A CLINICAL PRACTICE-BASED APPROACH IN ALTERNATIVE TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

Alternative teacher education programs prepare teacher candidates to offset the K-12 nationwide teacher shortage. However, many alternative teacher candidates work as first-time K-12 teachers while simultaneously pursuing an initial teaching license. Many in-service alternative teacher candidates struggle because they are expected to be effective K-12 teachers before they have been trained or earned a professional teaching license. Clinical practice in teacher education directly aligns teacher training with learning in professional settings. Clinical practice-based teacher education may be an instructional approach that helps in-service alternative teacher candidates quickly develop effective instructional practices to strengthen K-12 student learning. This case study examined using a clinical practice-based approach to train in-service alternative teacher candidates enrolled in an alternative teacher education program. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate how alternative teacher education courses intentionally aligned with a clinical practice-based approach influenced the development of the in-service alternative teacher candidates’ instructional practice. The study identified five characteristics of a clinical practice-based approach to meet the unique needs of in-service alternative teacher candidates. The characteristics of clinical practice-based approach in alternative teacher education are (1) intentional course design considerations, (2) purposeful engagement in core teaching practices, (3) encouragement of reflective thinking and instructional reasoning, (4) inspiring a conscious focus on K-6 students’ perspective, and (5) emotional engagement and investment. The results of this study provide a framework that can inform the design and implementation of clinical practice to support in-service alternative teacher candidates that work as first-time, full-time classroom teachers while enrolled in an alternative teacher education program.