COMPETENCIES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL COOPERATING TEACHERS

• Main Author: Loomis, Linda Jacobsen
• Other Authors: Even, Brenda B.
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 1980
• Subjects: High school teachers.; Student teachers.; Student teachers > Supervision of.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/281982

The literature in the field of teacher education has recognized the cooperating teacher as the most important member of the professional team which supervises the clinical laboratory experience of the student teacher. In fact, various educators have noted that no single individual has so direct an influence as the cooperating teacher in shaping the attitudes, skills, and ideas of a prospective teacher. In spite of the recognition given to the significant role the cooperating teacher plays in the daily supervision of the student teacher, information is still missing on the identification and validation of important tasks or competencies necessary for the cooperating teacher to perform. The purpose of this study was to identify specific competencies of secondary school cooperating teachers, to determine the degree of importance of these competencies, and to analyze the differences in perceptions regarding the most important competencies. Respondents in the study were cooperating teachers, student teachers, and university supervisors associated with student teaching programs at The University of Arizona during the 1978-79 academic year. The study was conducted in the following manner: (1) A search of the literature was completed to locate lists of existing cooperating teacher competencies. (2) A list of cooperating teacher competencies published in 1966, by the Association of Teacher Educators was adopted as a starting point for competency identification. (3) A jury of eleven experts critiqued the original 35 competencies for appropriateness and clarity. These experts also offered suggestions for additional competencies. (4) The list of competencies was then revised to include new competencies, strengthen each existing competency, eliminate duplication, and correct grammatical inconsistencies. (5) To insure content validity, the list was next critiqued by two research specialists, who examined the competencies for appropriateness, clarity, and completeness. (6) Revised once again, the final list served as the data gathering instrument for this study. All 32 competencies identified in this study were validated. The most crucial competency identified as necessary/most important for the cooperating teacher was a human relations competency, that of maintaining communication. In fact, those competencies considered to be more directly related to maintaining interpersonal human relations and those more closely related to classroom interactions were perceived by all groups as more important for the cooperating teacher than were other competencies. Consistently, cooperating teachers viewed competencies as more important than did student teachers. As a result of their perceptions, university supervisors placed themselves in a middle position with perceptions overlapping those of both cooperating teachers and student teachers. Experience in teaching and subject matter specialization had little effect on perceptual differences regarding competencies. Experience in supervision and amount of graduate study did not impact on perceptual differences at all. Integrating these competencies into teacher education inservice programs would necessitate determining the following: (1) perceived need for developing each competency; (2) current level of competency integration; (3) instructional methods for facilitating competency achievement; (4) criteria for assessing achievement of competencies. Data from this study will be useful to the extent that it provides an expanded base on which to make decisions regarding the professional development of the cooperating teacher.