A Seven-Month Practicum: Collaborating Teachers' Response

Abstract

In this study, we interviewed collaborating teachers who had participated in our field experience program to examine collaborating teachersi perceptions of a long-term, onsite teacher-education program and to define their role as teacher educators. Collaborating teachers stated that this long-term, preservice field experience effectively socialised teacher candidates into the teaching profession, both in the classroom and the school. They describe the strategies they used to scaffold teacher candidates into teaching. Successful scaffolding techniques are situated within the context of an extended field experience.