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Early Teaching Experiences Strategies

Give students an opportunity to teach their peers. Several PhysTEC schools have created successful Learning Assistant programs that allow students to collaborate with faculty to make physics and physical science classes more interactive and engaging. Students may find peer teaching to be less pressure and less of a commitment than practice classroom teaching, without sacrificing the rewarding experience of helping someone learn something new.

• At Colorado, over fifty students apply for around twenty paid Learning Assistant positions each semester. Fifteen percent of these decide to pursue teaching certification.
• Arkansas offers Learning Assistantships for course credit. Faculty report that “strong mentoring of possible future teachers through their early teaching experiences, such as a Learning Assistant or TA position, can enhance their desire to teach, as well as their comfort level and effectiveness.”
• For more information, please see our Learning Assistant page.

Expose student teachers to multiple grade levels. Students may not know what grade level they want to teach, or may think they know and then change their minds.

• At Arizona, “students are assigned to both middle and high school classrooms in the first two courses in the program, which allows them to make an informed decision about the grade level they prefer to teach.” The faculty field experience coordinator reports that “a surprising number of our students entered the program planning to teach high school, but changed their mind after a field experience in a middle school.“
• The UTeach Program at the University of Texas at Austin begins with a teaching experience, as students in the “Step 1” course prepare and teach three lessons in elementary classrooms, and those in “Step 2” prepare and teach three lessons in middle school classrooms. These are free, one-credit courses offered to anyone with an interest in teaching. The minimal commitment required for entry allows students to “experiment” with teaching and discover their interest.

Use early teaching experiences to prepare your pre-service teachers for student teaching. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s “Project 2061,” “first-hand experiences in schools, teaching and mentoring experiences, and fieldwork with scientists must come early in the teacher education program. These experiences prepare prospective teachers for the content of their education courses and serve as living laboratories for formal course work.” Arizona faculty report that teacher preparation program provides pre-service teachers with “150 hours of classroom work (both targeted observations and teaching) prior to student teaching, [which makes] their transition to student teaching…much smoother. Our mentor teachers comment that our student teachers are much better prepared for student teaching than those from other programs.”

Invite practicing teachers to participate in the design of your program. Who knows better than actual teachers what preservice teachers need? Arizona reports that “Involving secondary teachers in developing curricula for the field experiences has resulted in a rich set of classroom tasks that enhance the field experiences.”

Use a Teacher-in-Residence or Master Teacher to coordinate early teaching experiences. Teachers-in-Residence are ideal early teaching experience coordinators, because they are exceptionally knowledgeable about the realities of the classroom and what preservice teachers need. In addition, they can mentor preservice teachers who are doing their student teaching, and they can sometimes use their connections with the local school district to secure excellent placements for student teachers in your program. A Ball State TIR, now back in the classroom, was able to do this for Ball State student teachers.