ABSTRACT
Field experiences are considered the sine qua non of teacher preparation programs. They come in many shapes and sizes. They occur in schools with informal connections to the university, or in more formal collaborative partnerships, such as laboratory schools and professional development schools (Book, 1996; Byrd & McIntyre, 1999; Darling-Hammond, 1994; Goodlad, 1991; Holmes Group, 1990; Shroyer, Wright, & Ramey-Gassert, 1996; Teitel, 2000). Field experiences typically take place at the beginning of teacher preparation programs to initiate students into thinking like a teacher and to help them decide if teaching is the right career choice. They continue in conjunction with methods courses, 1 where preservice teachers examine how children learn subject matter and have the opportunity to test specific instructional strategies. They culminate in student teaching and other intensive forms of internship, where beginning teachers take primary responsibility for all classroom instruction. For future teachers of elementary science, these field experiences involve teaching reading, mathematics, and social studies in addition to science. This chapter focuses on field experiences over which science teacher educators can leverage the most control in elementary teacher preparation—field experiences associated with a science methods course.
