Role of Clinical Practice in Teacher Preparation: Perceptions of Elementary Teacher Candidates.

The Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs (CAEP) has established five standards to measure the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs. Clinical partnerships and practice represent Standard 2. The CAEP requires that teacher education programs design high quality clinical practice that is central to preparation so that candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions necessary to demonstrate positive impact on P-12 students’ learning. To examine the quality of our clinical practice, the author conducted a pre-experiment. On the basis of existing research literature, a questionnaire that had Likert type items was developed, The questionnaire was administered to elementary cohort of 28 teacher candidates after the completion of their first clinical experience of approximately 45 clock hours. The findings of pre-experiment indicate that majority of the teacher candidates agree or strongly agree that the field experience has made a considerable impact on their beliefs about teaching and learning and that it has been a vital component of their teacher preparation. Despite limitations of small sample size and experimenter bias, this study is significant. It has captured the perceptions of teacher candidates about their clinical experiences.