A social constructivist approach to field instruction practice: Helping interns learn to teach all students

This study focused on the social constructivist field instruction practices I used in work with a set of three interns on issues of student diversity in the classroom. This research explores the terrain of how to meet intern learning needs at the same time that I pushed them to meet student learning needs. The research question was: During critical incidents where interns are working to address learning needs of diverse students, how does the field instructor support three interns who are learning to teach responsively to meet these needs? The subsidiary research questions are divided into three areas---those focused on interns, those focused on the field instructor/instruction, and those that provide information on the context in which this research study is taking place.; To address these questions, I examined my own field instruction practice during the 2003--2004 school year at a local, suburban elementary school. Three interns were selected from the six I worked with and additional observations, interviews, and material collection were done. The focus of our work together was on helping interns learn to meet the diverse learning needs of their students in the regular education classroom. This included work with English Language Learners, diverse ability issues, and socioeconomic status in the classroom. Observations were videotaped and debriefing conferences were audiotaped after each lesson. Interviews were conducted in the fall and spring with each intern and with his/her collaborating teacher. Additional interviews were done in the spring with each intern to discuss the students in each classroom by working our way through the class list. Field notes were taken in each observation, as well as of reflection on my practice in general. Additional field notes were taken for each intern that focused on the specific interactions I had with the intern and collaborating teacher that addressed students in the classroom.; The analysis for this study centered on a critical incident for the work each intern did that responded to issues of student diversity with a particular student or population of students in the classroom. Additional analysis work was done to compare the social constructivist stance I used with the work of Glickman et al.'s (1995) supervisory belief continuum for practicing teachers. Also, Schon's (1987) conception of naming and framing was used to explore the ways that each intern and I conceptualized the work we did together on the critical incident identified in each case. Findings revealed that the interns faced significant challenges in learning to address student learning needs in the classroom and met this challenge to varying degrees of success. In particular, social constructivist practices were more or less successful depending on the intern's readiness to teach and their comfort level with the issue of student diversity in the classroom. Also, when the intern and I name and framed (Schon, 1987) the problem in similar ways, we were able to work more effectively to manage the challenges of student diversity in the classroom.; Implications from this study further develop social constructivism as an approach to field instruction practice, identifying ways to improve field instruction practice with interns around issues of student diversity.