THE EFFECTS OF INTENTIONAL PAIRING OF TEACHER CANDIDATES AND COOPERATING TEACHERS IN EARLY FIELD EXPERIENCES

Field experiences are critical components of educator preparation programs. The opportunity for a teacher candidate to collaborate with an experienced mentor in an authentic classroom environment can be of great benefit to the teacher candidate, the cooperating teacher, the students in the class, and the reciprocal partnership between the educator preparation program and the school district. When pairing teacher candidates with cooperating teachers, current practices are generally random and based on the number of candidates needing placement and the availability of qualified cooperating teachers willing to engage in the process of mentoring a pre-service teacher. This mixed-methods, pragmatic case study research investigates the effectiveness of an intentional, inverse pairing of teacher candidates and cooperating teachers based on their perceived competency levels in the Texas Teacher Standards. Surveys were sent to the participating teacher candidates and cooperating teachers, asking them to score themselves on a Likert scale indicating their level of competency in each area. Qualitative data were also collected from both the teacher candidates and the cooperating teachers to inform the pairing process. The data were analyzed, and pairings were made, matching teacher candidates with lower competency levels with cooperating teachers who reported higher competency in each standard. At the end of the ten-week field experience, teacher candidates were once again asked to score themselves on their perceived level of competency. Cooperating teachers scored the teacher candidate(s) with whom they worked in each standard based on what they had observed and experienced while v collaborating over the ten-week period. Findings reveal that teacher candidates rated themselves higher at the conclusion of the field experiences after working with a cooperating teacher on tasks and experiences related to the Texas Teacher Standards. Ratings of the cooperating teachers were lower than that of the teacher candidates. Additional qualitative data suggest areas in which to strengthen the field experience and content covered in prerequisite courses. Implications for future research could include adding additional layers to the data collected to inform the pairings and professional development or training opportunities for teacher candidates and cooperating teachers to provide a framework for their collaboration.