ARTICLE IN PRESS

Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498

Challenge and support: the dynamics of student teachers’

professional learning in the field experience
Sylvia Yee Fan Tang*
Department of Educational Policy and Administration, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po,
New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China

Received 23 October 2001; received in revised form 24 June 2002; accepted 19 August 2002

Abstract

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.
r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Preservice teacher education; Student teachers; Student teaching; Professional development; Teaching self

1. Introduction Richert, 2002; Potthoff & Alley, 1995) which foster

Field experience has been regarded as the most
favourably viewed component of initial teacher
education in contributing to student teachers’
professional learning (Ben-Peretz, 1995). The
quality of student teachers’ learning experiences
in the field is a major concern in initial teacher
education. Zeichner (1996) highlighted the neces-
sity to have an ‘‘educative practicum’’. Other
scholars also argue for the importance of good
student teaching placements (Beck & Kosnik,
2002; Burstein, 1992; Clark, 2002; LaBoskey &
*Tel.: +852-2948-7590; fax: +852-2948-7619.
E-mail address: stang@ied.edu.hk (S.Y.F. Tang).
productive student teaching experiences. Zeichner
(2002) framed the quality question as ‘‘not so
much a matter of finding good student teaching
placement sites as it is of working to develop
them’’ (p. 63). This paper approaches the question
from the perspective of student teachers’ profes-
sional learning. Student teaching experiences are
explored from the personal–professional concep-
tualization of professional learning. By examining
the complexities and dynamics of student teachers’
learning experiences in the various facets of the
student teaching context, the paper attempts to
contribute to the ongoing discussion of developing
good student teaching placements for productive
student teaching experiences.

0742-051X/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(03)00047-7
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
484 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
2. The construction of the teaching self in the
student teaching context
2.1. The construction of the teaching self
Preservice student teachers’ professional learn-
ing is broadly conceived as the interaction between
the learner and the student teaching context. Tang
(2002) regarded learning-to-teach as the construc-
tion of the teaching self in the professional artistry
of teaching. This notion of professional learning is
grounded on researchers’ inquiry of teacher
professional development from the perspective of
personal–professional development (Bullough,
1991; Bullough, Knowles, & Crow, 1991; Cook-
Sather, 2001; Higgins & Leat, 2001; Kagan, 1992;
Nias, 1989; Raymond, Butt, & Townsend, 1992).
Bullough et al. (1991) defined the teaching self as
the object the teacher thinks he/she is at the
moment and in situation. Nias (1989) highlighted
the situated and contextualized sense of the
teaching self and distinguished it from the core
self. The core self or substantial self is essentially
the teacher’s sense of self as a person. It is ‘‘a well-
defended, relatively inflexible substantial self into
which we incorporate the most highly prized
aspects of our self-concept and the attitudes
and values which are most salient to it’’ (Nias,
1989, p. 26). Teaching is an occupation that
strongly involves the teacher as a person (Kelch-
termans & Vanderberghe, 1994). The core self is
interwoven with the formation of the teaching self
in that the personal values incorporated in the core
self play an important part in the way student
teachers conceptualize and carry out their work.
The exploration of the interaction between the
teaching self and core self is essential to the inquiry
of the dynamics of professional learning (Good-
fellow & Sumsion, 2000; Maynard & Furlong,
1994; Samuel & David, 2000).
Researchers’ work highlights the dynamics of
dissonance and resonance between the core self
and teaching self in the learning-to-teach process.
On the one hand, Kagan (1992) argued that for
growth to occur, dissonance must be experienced.
She held that novice teachers use growing knowl-
edge of pupils and classrooms to reconstruct the
teaching self in the learning-to-teach process.
Britzman (1991) argued that the taking up of
the teacher identity means suppressing certain
aspects of the (core) self, i.e. ‘‘becoming a
teacher may mean becoming someone you are
not’’ (p. 4). Kagan (1992) and Britzman’s (1991)
views implied that learning-to-teach involves
tension or disequilibrium generated by the dis-
sonance between the core self and teaching self.
