A Descriptive Study of Student Teaching

Although student teaching is believed to be the most significant aspect of teacher education, it has not received comprehensive research attention. This article describes a large-scale, multisite, multimethod study of student teaching based on the interactions of participants in relation to the contexts in which they work together. Data included personality constructs, outcomes, program components, site characteristics, and the nature and content of participants' interactions over a full semester of student teaching. Findings are discussed in regard to the passivity of student teachers, the narrow range of opportunities to learn to teach, differences in personality variables among participants, fragmentation of policy-practice relations, isolation of student teaching from other school activities, problematic function of student teaching as a gatekeeping device, and relations of personality constructs to outcomes of student teaching.