tools of qualitative research: interviews and document analysis. The case study subjects were students who were elementary and secondary majors in the teacher education program at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and were participants in the STPP. Case study subjects were randomly selected from first, second, third and fourth year elementary and secondary STPP participants. The sample group consisted of fifteen STPP students. The design for the study was a single case study action research format. A one hour interview was conducted with each subject based on a general interview guide with an open-ended format. The researcher concentrated on the subject's reason for selecting education as a major, the supports that sustained the subject in the program, and the subject's work experience in education. The subject was asked to reflect on what teacher training experiences meant to him or her. The impact of the practicum experience over a four year period compared to a twelve week traditional student teaching period was explored. The findings and conclusions of this study revealed that teacher trainees: (1) selected education as a major because of a desire to work with young people, (2) were influenced by a family member to major in education, (3) sustained an interest in education through the STPP staff, the clinical experience, and local school faculty, (4) needed increased involvement of program monitors, (5) were satisfied with STPP, (6) performed excessive non-instructional activities, and (7) were taught a traditional teacher education program at UDC.

This critical ethnographic study explores the possibilities and challenges of dialogue across differences within a school-university partnership between a state university and a low-achieving urban elementary school. The focal point of the study is the dialogue (reflection and action) that occurred in a focus group composed of school and university educators, parents, and community members. The study uses “third space” as a metaphor and theoretical lens to illuminate how dialogue complicates understanding through the collision of multiple perspectives, and, in some cases, produces a hybrid consciousness that results in novel action. In addition, the study draws on the postmodern notion of discourses to show how societal discourses permeate the multiple perspectives that constitute “third space.” The findings of this study suggest that creating a time apart from normal routine, positioning participants as learners and co-inquirers, and expecting and valuing different perspectives contribute to a dialogue process and to the building of parity among participants. Moreover, multiple and different viewpoints are crucial for complicating understanding in ways that lead to a hybrid consciousness that has the possibility of creating new agency. This study shows that the potential for hybrid understanding and negotiated agency is diminished when participants draw on primarily middle class discourses. The study concludes that a commitment to issues of social justice must occur at several levels of a partnership: (1) gathering a diverse group of participants whose perspectives are shaped by dominant and non-dominant discourses; (2) posing questions about the school context and teaching/learning practices in relation to sociocultural, political messages; (3) participating in social action that addresses the political and economic factors that produce inequities in schooling.

Teachers have long struggled to be recognized as professionals and to achieve autonomy. Key obstacles that influenced their perception of powerlessness, such as professional isolation of teaching staff, low teacher participation in decision making, and systems of supervision irrelevant to instructional improvement, were even scrutinized in national reports. The criteria suggested for the selection of a teacher supervision training model was based on a sound theory of education supported by research. It provided teachers the latitude for decision making that was congruous with the professional treatment of inservice teachers and that was acceptable to teachers receiving supervision. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of peer clinical supervision on teacher empowerment. The participants were 21 urban elementary school teachers located in southeast Washington, D.C. They along with their principal volunteered to be trained in clinical supervision using an adaptation of Cogan and Goldhammer's Five-Step Clinical Supervision Model. Pre- and post program questionnaires, a perceptual inventory, interviews and field notes were used to report the study's findings. The study concluded that training in peer clinical supervision had a positive impact on teacher empowerment when the results were associated with the six Empowerment Indicators: (1) increased receptivity toward supervision, (2) increased receptivity toward change, (3) decreased feelings of isolation, (4) increased evidence of collegiality, (5) increased participation in the decision-making process at the building level, and (6) increased peer classroom observations. Appendices present an outline of the training model used for this study with sample instruments.

This study tested the effectiveness of an inservice training program for (1) teaching telecommunication skills to teachers who were relatively inexperienced in the use of computers, and (2) assisting teachers in designing and implementing telecommunications activities in their curriculum. Nine elementary teachers participated in an innovative telecommunications project between two local schools. Three of the teachers completed the four session model training program in which they learned the skills necessary for using a telecommunications Bulletin Board System. During the six-week initial implementation phase, a coaching strategy was employed, in which the teachers were observed and assisted while practicing telecommunications. The teachers developed a degree of expertise in using telecommunications and they were able to implement this technological innovation in their curriculum as indicated by the activities and impact upon student learning. During the first cycle of use the teachers were becoming stabilized in the use of telecommunications as they began to refine integration of this media in new areas of their curriculum. The coaching the teachers received was evaluated as being most helpful in assisting teachers in the implementation process. Perceived future barriers to implementation relate to the lack of phone lines and the scarcity of support assistance in the schools. This study has considerable implications for policy makers responsible for the incorporation of technological innovations in school curricula. The results indicate that teachers given an extensive system of training and implementation support are able to effectively integrate telecommunications activities in their curriculum.