Bullough (1992) highlighted the importance of
coming to terms with who one is as a person, the
core self, in the development of a satisfying
teaching self, which implies the importance of
restoring resonance between the core self and
teaching self.
2.2. The facets of the student teaching context
Apart from examining the dynamics between
the core self and teaching self, the study of
professional learning involves the examination of
the complexities of the student teaching context.
The student teaching context is conceptualized as
consisting of three different facets—the action
context (Eraut, 1994); the socio-professional con-
text (McNally, Cope, Inglis, & Stronach, 1997);
and the supervisory context (Slick, 1998).
The action context (Eraut, 1994) refers to
classrooms in which student teachers are intro-
duced with the complex nature of learning-to-
teach. Student teachers’ experience in the school is
chiefly confined to classroom teaching rather than
an exposure to the full range of responsibilities of
full time-teaching (McCulloch & Lock, 1992;
Stones, 1987; Turney, 1988; Zeichner, 1996).
Pupils act as an important reference group to
student teachers in the action context. They serve
as a ‘‘critical reality definer’’ (Riseborough, 1985,
cited in Bullough et al., 1991) and have much
impact on student teachers’ self. Nias (1989)
argued that pupils can validate student teachers’
professional competence or make them feel tech-
nically inadequate.
In the socio-professional context, student tea-
chers’ interaction with various agents, including
teachers, fellow student teachers or peers and
other personnel in the wider school life contributes
to their construction of teaching self. ‘‘Through
situated engagement and negotiation with
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S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
practitioners and peers in a teaching community,
preservice teachers come to define for themselves
what it means to be a teacher’’ (Samaras &
Gismondi, 1998). As mentioned previously, re-
search indicates that student teachers’ experience is
overly narrow. Their experience is chiefly confined
to classroom teaching and they do not have much
involvement in the wider school life. Wilkin (1992)
argued that whether teachers act as an occasional
resource, provide delegated guardianship or are
empowered to undertake active and professional
responsibilities of teaching student teachers de-
pends very much on the nature of institute–school
partnership at the institutional and interpersonal
levels. At the institutional level, different forms of
institute–school partnership, namely the unidi-
mensional model of partnership, complementary
partnership, collaborative partnership and the
professional development school model (Bines &
Welton, 1995; Furlong, Barton, Miles, Whiting, &
Whitty, 2000; Morine-Dershimer & Leighfield,
1995), set different platforms for the interaction
among school teachers, tertiary supervisors and
student teachers. At the interpersonal level,
Wang (2001) highlighted that the interaction
between teachers and student teachers varies in
the length and frequency of the interaction, the
place where they interact, as well as the topics in
the interaction. Peers constitute another important
group of agents in the socio-professional
context. Being in a shared position and having
equal status with student teachers (Hawkey,
1995a), peers bring about a supportive learning
environment and reduce student teachers’ feelings
of isolation (Hawkey, 1995b). Buchanan and
Jackson (1998) argued that peers can serve as a
valuable external reference point for student
teachers’ own self evaluation. Other studies
also indicate that student teachers engage in
structured peer coaching with the cycle of
pre-observation preview, classroom observation
and post-observation discussion (Kurtts &
Levin, 2000; McAllister & Neubert, 1995;
Neubert & Stover, 1994) in certain programme
contexts.
The supervisory context is the final important
facet of the student teaching context. While
student teachers engage in ongoing interaction
485
with the action context and socio-professional
context during the field experience, they come into
contact with tertiary supervisors in the latter’s
occasional visits. As mentioned earlier, different
forms of institute–school partnership have impact
on tertiary supervisors’ practices. Despite such
difference, research on teaching supervision prob-
ably sheds light on our understanding of the
impact of teaching supervision, in generic terms,
on student teachers’ professional learning. Re-
searchers’ work (Arthur, Davison, & Moss,
1997; Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 1998;
Wajnryb, 1995; Zeichner & Liston, 1985) has
illuminated our understanding of the dynamics of
supervisory conference which is the core of
teaching supervision. Lyle (1996) and Stones
(1987) highlighted that teaching supervision facil-
itates student teachers’ professional learning by
bridging theory and practice. Other researchers
raised issues related to the contradictory nature of
the dual functions of facilitating student teachers’
learning and assessing their teaching (Calderhead,
1993; Cooper, 1994; Slick, 1997; Wubbels, Kortha-
gen, & Brekelmans, 1997).
