mercredi 4 février 2015

How to approach faculty about careless student teaching assignments


A friend of mine is getting her masters in education and is struggling with her student teaching assignments. I think she has more or less accepted her sub-par experience as a sunk cost but is wondering how to best approach her program's faculty about improving the experience (but on some level also lodging a complaint).


The goal of student teaching is clearly to get hands-on experience in the classroom under the tutelage of an excellent teacher. My friend's first placement was with a teacher who turned out to be so incompetent that the teaching program pulled my friend from the classroom 2/3 of the way through the semester. The program apologized for letting this happen and assured her they would carefully select a great teacher for her next placement. She's now a month into that placement and is having a similar experience.


I realize that finding a good mentor is challenging and there will always be some slip ups. But this is a top 5 program. It's expensive as hell. And they explicitly told her they would put more effort into vetting her next mentor which they clearly did not do. My friend now has to accept the fact that she will not have gained nearly as much (positive) experience as her peers but is still out the same amount of money.


All arguments about the dollar value of a masters in education aside where does she proceed from here?


There is of course the obvious first choice of making lemonade and moving on with life which may end up being the best bet. However, I can't help but feel like at the very least she should provide some type of constructive feedback to the program about her experiences. Would you approach this? If so, how and who would you approach?


While this question does not directly pertain to an academia bound student, I'm hoping that the focus on interacting with the faculty makes this relevant to the forum. If not, please let me know of a better place to ask!





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