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The clinical internship in student teaching is the climax of the pre-service professional preparation for teaching. It is generally considered the most significant part of the professional program. Directed student teaching is a twelve week full day experience with a trained field based cooperating teacher and university supervisor.

Commitment and Beliefs

In keeping with the Responsive Educator Model (REM), the professional education program includes a systematic five-stage strategy for the delivery of required, clinical and field-based experiences. This strategy provides for structured, real world PRAXIS at both the basic and advanced levels and is intertwined with the Unit's model and knowledge bases. The adopted title of the systematic strategy, Program in Responsive Education with Clinical Experiences and Professional Training (PRECEPT), emphasizes a major component of REM's ultimate goal. The first stage of PRECEPT consists of courses containing field-based and clinical activities which yield a total of 137 pre-student teaching clock hours.

The student teaching experience at Jackson State University represents the second stage of PRECEPT. The following philosophical beliefs support PRECEPT including student teaching:

1. Clinical and field-based experiences must provide an integration of theory and practice throughout professional education programs and offer Candidates opportunities for critical analysis, reflection, and responsive growth.

2. Schools and related human service education agencies should serve as professional laboratories to help prospective educators integrate learned theories with practice in a manner that helps them to diagnose and solve problems effectively in their chosen career roles.

3. Prospective educators should appreciate the, diverse cultural backgrounds of self and others, the similarities and differences inherent to a multicultural society, and the global perspectives that currently affect the design and delivery of effective education.

4. To make appropriate career and professional decisions, prospective educators must know and understand themselves, diverse learners, a variety of knowledge bases and how learning and teaching takes place.

5. Prospective educators need a variety of clinical and field experiences distinguishable by such factors as (a) the socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of learners; (b) the level and teaching of special subject matter; and (c) the uniqueness of organization designs, structures, practices and procedures.

6. Effective partnerships with schools and agencies are essential for the successful clinical/field based preparation of teachers and other education personnel.

7. Clinical experiences should be (1) gradual and sequential, (2) related to other components of a Candidates' program major, (3) designed to identify Candidates' strengths and remediate deficiencies, and (4) complementary to theoretical and conceptual knowledge presented to Candidates.