Abstract
This project investigates the effectiveness of paired placements in a first professional semester within a teacher preparation program. Student teachers were assigned either individually to a classroom or were assigned in pairs to a single classroom for a five-week practicum. The student teachers, their teacher associates, and their university consultants all served as participants in this study. Results indicated that student teachers in paired placements reported decreased opportunities for teaching and observation, but increased opportunity for collaboration. Teacher associates corroborated these results but also indicated some difficulty in providing fair assessment to their student teachers. Therefore, this project demonstrated some significant advantages and disadvantages in implementing paired placements, and makes recommendations regarding how to address difficulties while maximizing those advantages if such placements are to be considered.
DOI
10.15760/nwjte.2009.7.1.6
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/29817
Recommended Citation
Loewen, Craig; Gunn, Thelma M.; Dyck, Mary; and Platt, Shari
(2009)
"The Paired Placements Project: A Summary Report of a Field Experiences Initiative,"
Northwest Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 7
:
Iss.
1
, Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15760/nwjte.2009.7.1.6