Karen E. Eifler

Preparing for Democracy and Diversity: The Impact of a Community-based Field Experience on Preservice Teachers' Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes.

Abstract This article presents a study undertaken by members of a college of education which, responding to a state mandate doubling the number of field experience hours required of preservice teachers, created a field experience wherein students work in community-based human service agencies. Perceptions of students, agency personnel, and education faculty, elicited through survey and interview data, focused on the growth in attitudes, knowledge, and skills developed by preservice teachers through this field experience. Data indicate this experience fosters the goals of the College of Education and that those directly involved, preservice teachers and community agency personnel value the experience, while college faculty who are less directly involved perceive it to be less effective. Connections are established to the literature on service-learning and teacher education in a diverse society. Recommendations for the program and further research are presented.

A Bucket of EELS A Tripartite Approach to Renewing a Teacher Education Program

This article describes a systematic overhaul of a teacher preparation program and presents outcomes based on studies of the program’s effectiveness in improving the knowledge and skills of teacher educators—university and PK-12 based—related to technology, diversity, and democratic education. The renewal program was peer designed and implemented over a 5-year cycle of 3 intact cohorts composed of education and arts & sciences university faculty and PK-12 colleagues simultaneously engaged in revising the scope, sequence, and content of a teacher education program. Presurveys and postsurveys indicate that nearly all of the instructional objectives were met and that participants made significant gains in their knowledge and skills related to the 3 target areas. Lessons learned in the process and implications for similar renewal efforts are offered.