Gerber, Lana M.
Abstract:
The first purpose of this study was to determine Horizon Award recipientperceptions of the importance of cooperating teacher’s characteristics: personal attributes,professionalism, teaching/instruction, and cooperating teacher/student teacherrelationships and the frequency the cooperating teacher exhibited each of thecharacteristics. The second purpose of the study was to determine the extent there is arelationship between Horizon Award recipients' perceptions of the importance of each ofthe cooperating teachers' characteristics and perceptions of the frequency cooperatingteachers exhibited the characteristics. The sample included all Horizon Award recipientswith current active email accounts included in the Kansas Department of Education(KSDE) 2003-2018 Kansas Exemplary Educator Network. Specifically, the findingsindicated all personal attributes to be important or very important and showedcooperating teachers exhibiting all personal attributes often or always. The findingsprovided evidence for a moderately strong positive relationship between the Awardrecipients perceptions of the importance of two of their cooperating teachers’ personalattributes and the Award recipients perceptions of the frequency their cooperatingteachers exhibited each of those two attributes (having a sense of humor and beingtrustworthy). The results indicated all professional characteristics as being important orvery important and indicated that cooperating teachers exhibited the professionalcharacteristics often or always. The findings provided evidence for a moderately strongpositive relationship between the importance of and the frequency the cooperatingteacher exhibited each of the following professionalism characteristics: loving their jobs,knowledge of school policy, establishing positive community relations, and being recognized by other teachers and administrators as a good faculty member at their school.The findings indicated the importance of all instruction characteristics as being importantor very important and indicated that the Award recipients cooperating teachers exhibitedall the instructional characteristics often or always. The results of the data analysisprovided evidence of the relationship between the importance and frequency exhibited asmoderately strong for all the teaching and instruction characteristics. The results of thedata analysis indicated the relationship between the importance of the characteristic asperceived by the award winner and the frequency the award recipients cooperatingteacher exhibited the characteristic as moderately strong for 10 of the 14 relationshipcharacteristics. Having a list of perceived characteristics of effective cooperatingteachers, district and university leaders can utilize the characteristics to set clearguidelines for the selection of effective cooperating teachers. Once those cooperatingteachers are paired with student teachers, the university and district can provideprofessional development based on the results of this study with the purpose of makingthem aware of and discuss award recipients’ perceptions of characteristics of effectivecooperating teachers. Future research can now focus on the perspectives of otherstakeholders.