STUDENT TEACHING

One practical example of experiential learning is student teaching. I (Kevin McDougall) had to commit hundreds of hours of time in order to be granted a degree in secondary education. In the year leading up to my full student teaching, I had a practicum course that required 30 hours of on-site teaching and observation of a veteran teacher. My actual student teaching lasted an entire collegiate semester (January to May). Without this experience, I would not have been as successful as a teacher in my first year on the job. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, 99% of higher education institutions in their sample required full-time student teaching (Greenberg et. al, 2011). This illustrates the importance of experiential learning to the teaching profession.

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Technology is a critical component of student teaching, as well. In my experience, I had to learn how to use a variety of tools in order to succeed. The two most frequently used pieces of technology were the Smart Board in the classroom and the online gradebook software called Infinite Campus. I had never used these before, and my undergraduate programs did not train me on them either. Therefore, it was up to me to learn how to use these. The expectation of my undergraduate program was for this type of experiential learning to take place. Teaching as a whole is experiential, but the technologies used in the profession require practice, more so than training.