Mediated Field Experiences
What is a mediated field experience?
Teacher Educators develop partnerships with local classroom teachers and accompany teacher candidates into classrooms to provide structured learning opportunities working with K-12 students to learn how to implement core teaching practices.
This opportunity allows me to see my students share aloud, explain their thought processes, and share their knowledge of the content. I get to see more of them share aloud than usual. Working with [university professor] and the teacher candidates provides me with new ways to teach the materials and awesome websites and activities to incorporate for future lessons. - 7th grade math teacher, PA
Why mediate these field experiences?
"An effective mathematics teacher preparation program includes clinical experiences that are guided on the basis of a shared vision of high-quality mathematics instruction and have sufficient support structures ... to provide coherent, developmentally appropriate opportunities for candidates to teach and to learn from their own teaching and the teaching of others" (AMTE, 2017, p. 37).
The central aim of this Mediated Field Experience (MFE) Working Group is to explore the essential features of school-embedded mediated field experiences that take place during teacher candidates’ (TCs) preparation, describe ways mediated field experiences can transfer to a variety of contexts (different types of institutions and courses), and establish future research questions leading to identification of ways mediated field experiences impact TCs' learning.
Across our various projects, we have found "mediating" and entering authentic settings alongside TCs provides incredible opportunities to learn with and from children. But this shift also inserts Mathematics Teacher Educators into the central conflict TCs have long navigated alone: how to support a range of learners to meaningfully engage in high-quality mathematics instruction. As a group, we aim to investigate how mediated field experiences might support TCs in developing ambitious mathematics teaching practices.
Partner teacher coaching teacher candidate while working with 4th graders.
Embedding university courses within K-12 schools where TCs have opportunities for interactional clinical experiences with the support of a mathematics teacher educator (MTE) is a promising model to support the development of skilled practice (Virmani et al., 2017). Horn and Campbell (2015) present a hybrid space situating coursework and field work together as “mediated field experiences.” Within a mediated field experience, TCs are provided opportunities, structure, and support to apply knowledge of teaching by confronting specific situations and determining ways to integrate realities of the classroom with teaching ideals. For example, TCs may be asked to create a lesson plan, teach a lesson, or reflect about a teaching experience; however, without an MTE to “mediate” the implementation, the TCs may apply their university knowledge problematically, or they may not notice or make sense of particular features of the teaching practice that produce unexpected results (Campbell & Dunleavy, 2016).
TC working with a group of middle schoolers
From our initial work together, five key themes emerged (Virmani et al., 2017):
1. TCs work in a P-12 classroom with students and at least one teacher educator in a face-to-face setting.
2. MTEs use time-outs or planned/unplanned pauses in ways that (a) provide opportunities for all teachers to think in the moment (e.g., make sense of student thinking, discuss a next teacher move), and (b) position students as powerful and productive thinkers.
3. Participants, including TCs, MTEs, & classroom teachers, approach a lesson with a shared curiosity and/or plan to learn something particular about teaching and learning.
4. Classroom visits focus on observing, studying, and/or trying something related to eliciting and responding to student thinking in ways that can’t be as authentically explored in the university classroom without students.
5. All participants debrief, analyze, and reflect on the experience individually and collectively. This includes conversations with a teacher educator centered on making meaning of classroom events in terms of student thinking.