Preservice teacher performance assessments, such as the edTPA, are one of the accountability policies from states and local authorities designed to ensure the quality of beginning teachers and standardize teacher education. We studied experiences of 65 preservice teachers regarding the effect of the edTPA on their learning in field-placement classrooms. These cases revealed that the edTPA created “protected teaching spaces” for participants to experiment with student-centered instructional practices supported in university courses and codified in edTPA rubrics. This was especially impactful for novices who previously had limited opportunities to try out equitable reform-oriented instruction in their placements. In these cases, the edTPA also helped mitigate inequities in learning to teach, an unintended outcome that is important for policymakers to consider when deciding on credentialing requirements.
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Using university science courses for preservice teacher internship experiences.
The importance and value of high quality opportunities to authentically practice teaching is key for new teacher development. Unfortunately, securing high quality field experiences for preservice teachers is an ongoing problem for many teacher education programs. This article describes how we used our own university-level science content courses to provide preservice teachers with robust teaching experiences through teaching internships. We share our insights from engaging interns for the last 10 years as well as the key elements of the internship experience from the perspective of former interns.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1949833
- PAR ID:
- 10534619
- Editor(s):
- Miller, B; Radloff, J
- Publisher / Repository:
- Innovations in Science Teacher Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Innovations in Science Teacher Education
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2472-2553
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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