Cooperating teacher effectiveness as perceived by student teachers and cooperating teachers in Ohio agricultural education

The need for highly qualified teachers is a problem that is plaguing the entire United States. The preparation of teachers is one of utmost importance in America. Future teachers rely on experiences in teacher preparation programs to gain valuable knowledge and wisdom of practice about the realness of teaching. The most critical aspects of teacher preparation programs are field experiences and student teaching internships. Field experiences take place in many contexts depending on the goals of the educator. The most important aspect of any teacher preparation program is the student teaching or internship experience. The meaning that each student teacher creates from the student teaching internship will differ greatly depending upon the type of relationship established, expectations perceived, and behaviors that occurs. Knowing the importance of both the experience and the role of the cooperating teacher, it is valuable to determine what behaviors are expected from the cooperating teacher and if these behaviors are actually occurring. Alignment between the expected and experienced behaviors can assist in placing student teachers in the most effective internship experiences in the future. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to determine important attributes and behaviors of an effective cooperating teacher and the extent to which cooperating teachers portray the effective attitudes and behaviors as perceived by student teachers.