Teacher Preparation in Career and Technical Education: A Model for Developing and Researching Early Field Experiences

Experiential learning has been a hallmark of career and technical education (CTE). It has allowed CTE educators to utilize constructivist and contextual learning approaches, which help students integrate new knowledge and experience with previous knowledge in a real-world manner (Gordon, 2008). The same philosophical approach occurs collegiately in professional programs like law, medicine, business, and teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Teacher education programs, especially CTE teacher education programs, have incorporated this philosophy as a means of putting ideals into action. EFE is an experiential component of preservice teacher education, which offers career exploration and later teacher development.