This paper reviews research that shows significant links between specific teacher clarity behaviors and student achievement and satisfaction. Behaviors found to be most significantly related to student outcomes of interest are presented, possible instruments for assessing clarity are suggested, and appropriate applications of the research are discussed. While diabetes educators should attend to the results, they should compare and contrast their own situations with those described. The authors believe that knowledge of what has been learned about teacher clarity can be most useful in improving instruction in health care.
Field experiences have emerged as a critical dimension to the teacher prep aration process. indeed, in recent years much has been written regarding the efficacy and effects of field experience involvements for preservice teachers. In this article, Cruickshank and Armaline trace the origins of field experiences, present a taxonomy for use in thinking about them, and discuss selected issues and problems associated with teaching experiences occurring in the field. The authors make eight recommendations for improving how field experiences are structured for and included in the teacher preparation process, and they briefly describe factors that militate against the accomplishment of the recommended directions.
This study assessed the influence of reflective thinking on the early field experiences of preservice teachers who later taught in urban settings that were radically different from those they experienced as students. Reflective thinking refers to consciously identifying and defining schooling and classroom problems, generating reasonable guiding ideas or hypotheses, and testing them through intelligent action. The study combined scholarly activity explicating and operationalizing the concept of reflectivity with quantitative and qualitative data. Fifty-six male and female education students in urban field sites were divided into a control group (n=28) given a typical early field experience and an experimental group (n=28) given an experience designed to develop reflective thinking through reflective sessions folowing each weekly classroom experience. Both groups kept journals and completed a narrative evaluation of their experience, and both groups were tested for logical thinking. Test results show that the control group had slightly higher logical reasoning ability than the experimental group. Analysis of the journals found that the treatment group wrote more, in greater detail and depth, and with more analysis and application of a variety of issues that affect schooling success than did the control group. The treatment group analyzed themselves more deeply in terms of understanding differences between their culture and their students, cultures. Included are 2 tables and 40 references. (JB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************
Armaline and Hoover explore the use of field experiences in the process of educating preservice teachers for critical reflection. Education for critical reflec tion means bringing to consciousness preservice teachers' belief systems that allow meaning to be made, and ques tioning those belief systems in light of grounds that support or refute them.
