The Field Experiences of Student Teachers and Effective Mathematics Teaching in Turkey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, May 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate the cooperative teachers’ supervision for effective mathematics teaching from the perspective of elementary student teachers during their field experiences. The participants were 259 senior elementary education majors (189 female and 70 male) who were enrolled in practicum courses at a Turkish university. Results of the study revealed that cooperative teachers as a supervisor seemed to be deficient for interacting with student teachers as well as assisting them to develop critical point of views for teaching mathematics effectively. The study suggests that faculty-school partnership should be reconsidered for selection and professional development of cooperating teachers.

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The Field Experiences of Student Teachers and Effective Mathematics Teaching in Turkey

Vol Australian Journal of Teacher Education Guney Haciomeroglu 0 0 Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation - Article 9 Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte The Field Experiences of Student Teachers and Effective Mathematics Teaching in Turkey Guney Haciomeroglu Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Turkey Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the cooperative teachers’ supervision for effective mathematics teaching from the perspective of elementary student teachers during their field experiences. The participants were 259 senior elementary education majors (189 female and 70 male) who were enrolled in practicum courses at a Turkish university. Results of the study revealed that cooperative teachers as a supervisor seemed to be deficient for interacting with student teachers as well as assisting them to develop critical point of views for teaching mathematics effectively. The study suggests that faculty-school partnership should be reconsidered for selection and professional development of cooperating teachers. Introduction Field experience is often viewed as one of the most critical elements in teacher education (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 1998; Koerner 1992) , and teacher educators recognize the importance of field experiences in preparing student teachers for teaching. Most previous studies examining field experience have concentrated on roles, experiences, views and expectations of student teachers, university supervisors as well as cooperating teachers for teaching and learning different subjects (e.g., Fernandez & Erbilgin, 2009; Freidus, 2002) . Hiebert, Carpenter, Fennema, Fuson, Wearne, Murray, and Human (1997) argued that there is a lack of preparation of student teachers to effectively teach to students to support their understanding of mathematics. Research concerning mathematics student teachers’ field experiences has received attention in various fields of mathematics education (e.g., Arztz, 1999; Fernandez & Erbilgin, 2009; Frykhol, 1996; Goodell, 2000; Hudson, 2009; Ronfeldt & Reinninger, 2012; Zeichner, 2002) . Within this large body of research, it is surprising that few studies focused on student teaching at the elementary level. Therefore, this study sought to examine elementary student teachers’ perceptions regarding their cooperative teachers’ supervision for mathematics teaching. Student Teaching and Supervision Previous studies suggest that cooperating teachers who provide guided teaching experience on a daily basis have strong influence on student teachers’ practice (Cook, 2007; Frykholm, 1996; LaBoskey & Richert, 2002; Smagorinsky, Sanford, & Konopak, 2006) . Koskela and Ganser (1995) found that cooperating teachers perceived their role as facilitators of professional growth. Stanulis (1995) stated, “it is the classroom teacher who, because of the close interaction during the practice of teaching, potentially exerts the greatest influence on the development of a perspective teacher” (p. 331). Koerner, Rust and Baumgartner (2002) added the finding that student teaching experience is influenced by the interactions between student teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors. Similarly, Putnam and Borko (2000) argued that weekly meetings between university supervisors and student teachers have an important role in balancing between providing guidance and supporting student teachers’ construction of new practices. Despite the important role of university supervisors in improving student teaching, studies reported that university supervisors do not visit student teachers often enough or provide continuing feedback to have an impact on student teachers and their cooperating teachers (Borko & Mayfield, 1995; Fryhkolm, 1996) . In addition, it was observed that due to cooperating teachers’ views and methods, many student teachers used traditional teaching practices, which were not aligned with reform-based teaching methods taught in their teacher education programs (Britzman, 1991; Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1985; Ronfeldt & Grossman, 2008; Zeichner & Gore, 1990) . The quality of student teaching has significant and positive effects on teacher outcomes (Ronfeldt & Reininger, 2012) because it is a cornerstone of teacher preparation, which provides opportunities for student teachers to link theory and practice (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2009; Zeichner, 2002) . Although classroom and school settings, behavior management, student teacher responsibilities are important factors affecting student teaching (e.g., Frykholm, 1996; LaBoskey & Richert, 2002) , Grande, Burns, Schmidt, and Marable (2009) argued that more attention should be given to the discussion of teachable moments, stereotypes, realties of urban schools, and students. Boyd et al. (2009) also suggested that teacher preparations directly related to teaching pract (...truncated)


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Guney Haciomeroglu. The Field Experiences of Student Teachers and Effective Mathematics Teaching in Turkey, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2013, Volume 38, Issue 2,