US elementary preservice teachers’ experiences while teaching to students in Taiwan

Abstract

The idea to prepare prospective teachers to teach in increasingly diverse US schools still raises a number of questions about how an international student teaching experience can be important and beneficial to student learning. What do preservice teachers perceive to be the benefits from an international student teaching experience? What do preservice teachers perceive as challenges during an international student teaching experience? This paper shares findings from a phenomenological study of four U.S. elementary preservice teachers’ experiences during a five-week international student teaching opportunity in Taiwan. The findings of this study support the scholarship of teaching and learning that is grounded in the quest to understand the connection between students’ experiences and learning (Hutchings, 1999). The findings could further provide insights into the implementation process and the support that student teachers need in order to gain a successful experience from an international student teaching opportunity provided by the teacher education program.