2.3. Challenge and support in the student teaching
context
Having reviewed the literature related to the
various agents in the different facets of the student
teaching context, we further examine the dynamics
of the student teaching context from the perspec-
tive of the challenge and support it can offer to
student teachers. Challenge ‘‘occurs when a
discontinuity or dissonance occurs’’ (Martin,
1996, p. 49) and is a key ingredient for growth
(McNally & Martin, 1998). ‘‘It is different for
different people and that there are degrees of
challenge’’ (Martin, 1996, p. 49). When facing
challenge, student teachers experience tension and
have a tendency to move from a position of
‘‘unstable equilibrium’’ to a position of ‘‘stable
equilibrium’’ in order to close the gap. Mayer and
Goldsberry (1993) argued for the importance of
having productive tensions. Gipe and Richard
(1992) highlighted that inappropriate amounts of
challenge are not conducive to learning. ‘‘A
nonchallenging field experience may provide few
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486 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
opportunities for reflective thought, because there
are few problems to solve. An overly threatening
field placement may promote negativism and
stagnation’’ (Gipe & Richard, 1992, p. 55).
Challenge and support are complementary to
student teachers’ professional learning. Drawing
from McCarty’s (1993) work, examples of support
necessary for professional growth include helping
student teachers feel: safe; recognized as valued
individuals; connected to others; a sense of power
over their own ideas and actions; that their
professional lives and judgements are meaningful;
and a willingness to take risks.
Daloz’s (1986) model of mentoring can be
employed to illuminate our understanding of the
possible impact of the dynamics of challenge and
support on student teachers’ learning. When both
challenge and support are low, ‘‘stasis’’ results and
little growth is likely to take place. When support
is enhanced, the potential for some sort of growth
increases. Without much challenge, the student
teacher is confirmed and may feel good about
himself/herself but may also lack the capacity to
engage productively with the outside world. Too
much challenge in the absence of appropriate
support, on the other hand, can drive the student
teacher to retreat. Professional development oc-
curs with an appropriate mix of challenge and
support.
This study seeks to understand student teachers’
learning experiences by examining the dynamics of
challenge and support in the three facets of the
student teaching context. It further explores
student teachers’ construction of the teaching self
in the midst of this dynamic interaction of
challenge and support. In particular, student
teachers’ learning experiences are examined along
the tentative line of argument that tension or
disequilibrium generated by the dissonance be-
tween the core self and teaching self drives the
construction of the teaching self. The exploration
of these complex dynamics helps us understand
what constitutes productive and unproductive
learning experiences in the student teaching con-
text. Through understanding student teachers’
learning experiences, we hope to gain insights for
working on the development of good student
teaching placements.
3. Setting and methodology
3.1. The research setting
The study is a qualitative case study of seven
student teachers’ professional learning in a two-
year sub-degree initial teacher education pro-
gramme for secondary school teachers in Hong
Kong. Field experience is run in the form of 5- and
8-week student teaching periods during the 2 years
of study. In the action context, student teachers
are assigned to teach two subjects at the junior
secondary level. Field experience takes place in the
context of the unidimensional form of institute–
school partnership (Bines & Welton, 1995).
Schools provide placement sites for cohorts of
student teachers and there is no formal partnership
structure for schools to organize mentoring
activities. Student teachers’ interaction with the
various agents in the socio-professional context
depends very much on individuals’ styles and
personalities and the teacher subculture of the
schools concerned. In the supervisory context,
each student teacher is supervised by two subject
supervisors and one Practicum supervisor who
have no formal contact with school teachers. The
absence of a partnership structure implies the lack
of linkage between the socio-professional context
and the supervisory context.
