Student Teaching Within Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs: An Examination of Key Features Across 2- and 4-Year Institutions

Early childhood teacher preparation programs play a critical role in preparing teachers to work with young children, yet the field knows relatively little about how these programs carry out this important function. The culminating classroom-based experience, generally termed “student teaching”, is an important component in teacher preparation. The current study presents descriptive data from a survey of 103, 2- and 4-year early childhood teacher preparation programs related to key features of student teaching in these programs, including field placement sites, criteria for cooperating teachers, and student requirements. Comparisons of 2- and 4-year programs show several areas of similarity as well as some differences, with 4-year programs generally requiring more intense student teaching experiences. The findings are discussed in terms of the different foci in for 2- and 4-year programs and suggest that additional effort to strengthen and perhaps establish some consistent expectations for student teaching experiences may be useful.