Using Peer Coaching in Preservice Practica

Providing effective supervision to preservice students enrolled in field-based practica continues to be a major challenge for university faculty. Fiscal and time constraints have necessitated the need to explore alternative models for providing feedback to students while they are placed in public school settings. Recently, researchers have begun to examine the appropriateness of infusing peer coaching procedures into teacher education programs. The results have been promising. The purpose of this particular study was to compare traditional university supervision to peer coaching procedures that were used to promote the acquisition of effective teacher behaviors. The firtdings of this investigation suggest that traditional university supervision and peer coaching procedures were equally effective for increasing desired teacher behaviors and decreasing undesired teacher behaviors. Moreover, students and their cooperating teachers both responded favorably to the peer coaching process.