3.2. Data collection
Table 1 shows the information about the seven
student teachers who were selected on the basis of
maximum variation sampling and intensity sam-
pling. The seven student teachers taught a variety
of subjects in 14 schools which varied in terms of
history, pupil characteristics, curriculum, medium
of instruction, organizational cultures, etc., during
the two student teaching periods.
Methodological and data triangulation (Jane-
sick, 1994; Patton, 1990; Stake, 1995) were
employed to capture the multi-dimensional nature
of student teachers’ interaction with the different
facets of the student teaching context. A series of
interviews was conducted with the student teachers
to trace their professional learning experiences at
different points over 2 years from 1998 to 2000.
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S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498 487

Table 1 presentation of an emerging theory which shows

Summary of the seven student teachers’ information
the construction of the teaching self in the midst of
Studenta Sex Main study Additional study the dynamic interaction of challenge and support,
teacher with illustrations extracted from the seven student
Avis F Science English Language teachers’ professional learning journeys.
Esther F Music Economic & Public
Affairs (EPA)
Frances F English Language Chinese Language 4. Facing challenge and support in the student
Harry M Chinese Language Civic Education
teaching context
Joseph M English Language Economic & Public
Affairs (EPA)
Mic F Putonghua Chinese Language The findings of this study revealed that student
(Mandarin) teachers face different sorts of challenge and
Suki F Physical Education Civic Education support in the action context, socio-professional
(PE)
context and supervisory context. Challenge opens
a
Names in pseudonym. gaps within the individual and support helps him/
her close such gaps. It is through this process that
the individual gradually constructs and recon-
Interviews were conducted with school teachers in structs his/her teaching self in the midst of student
the second year of the study and tertiary super- teaching experiences.
visors in both years. Field observation was
conducted with every student teacher in the 4.1. Challenge and support in the action context
various placement schools in both student teach-
ing periods. A focus group interview was Pupils constitute a powerful determinant of
conducted for the purpose of respondent valida- student teachers’ learning experiences in the action
tion in which the student teachers gave feedback to context. Pupil characteristics and class dynamics
my initial interpretation of their professional are important determinants of the risk level of the
learning experience. action context and hence the extent of challenge
faced by student teachers. As an important
3.3. Data analysis reference group for student teachers, pupils’ feed-
back and the ‘‘psychic rewards’’ of teaching
Qualitative data analysis embraces a continuum (Lortie, 1975) can validate student teachers’
‘‘ranging from a low level of interpretation and professional competence or make them feel inade-
abstraction engaged in by the researcher, to a high quate (Nias, 1989).
level of interpretation and abstraction required for
theory building’’ (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). 4.1.1. The risk level of the action context
Upon reading and memoing, the coded data in Student teachers are more likely to have
each case were clustered with reference to student productive learning experiences in a low-risk
teachers’ professional learning experience in the rather than a high-risk action context. In a low-
action context, socio-professional context and risk action context, student teachers face well-
supervisory context as well as the development of behaved and motivated classes who are receptive
student teachers’ teaching self. With the use of to different teacher practices. Very often, such
constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, context allows an adequate range of perceptual
1967), patterns of challenge and support in the attention so that student teachers have the
three facets of the student teaching context were necessary mental space to focus on the pedagogical
identified. The patterns of challenge and support aspect of teaching. The negotiation of the teaching
in the total student teaching context were then put self is relatively smooth with such productive
back together and connected to student teachers’ student teaching experiences, as illustrated in
construction of the teaching self. What follows is a Esther’s example.
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488 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
In the second student teaching period, Esther
was placed in a girls’ school. She taught three
classes of Music and three classes of EPA. The
classes were well-behaved and highly motivated to
learn. The Music classes were receptive to Esther’s
teaching approaches which were similar to the
regular teacher’s practice. These constituted a low-
risk action context for Esther.
