The development of a clinical site: Expectations of key participants

In Massachusetts, as well as in other states, a mentoring model called the clinical site, has recently emerged. A clinical site is a public school which serves as a laboratory for student teachers. It has a corps of experienced teachers trained to serve as mentors to the student teachers, and usually includes a pre-practicum component for a local teacher training program. Proponents of clinical sites assume that there are significant professional benefits for the mentors and the school itself, as well as for the student teachers. However, it is unclear exactly what those benefits are and to what degree there is agreement among the various proponents of the clinical site concept as to the nature of those benefits. This study was designed to closely examine the expectations of the participants involved in the developmental phase of a University of Massachusetts clinical site at Greenfield High School, Greenfield Massachusetts. Interns, mentors, school administrators, and university faculty were interviewed about their expectations of the clinical site project. All participants expressed expectations consistent with the assumptions which are driving the current move to reform schools by making them centers for the study of teaching and learning. Like many teachers in the United States, the Greenfield High School teachers feel professionally isolated, and see the clinical site as a possible antidote to that isolation. They also expect the clinical site to provide teachers with opportunities to play new professional roles in the education of novice teachers. Administrators anticipate that newly energized teachers will create a ripple effect felt by everyone in the school district, including themselves. Many of the reasons why interns chose to do their student teaching at a clinical site are based on their expectation that the clinical site would mitigate against their anxieties about student teaching in general and the isolation of a remote placement in particular. Interns foresaw an experience at the clinical site which would allow them to interact with a number of professionals who were ready to help them. Beyond their primary expectation of providing their students with a more cohesive student teaching experience, university staff look to the clinical site for their own professional stimulation, and as a source of new knowledge and research. Although the expectations expressed by the participants do not conflict with one another, the economic and political climate in Massachusetts will make it difficult for the program to meet all of them, especially those which create new (not additional) roles for teachers and professors