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Preservice Teacher Institute: developing a model learning community for student teachers.

Article Excerpt
The Preservice Teacher Institute (PTI) is a budding learning community designed to provide mentoring and support for senior elementary education undergraduate candidates. This program is an effective paradigm for mentoring and inducting new teachers into the profession.

PTI is a two-semester program. The first semester is restricted to candidates who are enrolled in student teaching for elementary majors. As traditional student teachers, these candidates engage in clinical field experiences for five days each week, following the schedule of their classroom teacher. PTI candidates and faculty members volunteer for this non-credit seminar that meets for two hours on alternating weeks during the student teaching semester.

During the second semester, the summer following the student teaching semester, the candidates have the opportunity to enroll in a 3-hour graduate class that is a follow-up to the seminars that are conducted during student teaching. Candidates that elect to participate in PTI develop into a learning community that bridges the gap between theory and practice.

Support to Bridge Theory and Practice: Establishing the Need

Recently, the National Education Association (NEA) has predicted that more than 1 million veteran teachers are nearing retirement while, at the same time, student enrollment continues to rise. Thus, experts expect that within the next decade the United States will need more than 2 million new teachers to fill these positions (NEA, 2008). However, statistics regarding the present state of our nation's educators are startling. "Some 20 percent of all new hires leave the classroom within three years. In urban districts, the numbers are worse--close to 50 percent of newcomers flee the profession during their first five years of teaching (NEA, 2008)."

Though there may be many reasons for teacher attrition and mobility, results from a recent survey conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) seem to suggest that an exceedingly high percentage of teachers who abandoned their careers as teachers may have entered into the teaching profession under-prepared, overwhelmed, and under-supported, resulting in frustrated teachers who became burned out after only a few years teaching (NCES, 2007). Research has suggested that many teachers leave the profession due to increasing teacher workloads and the growing demands placed upon teachers to improve student achievement and performance regardless of each school's and each student's unique circumstances (Haberman, 2005).

Teacher education programs may begin repairing what seems to be a flawed system by producing teachers who, at the end of their teacher training, are prepared to meet the challenges of today's students. To do this, teacher education candidates should be provided with a comprehensive induction program that emphasizes, through hands-on field experience, methods of best practice for meeting the needs of all students, including those who are behaviorally or academically challenging. Providing committed university candidates with opportunities for intense reflection with actively engaged University Supervisors will likely produce novice teachers who are better prepared upon first entering the classroom. Also, it is likely that candidates who were involved in a learning community of candidates like themselves, facilitated by dedicated university supervisors, will remain committed to providing consistent, quality education and instruction on a long-term basis.

Characteristics of a Learning Community

According to Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, and Smith (1990), a learning community is the site of an academic "home" in which students, faculty, and what are normally considered diverse disciplines cohabitate for brief or extended periods.

Gabelnick et al. (1990) goes on to state that learning communities are characterized by:

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