Field Experiences

 

Clinical Experiences

Clinical experiences are an integral part of the teacher education preparation program. All clinical experiences are designed to enable candidates to acquire the knowledge, skills and professional dispositions to teach a diverse population of P-12 students in today’s elementary and secondary schools.

Candidates have at least three well-sequenced clinical field experiences consisting of an early clinical experience during the sophomore year, a mid-level clinical experience during the junior or first semester senior year, and a capstone clinical experience during the senior year.

For completion of the field experiences it is the candidate’s responsibility to have transportation to and from the assigned school site.

Field 1

Level 1 teacher applicants are integrated while taking TE 2003, Introduction to Education (K-6, 4-8, and specific K-12 areas) and SCED 2513, Introduction to Secondary Teaching (7-12 and K-12).

Candidates will be assigned to an area elementary or secondary school for the equivalent of 30 clock-hours of observation and related experiences. These field experiences and specific assignments will be supervised by the instructor of the introductory class.

The observations are a required component of the class. If observations are not documented as complete, candidates will receive an “I” (incomplete) or a grade of F.

Field 2 (MCH and Secondary) and Field 3 (ELED)

Level 2 field experiences are provided to teacher candidates prior to the capstone internship experience. For Elementary (K-6) and Middle Childhood (4-8) majors, this is titled “Internship 1”. Level 2 field experiences are designed to provide all teacher education candidates (K-6, 4-8, 7-12 and K-12) with at least 44 clock-hours of clinical practice with an appropriate elementary or secondary clinical supervisor. These field experiences are assigned to courses as described in the Undergraduate Bulletin and are supervised by the instructors of the designated courses.

Field 3

Capstone Teaching Internship Experience
The teaching internship is the capstone experience of the teacher education program that is designed to meld theory and practice. Elementary education majors (K-6), middle childhood education majors (4-8), special education majors (K-12), and secondary education majors (7-12 and K-12) engage in the teaching internship all day for a full semester.