As for music, I’ve learnt a lot of teaching skills
in the Institute, mainly American style, with its
emphasis on a variety of learning activities. The
regular Music teacher is an American as well.
She adopts more or less the same method I am
going to use. As pupils got used to learning
through activities, I believe they would accept
my teaching method. The issue of classroom
management won’t bother me as well. The
pupils, in general, are well behaved. (Interview
with Esther before second STP)1
In contrast, classes with low motivation to learn,
severe behavioural problems and/or low receptive-
ness to different teacher practices pose great
challenge to student teachers, which constitute
unproductive learning experiences to student
teachers. Harry and Mic’s examples revealed that
the high-risk action context increases student
teachers’ vulnerability and difficulty of learning-
to-teach and forging a satisfactory teaching role
(Bullough et al., 1991).
Harry was placed in a co-educational school in
the first student teaching period. He faced a high-
risk action context with pupils having low
motivation to learn and discipline problems. Harry
was overwhelmed by pupils’ challenge to his
teacher authority and his sense of self as a teacher
was threatened.
During a lesson, I felt bad due to being bullied
by pupilsy. They were very noisy. I required
them to be quiet continuously but they ignored
my instruction. I was just like an animal
fighting in its cage. One person facing forty
persons is indeed very tough. (First interview
with Harry in first STP)
1
STP refers to student teaching period.
In the second student teaching period, Mic
taught in a boys’ school. Pupils were academically
able and Mic felt threatened by their suspicious
attitude towards her knowledge initially. Their
exam-oriented learning attitude also caused great
difficulty to Mic who taught in her own way which
differed from the regular teachers’ established
pedagogical practices. Pupils challenged and re-
jected her teaching, and the situation was aggra-
vated by classroom management problems.
The most unsatisfying experience I had in the
student teaching was with one of the Secondary
2 classes. From the beginning to the end, my
feeling was likeyhow to sayy. At the begin-
ning they were not very noisy, yet they got
noisier. I could not manage the situation
finallyy. They haven’t done much written
exercise before. As we [student teachers] have
to give written exercise, they think that the
exercise is nonsense because Putonghua carries
no mark in the exam. They just complained to
me, ‘Why do we have to do a lot of homework?’
or ‘Oh, I have to do homework again!’ They
looked unhappy. (Interview with Mic after
second STP)
4.1.2. Pupils as a reference group
Pupils serve as a reference group to the teaching
self and an important source of support to student
teachers in the action context. Esther had produc-
tive student teaching experiences that she derived
‘‘psychic rewards’’ (Lortie, 1975) from pupils’
engagement in learning. The human touch of
interacting with pupils facilitated Avis’s develop-
ment of her sense of self as a teacher.
As mentioned earlier, Esther taught EPA and
Music in a low-risk action context in the second
student teaching period. Pupils’ engagement in
learning EPA gave her psychic rewards in teach-
ing, affirming her sense of self as a teacher.
The most satisfactory experience was my
teaching in EPA. I taught EPA for 1A
classy. They were very attentive during class
and were eager to learn a lot. So they paid much
attention to what the teachers said and
respected them very much, no matter you were
a student teacher or a regular teacher. As a
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S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
result, they gave me a very good first impres-
siony Basically speaking, I consider that all
my EPA lessons with this class were successful
because I could have a very great sense of
achievement in teaching them. (Interview with
Esther after second STP)
Avis’s experience in the first student teaching
period showed that the emotional bond and
understanding between her and pupils became a
driving force for the development of her sense of
self as a teacher. The pupils she taught had low
motivation to learn. Her initial impression of the
strict discipline policy in the school made her think
that a teacher was just like a policeman. During
the student teaching period, she attempted to go
beyond teaching in the class setting and befriend
individual pupils. The human touch of the poor
self-image of these pupils made her strongly
determined to think of ways of motivating them
to learn. Her close relationship with individual
pupils made her change her conceptualization of
teaching from that of a policeman to a social
worker. She gradually developed a sense of herself
as a teacher who was concerned with pupils’
learning and personal growth.