Within the period of each student teaching experience a series of transfers takes place in which responsibility for decision-making in instruction and classroom management is shifted from the cooperating teacher to the student teacher and culminates with the assumption of the role of teacher by the student teacher. The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of instruction and classroom control and the degrees of freedom allowing the student teacher to make decisions during the preservice clinical experience. Six categories were used as a framework to discipline the collection of the data: Time Sequence, Readiness, Formal Communication--Conferences, Informal Communication--Cues and Signs, Degrees of Freedom and Proximity, and Legal and Moral Responsibilities. The methodology involved three phases of investigation: oral interviews, classroom observations, and questionnaires. The population in Phases 1 and 2 consisted of ten matched pairs of cooperating teachers and student teachers who were interviewed and observed. In Phase 3 nine cooperating teachers and eight student teachers comprised a different, non-matched population who responded to two types of questionnaires. All participants were from elementary preservice clinical experiences in western Massachusetts. Collected data from the three phases were qualitatively analyzed to identify significant factors relative to the transfer of control. Cooperating teachers and student teachers had no personal explicit time sequence to grant or receive the transfer of control but believed an implicit pattern existed. Student teachers had no personal criteria for readiness to assume control but determined it by personal successes in classroom management, lesson ownership, and pupil respect. Cooperating teachers had an implicit pattern for determining readiness based on these factors. Conferencing varied in length and content; reflective thinking and philosophical discussion were not major components. Cues and signs were important indicators of the progress of the transfer of control. Student teachers needed to experience degrees of freedom to make decisions as they assumed control. They believed the cooperating teacher's proximity affected the mode of instruction and limited the degrees of freedom in their instructional and management styles. Legal questions limited the latitude of the student teacher's risk-taking and decision-making potential.

The intent of this study was to describe the complex phenomenon of mentoring student teachers in one elementary teacher education program. A case study research design was used. Interviews, observations, and an examination of documents were used to uncover two major themes, support and challenge, across the three central topics of curriculum, classroom management, and school culture. An operational definition of preservice mentoring was constructed, using the literature as well as data from the participants: Emergent teachers moving through the teacher education continuum of preservice, induction, and inservice, construct a mentoring system to help them manage their professional growth and development: a unique network of people who support and challenge them with curriculum, classroom management, and the school culture. A mentor/protege relationship is characterized by shared beliefs, negotiation, reciprocity, commitment, collegiality, nurturance, and respect for the autonomy of the protege along a developmental path of initiation, reciprocity, separation, and redefinition, always with a goal of increased self-reliance. (Templeton, 1994). The study focused on the cooperating teacher/student teacher relationship that occurs during the student teaching semester in order to arrive at a description of the vital elements that are central to mentoring in preservice teacher education. The study described the context underlying the collaborative mentoring support system that operates within this elementary teacher education program. The questions that guided this inquiry were (1) How does mentoring operate in the cooperating teacher/student teacher relationship in the student teaching component of one elementary preservice teacher education program? (2) What do cooperating teachers and student teachers identify as the key elements of mentoring relationships in the student teaching component of one elementary preservice teacher education program? The study revealed that mentoring occurs at many different levels during teacher development and is interpreted in many different ways, both in the mentoring literature and in practice. Phases of the mentoring relationship were experienced in the same order, but in varying intervals by each of the three student teachers. These phases were initiation, reciprocity, separation, and redefinition. The study may provide a basis for guiding others interested in incorporating mentoring into their teacher education programs. Teacher educators could benefit from this study because the data may exhibit elements which will contribute to a systemic model of mentoring at the preservice level. It is important for teacher educators to start thinking about the skills they need to provide, model, and encourage preservice mentoring processes because mentoring can be a critical element in providing a bridge between preservice education and induction into teaching.