Preservice Agriculture Teachers’ Development duringthe Early Phase of Student Teaching

摘要

The student teaching practicum experience is designed to give preservice teachers practicalexperience with teaching and is an important step in their development. While literature inagricultural education exists about preservice teacher professional development, little is knownabout the developmental process of agriculture teachers during the student teaching experience.Utilizing the theory of teacher concerns (Fuller & Brown, 1975) as a theoretical lens, the purposeof this qualitative document analysis was to determine how preservice teachers develop over thefirst half of the student teaching practicum by examining the way they talk about concerns. Writtenreflections of five different cohorts from 2010 through 2014 were analyzed at two different pointsin time (week two and week seven). During the first two weeks of student teaching, three themesemerged, including: 1) teacher/student identity crisis, 2) teaching competence: “I do not know how,what, or who…,” and 3) adjusting to change. During week seven, the concerns changed, whichindicated the student teachers were developing into the professional role of a teacher. The threethemes that emerged from the data for week seven were: 1) building professional relationships, 2)engaging students, and 3) it is about time: work-life balance. Implications exist for teachereducators to place more emphasis on teaching strategies to engage and motivate students in thelearning process, rather than just the task itself. Recommendations are suggested for teachereducators to discuss with preservice teachers before student teaching the realities and challengesof balancing work and life roles.