The Importance of the University Campus Program in Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

The university campus component of preservice teacher education is often seen as overly theoretical, fragmented, and unconnected to practice. Indeed, some commentators maintain that a key step in the “reform” of teacher education is to reduce the time student teachers spend on campus. In response, teacher educators have made a number of suggestions for improving the campus program. Building in part on those suggestions, the authors modified the campus aspect of a preservice program. In this study, student teachers’ views were elicited on the redesigned campus program. Whereas the student teachers made several recommendations for improving the campus program, all said it had a major impact on their development as teachers. In particular, it helped them acquire broad goals for teaching, broad pedagogical approaches, specific skills, curriculum knowledge, and a sense of themselves as professionals. However, this impact was largely dependent on program structures and approaches that, to be viable, require significant institutional support.