Cooperating teachers’ perceptions of important elements of the student teaching experience: A focus group approach with quantitative follow-up

It has been argued that the most important component of preservice development for agriculture teachers is the student teaching experience. For example, relationships between cooperating teachers ’ attitudes toward teaching and those of their student teachers have been identified. Moreover, many believe that an efficacious student teaching center provides “safety” as well as “challenge, ” and that the quality of supervisory “climate ” is critical for success. To this end, two purposes of this study were to describe selected characteristics of cooperating teachers and their schools, and to identify teachers ’ perceptions about the important elements of the student teaching experience. Historically, researchers have “quantified ” these elements. However, others have posited that to better understand a complex phenomenon such as student teaching, a “soft systems ” approach may be more effective. This design could involve the use of focus groups. So, another purpose was to compare teachers ’ perceptions when determined by focus groups and by a mail questionnaire. Five focus groups were used to determine teachers ’ perceptions. The groups included 35 teachers representing 23 schools; each group represented a “core ” component (area) of the student teaching experience. Teachers identified 34 elements as being “important. ” Thes