[A teacher is] like a social worker. Besides
teaching, I have to deal with pupils’ personal
affairs. (Interview with Avis after first STP)
4.2. Challenge and support in the socio-professional
context
Although student teachers’ learning experiences
are largely confined to class settings, they do have
some experiences of interacting with various
agents in the socio-professional context. The
findings in this study indicated that the interaction
between individual student teachers and socio-
professional contexts varied in terms of scope,
intensity and nature. Four different types of
socio-professional relationship were found—‘‘de-
tachment’’; ‘‘affiliation’’; ‘‘engagement’’ and ‘‘iso-
lation’’. The challenge and support faced by
student teachers in these different socio-profes-
sional relationships vary. This affects the extent to
which student teachers have productive learning
experiences in the student teaching context.
489
4.2.1. Detachment
In a detached socio-professional relationship,
the school adopts a position of letting student
teachers have ‘‘borrowed’’ classrooms for practice
rather than actively facilitating their learning or
engaging them into the wider school life. Student
teachers seldom have productive interaction with
the various agents in the socio-professional con-
text either. The scope of learning experiences is
confined within class settings. Mic’s experience in
the first student teaching period illustrated this
type of socio-professional relationship (Tang,
2002).
In the first student teaching period, Mic taught
in a school where she and the other two student
teachers were allowed to leave the school premises
during their free periods. Her contact with the
regular teachers was confined to matters relating
to handing over teaching assignment, without
much dialogue on professional matters. She just
had occasional contacts with pupils and was left to
learn on her own to ‘‘sink or swim’’ in her
professional learning most of the time, with
occasional sharing with her peers and infrequent
visits by tertiary supervisors. The detached socio-
professional relationship made Mic’s student
teaching experience largely confined to class
settings. The lack of productive interaction with
the socio-professional context gave little challenge
and support to Mic and there was no significantly
great impact on the development of her teaching
self.
4.2.2. Affiliation
Student teachers’ interaction with the socio-
professional context expands in an affiliated
relationship. They have quite frequent contact
with one or two groups of people in the school,
usually the regular teachers and/or their fellow
student teachers or peers. The support from
regular teachers and peers engender a psychologi-
cally safe and encouraging milieu for productive
learning experiences to take place. They can also
confirm their sense of self as a teacher. Student
teachers have some participation, perhaps as an
audience, in the wider school life. As compared to
a detached socio-professional relationship, the
participation in the wider school life (though
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
490 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
limited) extends student teachers’ professional
learning experiences beyond class settings.
Suki developed an affiliated socio-professional
relationship with the school in the first student
teaching period. Though Suki did not have much
involvement in the wider school life, she got good
support from her peer and regular teachers of the
school. Suki had a peer who taught PE and
English Language in the same school. Her
personal relationship with the peer, and the shared
position as a student teacher in the same subject
area, were important to her emotional well-being
as well as professional learning in PE teaching.
Luckily, for PE, there are only my peer and I
who are from the Institute. We talk with each
other about our first lesson. We both feel each
other’s support so that we have a sense of
security. She reminds me as we know what the
other teaches. She reminds me if I have
prepared properly. I also remind her as well.
This is some sort of reminder. I become more
comfortable psychologically and feel the pre-
sence of a person beside me giving suggestions.
(First interview with Suki in first STP)
The psychologically safe context was further
enhanced by the presence of supportive regular
teachers. The regular PE teacher was supportive in
providing an enabling context for Suki and her
peer. The friendly informal interaction, the offer of
a helping hand, and the readiness to engage in
professional dialogue contributed to Suki’s sense
of self as fitting into the school context.
