2009 年 18 巻 p. 118-127
Clinical fieldwork courses have been increasingly introduced into preservice teacher education curricula in Japan since the 1990s, as teacher educators consider clinical experience provided by teacher preparation programs to be important for prospective teachers, especially freshmen.
This article analyzes the goals and challenges of preservice teachers before and during their introductory fieldwork course in accordance with INTASC（Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium）Standards, and also uses the text mining tool “TRUSTIA”. Before starting this course in the spring semester, freshmen in the Faculty of Education write essays on their personal goals and the challenges they want to learn about and experience on the course. Analysis revealed that they focus on “Communication”, “Reflection and Professional Development”, and “Student Learning”, and less on “Assessment” and “Content Knowledge”.
In the fall semester, they then write essays on their reflections of their fieldwork and state their revised goals and challenges for the fall semester. Analysis revealed that they continue to focus on “Communication”, and “Reflection and Professional Development”, but have now, however, begun to pay attention to “Instructional Strategies”.
The implications for teacher education program reform include that 1）preservice teachers should be provided with sufficient opportunities to communicate with children, 2）teaching portfolios should facilitate their reflection, and 3）they may need to attend courses on introductory methods and content area at an early stage in their training.
