Student Teaching: A Process Approach to Reflective Practice (2nd Edition)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Welcome to the second edition ofStudent Teaching: A Process Approach to Reflective Practice.For more than a dozen years while directing or facilitating seminars and field experiences for undergraduate and graduate student or intern teachers, we searched for meaningful activities and processes that engage and guide beginning teachers. Our search focused on strengthening the link between education courses and the field-based aspects of learning to teach. In addition, we wanted to provide student teachers with opportunities to reflect on their professional knowledge and personal growth--to integrate these understandings into their total experience of being a teacher. Student Teaching: A Process Approach to Reflective Practiceencourages student or intern teachers and those pursuing alternative teacher certification to engage in reflective thinking, reflective practice, and reflective writing--the doors that lead to effective teaching based on sound pedagogy. Authentic teacher tasks are designed to invite beginning teachers to recall learning acquired through courses in the arts and sciences, content from the teaching major, and educational research and best practice. These reflective activities are process oriented and challenge each student or intern teacher to take ownership of the journey by actively engaging in a thoughtful examination of what they do in the classroom and the rationales that fuel their performance. Expected outcomes and activities in the text take the preservice or intern teacher through thewhysandhowsof reflective practices by actively involving the teacher in the application of these practices. Beginning teachers are challenged to contemplate current educational paradigms and practices, analyze them, effectuate them, and reflect on their learning experiences in a journal forum. Involving preservice and inservice teachers in the application of educational best practices promotes ownership and helps them build a professional life with reflective practice at its core. A constructivist learning approach underwrites each chapter and invites beginning teachers to consciously relate all types of learning to new situations and to make meaning from this learning. Student or intern teachers are encouraged to combine their personal investments and experiences of teaching with recognized best practice. Throughout the student or intern teaching experience, the beginning teacher is urged to develop a positive attitude toward what is observed and practiced at the school level, to look for opportunities for learning, to raise questions, and to seek understanding through reflection. It is our goal that through reflective practice, beginning teachers will use their knowledge and experience of teaching to create an electronic or digital portfolio that documents their ability to impact student learning. It is our hope that beginning teachers will continue to engage in this process throughout their professional career. AUDIENCE AND INTENDED USES We offer a practical guide for reflective practice in day-to-day teaching and provide models of current best practice based on national standards. The book can be used in a variety of ways with beginning or experienced teachers. Undergraduate student teachers will find this process approach to learning helpful throughout their professional placement in the school setting and in the seminar or class accompanying the experience. Graduate interns or others interested in pursuing an alternate route in obtaining state licensure will find exemplary reflective teaching practices needed to facilitate learning. Beginning teachers trained by school system consultants will find the reflective process a strong support in bridging theory and practice. Experienced teachers desiring to refresh and refine their own reflective teaching practices may review the teaRose A. Howard is the author of 'Student Teaching: A Process Approach to Reflective Practice (2nd Edition)', published 2003 under ISBN 9780130987440 and ISBN 0130987441.