Realistic vs. Effective: An Analysis of Educators' Perceptions of Traditional and Co-teaching Models of Student Teaching

Using the Danielson Framework for Teaching, we compare educators’ perceptions of the effectiveness of traditional and co-teaching student teaching models. This study frames student teaching as a community of practice with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as a key feature of the experience. This study uses a mixed methods sequential design. Our data indicate the co-teaching model outperforms the traditional student teaching model on all Danielson components and was preferred by the majority of our participants. Recommendations for teacher preparation and further study of student teaching are discussed.