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A supervised practical experience of on-the-job training forms an essential part of the pre-service preparation of professionals across disciplines. This article reports results from a recent study examining the views of 234 teacher candidates regarding the most negative aspects of their experiences in the 16-week extended-practicum. Four broad themes reflected the post-interns’ responses on the negative elements: (a) individual personal/professional challenges, (b) site-based interpersonal concerns, (c) universityrelated policy/procedural problems, and (d) practicum-office difficulties. Implications are discussed for the practicum leaders of this program and those from other institutions interested in preventing or reducing such limitations from hampering the effectiveness of their respective practice-based programs. 1 Ralph et al.: Deficiencies in the Practicum Phase of Field-Based Education: Stu Published by PDXScholar, 2009 SPRING 2009 75 There is a growing and universal demand for well-prepared professionals in all disciplines (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Little Progress, 2008). Society delegates to the professional faculties of post-secondary institutions the task of preparing its physicians, lawyers, engineers, teachers, social workers, and other professionals; and the status and responsibility of these practitioners have acquired an increased sense of importance and urgency in recent years (Aguayo, 2004; Ralph, Walker, & Wimmer, 2007). For example, a serious shortage of professionals in the health care and the teaching fields is imminent in Canada (Canadian Council on Learning, 2006) and worldwide (McKiever-Lowell, 2003). Prospective practitioners regularly report that the practicum/clinical experiences in their pre-service education were critical in preparing them for accepting their first position in their respective professions (Carnegie, 2006; Goodlad, 1984; Linn, Howard, & Miller, 2004; Lortie, 1975). The importance of this practical component, together with a growing global shortage of professionals in a variety of fields, require that professional education institutions evaluate the effectiveness of the practicum/ clinical components of their programs. They need to do so to meet the emerging pressures and challenges inherent in supplying welltrained professionals to enter their practice in the rapidly changing world of the twentyfirst century (Canadian Council on Learning, 2006). We, the authors of this article, contend that institutional organizers must also respond collaboratively in order to adjust their programs to flex with the substantial innovations of: advanced technologies and media, growing global competition, increased political unrest, expanding threats of terrorism, and the vagaries of the new economy. We believe that past and current practices of institutional administrators, for which they often made simple trial-anderror program adjustments, could be reformed, if these leaders would consider implementing the recommendations we provide in the present study (Ralph, Wimmer, & Walker, 2007, 2008a). This present article shares findings from a study that we recently conducted concerning the views of post-practicum students regarding the16-week extended-practicum (or internship) experiences in the Teacher Education program offered by one Western Canadian university. In one portion of our broader study, we examined the students’ perspectives on what they reported to be the most positive and the most negative features associated with their practicum experiences, the latter of which we address in the present article. We focus on the deficiencies, here, because: (a) we have dealt with the positive dimension, elsewhere (Ralph, Walker, & Wimmer, 2007, 2008a, 2008b); (b) we were constrained by page limitations in the present paper; and (c) we believed that to improve the practicum/clinical experience requires leaders to identify and ameliorate its negative elements. BACKGROuNd TO THE STudy Even though students rate the practical phase of their pre-service programs highly (Ehrlich & Greenberg, 2002), there have been persistent weaknesses associated with the practicum cited in the research literature (Clift & Brady, 2005; Hughes, 2004; Lortie, 1975). In Table 1, we summarize nine deficiencies that have been previously identified.

Deficiencies in the Practicum Phase of Field-Based Education: Students’ Views