Abstract:

This paper outlines and describes what secondary education students at a major urban university in Chicago, Illinois (United States) view as best and worst teaching practices from classroom observations in their field placements prior to student teaching. During their pre-practicum experience, secondary education students are enrolled in a 4-hour seminar course. They spend 45 hours in an urban field placement for observation and have the opportunity to work closely with a mentor teacher. Two texts are emphasized in the seminar course: one with a focus on instructional strategies, Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement (Marzano, R.J.; Pickering, D.J.; and Pollock, J.E., 2001) and the second with a focus on classroom management techniques, Building classroom discipline (Charles, C.M., 2011).

As students go through their observations, they specifically look for research-based strategies as defined by Marzano et al. They also reflect on their own experiences with teaching and learning. They are encouraged to actively seek additional teaching and classroom management strategies and/or behaviors that they would consider employing in their personal instruction and classroom management for their future practicum experience. Equally important, students are also required to pay particular attention to practices they consider inappropriate and would not use in their own personal instruction.

One of the assignments in the seminar course is for students to maintain a reflective journal of their observations and reactions. From their journal, they write a reflective paper with a focus on the following questions:
a. Write a summary of your overall reflection of your experiences (For example, was the experience what you expected? How so? How not? What did you learn about the “job” of a teacher? What did you learn about yourself? About teaching in your content area? )
b. Write a minimum of six strategies or effective practices learned from your observations from your field placement, either from your cooperating teacher or other teachers that you plan to use in your own personal instruction and/or classroom management.
c. Write a minimum of three ineffective practices observed that you would not use in your personal instruction and/or classroom management. Provide a brief explanation as to why you consider these to be ineffective practices.

Additionally from their observations, students create an original digital story. The digital story helps students reflect and examine their own assumptions about urban schools and their role as teachers, especially in terms of democratic ideals and respect for diversity. From these stories, students often demonstrate a transformation of understanding, i.e., their initial views and experiences in their field placement versus their final views/experiences.

In conclusion, this paper is a compilation of what students consider to be effective and ineffective practices in instruction and classroom management for urban classroom settings at the secondary level. Observing both types of practices can often have a lasting effect on these future teachers. Therefore, this paper is a qualitative study based on pre-practicum students’ observations of practices that often inform teacher candidates of what it means to be an effective or ineffective teacher in the urban classroom.

Keywords:

Urban education, best practices, classroom management, pre-practicum observation.