Voices of Student Teachers Cases From the Field

by Rand, Muriel K.; Shelton-Colangelo, Sharon

• ISBN13: 9780130941305
• ISBN10: 0130941301
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-08
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

For Field Experience and Student Teaching courses; as a supplement in K-12 Methods courses.Written by actual student teachers about their personal experiences, the sixty-two cases in the second edition of this book bring to life the reality of teaching in a way that only first hand experience can. Brief, and presented without resolution of the case problem, they put readers into situations ranging from preschool to high school, covering myriad classroom scenarios, and occurring in rural, suburban, and urban schools. Each is accompanied by discussion questions, and they are arranged according to major topics. In addition, the authors include a section that explains the value of writing as a form of reflection and presents guidelines readers can use in writing their own case studies.Coverage includes contemporary topics such as e-mail communication, plagiarism from the Internet, standards-based teaching, and the effect of traumatic events.For professionals in the field of teaching.

Table of Contents

Part I To the Student	1	(8)
Part II Cases from the Field	9	(154)
Challenges of Creating Classroom Communities	10	(27)
Challenges of Curriculum and Instruction	37	(28)
Challenges of Diversity	65	(28)
Challenges of Working with Families	93	(19)
Challenges of Ethical Dilemmas	112	(26)
Challenges of Working with Other Professionals	138	(25)
Part III Reflecting on Teaching: Writing Your Own Case	163

Excerpts

How do we develop student teachers who are reflective practitioners? Most teacher preparation programs recognize the importance of reflection and of creating experiences that help students reflect on their teaching experiences. This text provides a venue for students to step outside their practice and bridge the gap between the educational theory presented in college courses and the complex realities of today''s classrooms. Student teachers occupy a unique position: although they are not yet real teachers, they also are no longer fully students; indeed, they shoulder a full array of responsibilities in the classroom. Caught in the middle of demands from their own students, their cooperating teachers, their college supervisors, and their education professors, these novice teachers often struggle to reconcile a host of particular issues and dilemmas. Student teachers need support to make sense of this busy, complicated, exhausting, but important period in their professional lives. This text, containing real-life teaching cases of student teachers'' experiences, provides a way for them to reflect, reconsider, and rethink the events they experience. New to This Edition In this revised edition, new cases have been added covering current issues such as using the Internet in teaching, standards-based teaching and assessment, and the effect of traumatic events in students'' lives. Discussion questions after each case and a chart on the inside covers that summarizes the issues covered in each case help instructors link the cases to topics covered in class. Many of the cases are set in urban schools and there is extended coverage of middle school and high school cases, but they still are generalized across all grades and settings. The sections of the book have been reorganized, with new sections added on Challenges of Ethical Dilemmasand Challenges of Working with Families.In each section, cases are ordered by grade level so that locating specific age groups is easier. An updated, annotated bibliography provides suggestions for further reading to encourage students to explore issues more deeply and to develop the habit of finding resources to improve their teaching. The cases lend themselves to many topics and are best used in conjunction with other readings, experiences, and related activities. Since by their nature these cases focus on problems, it is important to provide readers with a balanced perspective on teaching. This book will be useful in seminar courses taken in conjunction with student teaching or in courses with earlier practicum experiences. These cases will also stimulate discussion and raise issues for introductory educational foundations courses and illustrate principles covered in educational psychology and philosophy. Case-Based Pedagogy Teaching cases have established themselves as an important pedagogical tool in teacher education. Cases offer the opportunity for students to construct their own understanding, work at their own level, have choice in the curriculum, and, most of all, be active participants in their own learning. Cases are an ideal bridge between theory and practice and support a constructivist view of learning. The real-life cases in Voices of Student Teachers: Cases from the Fieldreveal the unique problems and issues that student teachers face. These cases describe actual dilemmas students confronted during their internships and are an ideal mechanism to enable beginning teachers to analyze and reflect on their own practice. The Cases provide a repertoire of experiences from which students can draw to meet new challenges and explore possibilities in their own teaching. Discussing these dilemmas duplicates the process of professional growth described by Donaldv Schon, who explains, "A professional practitioner is a specialist who encounters certain types of situations again and again .... As a practitioner experiences many variations of a small number of types of cases, he is able to ''practice'' his practice. He develops a repertoire of expectations, images, and techniques. He learns what to look for and how to respond to what he finds" (1987, p. 60). Peer Collaboration in Case Analysis The value of these cases for reflection lies in the potential for sharing different perspectives during peer discussions. By analyzing cases in the college classroom, students will be able to think differently about the problems they encounter during their student teaching and beyond. These cases give prospective teachers an opportunity to think about the many possible ways in which a problem can be addressed. Ideally student teachers will also develop a habit of reflection: regularly thinking about what could be improved or what else would have worked in any given situation. When student teachers work with their peers to analyze and discuss cases, they are better able to function within their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) and to collaboratively construct meaning. In working with peers on cases, student teachers can be more resourceful, more thoughtful, and generally more competent than they could be on their own. The group discussions and reflections scaffold the students'' growth and move them forward in their professional development. Organization of This Book The general framework we used in organizing this book parallels the way in which we use cases in our teaching: Introducing students to cases.In Part I we show students how to read and analyze cases and what can be learned from teaching cases. This section also demonstrates how to work together as a group, use active listening, and brainstorm ideas. We encourage students to think about the process of decision making in their teaching and to put themselves in the place of the student teacher in the case. Presenting teaching cases.Part II gives students practice in analyzing cases that cover a wide range of issues. The cases in Sections 1 through 6 are grouped according to major topics of Creating Classroom Communities, Curriculum and Instruction, Diversity, Working with Families, Ethical Dilemmas, and Working with Other Professionals. Although the cases are ordered by grade level within each section, we encourage you to choose individual cases that fit your needs and use them in the order that makes sense for your teaching. To help you select appropriate cases, we begin each one with a short abstract that gives pertinent details about the case. Writing your own teaching case.After analyzing various cases in our classes, our students write their own cases as a formalized way of reflecting on their teaching. Part III presents guidelines for prospective teachers to follow in writing their own cases and explains the value of using writing as a form of reflection. How These Cases Were Developed The cases in this collection are authentic narratives collected from student teachers studying at an urban university in New Jersey. The majority of these students are from working-class families in which they are the first generation to attend college. About half the authors are nontraditional students: mothers returning to college, older men changing careers, people in their late 20s who spent time in business and now would like to teach, and so on. Many of them are African-American or Latino, and about half speak English as a second language or are bilingual. Many of the students were raised in an urban environment and attended urban public schools or urban Catholic schools. These cases reflect the realities of classrooms. The advantage of written cases, as opposed to videotaped teaching episodes, is that they provide both the observable actions that happen in the classroom and the thoughts, reactions, and background information of the student teachers as the story unfolds. The students were not simp