A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES WITH COLLABORATING TEACHERS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND THE UNITED STATES

Within a teacher education programs, student teachers must participate in a teaching practicum, when teachers-in-training (i.e., pre-service teachers) work with experienced teachers (i.e., in-service teachers) in their classrooms, learning the best practices related to pedagogy. This context, the student teaching practicum, has been studied extensively in a wide range of publications. However, comparative studies across countries that examine the experiences and perspectives of the practicum participants have not been deeply explored in the literature. The following study seeks to understand how student teachers in the Czech Republic and the United States perceive their practicum and the role of their collaborating teacher. Building on previous research that focuses on the effective traits of collaborating teachers and the effective types of feedback collaborating teachers give, this study compares student teachers’ experiences with their collaborating teachers and seeks to understand the differences between the two. The findings lead to topics in comparative education which could be explored in greater depth.