Collaborative Clinical Practice: An Alternate Field Experience

Abstract

Clinical practice experiences profoundly influence the professional dispositions and skills that candidates in teacher education programs adopt as their own. Enhancing the practicum experience for both the cooperating teacher and the teacher candidate leads to greater learning within the placement and may ensure future placements within that school and classroom. Finding placements proves difficult, and diverse placements, even more so; therefore, alternative arrangements warrant examination and discussion. This research follows twelve candidates who were placed in pairs in the same classroom for one practicum. The primary purpose of this study was to examine how collaboration enriched the clinical practice experience for candidates and the cooperating teachers. Pairing candidates in one placement allowed them to learn from each other through the provision of peer feedback and collaboration in planning. This paper reports on the benefits of collaborative clinical practice for the candidate, the cooperating teacher and the university supervisor.