Teacher Education Clinical Experiences

Teachers who graduate from programs that include interwoven clinical experiences receive stronger evaluations from supervisors, employers, and researchers and feel more prepared to enter the classroom than other new teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2010). At the School of Education and Human Development, teacher candidates connect theory to practice in multiple, sequenced clinical experiences from the very beginning of their program through the culminating teaching internship.

Clinical experiences begin with observation and individual, one-on-one work with students, building to full management of day-to-day classroom work under the guidance of exemplary educators. Teacher candidates implement research-based pedagogical strategies to meet increasingly diverse student populations. In this way, the clinical experience is mutually beneficial for the teacher candidates refining their craft and the students in our community whose social and academic success is impacted by the teacher candidates.