Cooperating teachers play important roles in student teachers’ development as educators. The purpose of this study was to develop measures that enable systematic investigation of the actions and interactions of cooperating teachers during student teaching. The measures developed were based on the five Core Propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, ATE Standards for Teacher Educators and the Performance Outcomes from the ATE Standards for Field Experiences in Teacher Education.
To develop the measures, an initial pool of items based on each set of standards in education was developed. Ten student teachers were then engaged in cognitive interviews to focus revisions to promote the clarity and suitability of the developing instrument. Revised items were then sent to panels of experts for feedback on the extent to which the intended Standards were accurately represented. After revisions based on expert feedback, thirteen student teachers were engaged in a second set of cognitive interviews. Student teachers participating in the cognitive interviews identified the items as clear and suitable for student teachers. Each panel of experts identified the items as clear and representative of the Standards. The revised instrument was then distributed to teacher preparation programs. The 407 responding student teachers from eleven institutions completed the measures and provided demographic data.
A Principal Components Analysis (PCA) identified six dimensions, which explained 67.349% of the variance. After examination and naming, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the identified scales were calculated to identify the internal consistency of each of the newly developed scales. The scales identified were “Modeling of Quality Classroom Pedagogies with P-12 students” (α = .952) , “Use and promotion of reflection in learning environment accepting of the candidate” (α =.956 ), “Dedication to cooperating teaching through use of research, collaborations, and professional development” (α =.960 ), “Promotion of candidate understanding of/effective action involving connections between key components or stakeholders in education” (α = .932 ) , “Modeling of collaboration with others relevant to p-12 student learning” (α =.834 ) and “Technology Orientation” (r = .620). Pearson- r correlations between each newly developed scale and two embedded adaptations of an existing measure of teacher efficacy were calculated to provide evidence of validity. At the p <.01 level of significance, each new scale positively correlated with the existing measure adapted to reflect the student teacher’s perception of his or her cooperating teacher’s self-efficacy. At the p <.01 level of significance, each scales, except Cooperating Teacher Technology Orientation, was positively correlated with the existing scale as adapted to describe the teaching self-efficacy of the responding student teacher. Significant positive correlations to the adaptation of the existing measure which focused on perceived cooperating teacher efficacy suggest validity of the newly developed scales.
Results from this study and follow up research enable enhanced understanding of cooperating teachers’ roles and action while working with student teachers. Additionally, this work promotes dialogue between entities related to teacher education and provides an opportunity for student teachers to reflect and provide feedback on key elements of their student teaching experiences.