Exploring Interaction between Student Teachers During the Student Teaching Experience

The purpose of this study was to explore social interaction between student teachers during the student teaching experience. This descriptive study consisted of 22 student teachers from the spring 2007 semester at Texas A&M University. Data were collected immediately following conclusion of the 12– week internship at a regularly scheduled face–to–face meeting. It was concluded that every student teacher interacted with a peer during the experience. However, they interacted with only a small percentage of their peers on a weekly basis and they did not interact at all with a large portion of their peers. Student teachers most frequently used either the telephone or face–to–face opportunities to interact. The majority also frequently used email and text messages to interact. Facebook, MySpace, and instant messaging were used very little. Depending on the purpose, student teachers interacted with different small networks of three to five peers. Different student teachers emerged as key players or opinion leaders, depending on the reason for interaction. This exploratory study yielded a considerable number of questions for further inquiry.