Chapter 12: Suggestions for Academic Success of Preservice Teachers

Over the past 14 years, teacher educators in the elementary education program at the University of South Carolina have developed a signature pedagogy, which we believe has led to the academic success of our pre-service teachers. Our signature pedagogy provides not only opportunities for teacher candidates to interact with children, but it also provides numerous chances for students to reflect on their experiences as they respond to new situations, unique students, and changes that affect children, families, and communities. Our students are continuously required to reflect on and analyze these experiences.

Signature pedagogies “are the forms of instruction that leap to mind when we first think about the preparation of members of particular professions” (Shulman, 2005, p 52). Over time, the elementary teacher educators at the University of South Carolina have quietly worked to establish a set of unique educational experiences that exemplify high-quality elementary teacher education. Notably, our work is collaborative. While this chapter is authored by two members of the elementary education faculty, the signature pedagogy that we describe has been developed over many years and has benefit- ted from the contributions from many past and present faculty members, as well as gifted school-based educators. Key individuals who have contributed to this work are listed at the end of this chapter. Our signature pedagogy owes its existence to scholars who designed, established, and revised these practices and rests on the shoulders of accomplished scholars (i.e., Field & Scoy, 2014; Hodges & Mills, 2014; Hodges, Mills, Blackwell, Scott, & Som- erall, 2017) and was developed and refined in collaboration with schoolbased practitioners at professional development schools (PDS).