Book Description

Taking as its guiding principle that through peer coaching new teachers can offer each other valuable feedback as they try out teaching techniques in the classroom, this book reports on a longitudinal study in peer coaching. The book aims to give teacher educators a new method for encouraging reflective thinking and professional growth in preservice teachers. The study reported on in the book was conducted over two-and-a-half years with 135 preservice teachers at Towson State University in Maryland. The book recounts scenarios of student experiences in which peer coaching was used, describes the students involved and the ways in which they were trained to coach one another, furnishes the results of the study, and offers ways in which teacher educators can use this information in their teaching of teachers. The chapters in the book were written in "heteroglossic" form--that is, the text reflects both the individual and collective perspectives of the authors. Chapters in the book are as follows: (1) Facilitating Reflective Thinking in Preservice Teacher Education; (2) Rethinking the Making of Teachers; (3) Peer Coaching Scenarios; (4) Training for Coaching; and (5) Reflections on Preservice Peer Coaching. The book concludes with a peer coaching workbook and a 51-item bibliography divided into sections on active learning, coaching, and reflection. (NKA)