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Preparing teachers to educate students with disabilities is complex. Special education teacher preparation programs are intended to equip candidates with the essential skills necessary for educating students with a wide range of learning and behavioral needs across various settings. Preparing special education teacher candidates to educate students with disabilities across various educational contexts requires more than simply teaching about evidence-based practices or directing special education teacher candidates to watch other effective teachers (Leko & Brownell, 2011). Leaders in the field recommend that teacher preparation programs include opportunities for candidates to practice meeting the needs of diverse learners through carefully crafted supervised experiences (e.g., Brownell, Ross, Colon, & McCallum, 2005).
Across many teacher preparation contexts, supervised field experiences are documented as the most important learning experiences within teacher preparation (Buck, Morsink, Griffin, Hines, & Lenk, 1992; Conderman, Morin, & Stephens, 2005; Connelly & Graham, 2009; Recchia & Puig, 2011). According to Phillion, Miller, and Lehman (2005), field experiences are the best vehicles to prepare future teachers for the complexity and diversity of the classroom. Supervised field experiences allow teacher candidates to apply the theories and strategies they learn to practical situations (Leko & Brownell, 2011). During such experiences, special education teacher candidates learn real-time problem-solving skills and gain confidence in instructing students with various disabilities (Ludlow, Gaylon-Keramidas, & Landers, 2007). During field experiences, teacher candidates actively engage in the profession and begin to view themselves as educators (Hixon & So, 2009), resulting in learning and development through application of knowledge in real classroom settings (Cook & Schirmer, 2006).
However, the teaching community lacks a clear universal method for defining a field experience (i.e., what are the defining characteristics) and which activities or components within a field experience must be included to best prepare teacher candidates for classroom realities (Sindelar, Brownell, & Billingsley, 2010). As a result, the discussions on field experiences are often a mix of apples and oranges, which makes them difficult to compare or measure. In fact, in some reports, researchers have described the literature base discussing field experiences as uninformative. For example, Cochran-Smith and Fries (2005) described the literature base as incoherent; McCall, McHatton, and Shealey (2014) described the literature on field experiences as lacking coordination; and Sindelar and colleagues (2010) described the...