Stages of preservice development for teachers of students with emotional disabilities

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine how preservice teachers of students with emotional disturbance (ED) experience their learning development as they progress through an intensive, 1‐year internship within a professional development school (PDS). This study is distinctive in its systematic examination of learning to teach from the perspectives of interns in a nontraditional context of a special education PDS setting. A variety of data were collected from preservice teachers over a 9‐month period, including videotaped teaching episodes, informal and formal interviews, and conversations in weekly seminars, journals, and statements of teaching philosophy. From this information, a model was constructed outlining four stages of learning development in preservice teachers: (a) naive confidence, (b) uncertainty and doubt, (c) cautious risk taking, and (d) role maturity. This research confirms the stage model Fuller and Bown (1975) postulated and extends it to include the experiences of special ed...