Teacher Education Student Attitudes Toward School-Based Field Placements and Traditional University-Delivered Courses

Abstract

This survey-centered study explores student preferences related to school-based field placements, prime examples of applied learning in that field, and the impact of those practical experiences on student motivation to succeed in classroom-delivered courses, student perception about whether these applied learning placements made traditional coursework more valuable to them, and perception about whether student teaching and similar field placements inspired them more to become effective classroom teachers. The survey was completed by 47 education students nearing the end of their teacher training program at a midsized Midwestern, open-enrollment state university. While it was expected that survey findings would be positive, the extent to which students embraced these applied learning experiences and perceived them to be valuable for learning outside the field placement was more positive than expected. In summary, students strongly sense that field experiences motivate them to do better in traditional courses, help them understand more the need for the content of those courses, and inspire them to work even harder to become effective teachers. While the numeric data from the survey is instructional, actual student comments more powerfully convey their very positive attitudes toward applied learning experiences in the field of teacher education.