Challenge and support: The dynamics of student teachers' professional learning in the field experience

The quality of student teachers’ learning experiences in the field is a major concern in initial teacher education. This paper reports a qualitative case study of seven preservice student teachers’ learning experiences in Hong Kong. It focuses on student teachers’ construction of teaching self in the three facets of the student teaching context, namely the action context, the socio-professional context and the supervisory context. The findings of the study point to four possibilities of professional learning—stasis, confirmation, retreat and growth. Productive student teaching experiences take place in a student teaching context with an appropriate mix of challenge and support which drives student teachers’ ongoing construction and reconstruction of teaching self. This enriched understanding of professional learning sheds light on the implications for the development of good student teaching placements in initial teacher education. Copyright © 2003 Elsevier.