ABSTRACT
A course on teaching science in the elementary school that lacks opportunity to practice with real elementary students and a more experienced teacher is no more complete than a driver education course where the student never gets behind the wheel. In becoming a teacher of science, students need to understand the principles of practice (Shulman, 1986) that can be learned in on-campus settings, but they also need to solidify their understanding with opportunities to apply these principles in real situations. In the classroom, preservice teachers reflect-in-action (Schön, 1983, 1987, 1991), making decisions on the spot about everything from what question to ask next to how to distribute materials to how to respond to a student who is not participating. No methods course in the world can prepare future teachers for the level of synthesis that takes
place in classroom settings. For these reasons, we believe that the field experience must be a component of elementary science teacher preparation. The purposes of this chapter are: (1) to discuss the benefits and challenges of field experiences that are associated with the elementary science methods course, (2) to describe several models of field experiences we have experienced, and (3) to illustrate the kinds of reflection assignments that can be used to help students learn from field experiences. We believe that the potential benefits of field experiences are tremendous and the challenges surmountable.
