Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Student Teaching
Students may be required to have one or more ‘‘practica’’ during which they ob-
serve an experienced teacher or tutor students. During student teaching, a student
works with one teacher and shares teaching responsibilities with this teacher.
Case Study teachers did not describe a uniform student teaching experience. The
most protracted experience was reported by a fourth-grade teacher who explained
that her college required students to ‘‘do observations and assist in a kindergarten
on the campus and at a local elementary school’’ during the junior year; in her
senior year, she did her student teaching over two semesters at two different
grade levels, three and six. A female middle school math teacher, who had a dou-
ble major in elementary education and secondary math, described the shortest stu-
dent teaching experience. She reported doing half of her student teaching in a
fourth grade and half in a high school—four and a half weeks in each.
The conventional route through student teaching seemed to consist of 8 to 12
weeks in 1 school with 1 teacher. For example, an eighth-grade mathematics
teacher described her student teaching experience as ‘‘8 weeks at the end of the

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year.’’ A number of teachers recommended that student teaching be extended
over a longer period of time and with two different teachers.
Teachers were asked about their student teaching experience. Some stories were
memorable, if undramatic:
One of the teachers I worked with was particularly good. I knew how to plan
a lesson but not a year. She showed me how to teach seven or eight subjects
at once and how I could arrange topics in the books to integrate with other
subjects. She showed me how to make long-range plans. You won’t believe
it, but I had a course in scouting, camping, and recreational leadership that
was really useful. We learned how to keep kids busy for 5 minutes, how to
lead songs, tell stories, and entertain. At the end, we spent a week as camp
counselors with the students we had done our student teaching with. (A fe-
male fourth-grade teacher at East Elementary in her 19th year)
Others described events that required them to rise to the challenge of difficult
circumstances.
My main supervising teacher had to go to the hospital . . . . so she was out
for the entire month of May. So I picked up more of her class time and was
teaching five classes as a student teacher. At the time you were only supposed
to have three. I had five preparations, which, as I look back on it, was kind
of predicting the future, because right now I teach six classes, with six prep-
arations. They’re all special sections. So I think, you know, it started way back
then, but it was a very good experience. I was always very quiet, shy, afraid
to raise my hand, because I was afraid to be wrong. I was a perfectionist; that
was the main thing. I was afraid to make a mistake. And I was real nervous,
but—I remember the day I had to teach my first class. It was the second pe-
riod in the morning—I still remember—but as soon as I opened my mouth,
all of it went away. It was just like—I was born to be there. (A female high
school mathematics teacher at Uptown High who has taught for 26 years)
It was a small school [in a rural county]. I taught students in biology. The bad