What is Preservice Candidate

Within the current educational context, teacher preparation programs are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness in producing teachers that impact P-12 student learning. As a result, programs must investigate organizational features that are powerful for preparing preservice candidates to enter the classroom. This research examined how the practice of having one teacher educator instruct courses over multiple semesters to the same group of students can be used to support the development of teacher candidates. This descriptive analysis presents the findings from one university teacher preparation program and what was learned about the potential for the partnership to be a powerful way to structure teacher learning. Implications are discussed as considerations for how this alternate form of organization can facilitate relationship-building, impact theory to practice connections and improve efficacy for teaching and learning.