I think the regular teachers are very kind
because they are very willing to help student
teachersy. The teacher I know best is the
regular PE [and panel] teacher because we have
much contacty. We think he is always ready to
give support and so we have very good
relationship. Sometimes he shared with us his
teaching experience and we would consult him
on the handling of various difficult situations. I
believe that if we could have a good regular or
panel teacher, he would help boost our con-
fidence and give us a clear briefing. Then I will
not feel confused as to where the things are
stored or how to deal with difficult situations. I
should say he helps us a lot. (Interview with
Suki after first STP)
4.2.3. Engagement
Student teachers’ learning experiences further
expand in scope in the engaged socio-professional
context. The school provides challenge and sup-
port to student teachers by engaging them in the
wider school life. Student teachers also take
initiative to interact with various groups of people
in the school. Lots of productive learning experi-
ences are generated through such interaction.
Harry’s experience in the second student teaching
period illustrated this.
In the second student teaching period, Harry
had frequent dialogue on professional matters
with the regular teachers. He was exposed to the
organizational aspect of teaching through formal
and informal occasions in the school. The discus-
sion on the Staff Development Day and the
participation in the staff meeting offered new
challenge to him. His direct encounter with the
collegiality among teachers and their great com-
mitment provided much support for his profes-
sional learning. Gradually, he expanded his sense
of self as a teacher to encompass the organiza-
tional aspect of teaching and to reframe his way of
interacting with pupils.
There’re some influences on my decision-mak-
ing during the lesson. The teachers are easy-
going teachers. If pupils did not break rules
seriously, teachers would treat them in the way
as I didy I discussed with them on the Teacher
Development Day. Sometimes we talk when we
meet. On the Teacher Development Day, there
were two cases regarding pupils breaking rules.
Teachers discussed ways of handling these two
cases. One of the cases happened inside the
classroom while the other one took place
outside and the problems were serious. (Second
interview with Harry in second STP)
I learnt a lot of things about school admin-
istration like the work of discipline teachers and
the general affairs of the school. I have never
imagined that there is such a lot of work on
general affairs in a school. (Interview with
Harry after second STP)
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S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
This year, I sat in the staffroom and I could
see many things. I sat next to the telephone. I
could listen to teachers talking on the phone. I
didn’t intend to listen but they talked loudlyy.
Some pupils were truant and had emotion
problems and they were suspended from school.
The teachers, no matter they were counselling
teachers or not, would phone these pupils and
ask about their conditions. The teachers said,
‘Come back. Come back to school’y. I have
heard a lot of warm dialogues like thisy.
That’s why I thought that I could see the good
side of teachers in the staffroom. Therefore, I
think that being a teacher carries heavy
responsibility. (Harry’s comments in the focus
group interview)
4.2.4. Isolation
Student teachers have unproductive learning
experiences in an isolated socio-professional con-
text. They develop a poor relationship with at least
one group of people in the school. This unpleasant
relationship is unintended and usually develops as
a result of the relational dynamics among teachers,
student teachers and pupils. The failure in
negotiating appropriate and satisfying relation-
ships in the school probably hurts the teaching self
and feelings of isolation and rejection prevail.
Productive learning is less likely to take place in
this psychologically unsafe milieu. Esther’s experi-
ences in the second student teaching period
illustrated this.
In the second student teaching period, the
assistant principal’s concern about Esther’s im-
proper interaction with pupils sparked off her
feeling of isolation in the school. Esther was
caught in the relational dynamics with pupils and
teachers. Her accommodation in the staff room
further exposed her to the unpleasant teacher
subculture in the form of cliques and gossips. She
found that she had a very different background
and a different teaching philosophy from the
teachers. The accommodation in the staff room
gave her a feeling of isolation. In the face of the
challenge stemming from the relational dynamics,
Esther had a strong feeling of isolation.
491
My peer and I rode on a pupil’s car once. We
chatted with the pupil in the car. Later, it was
rumoured that we commented badly on the
school to the pupil. The assistant principal
accused me of making negative comments on
the school to the pupil. I reiterated that I never
said it, as witnessed by my peer. The principal
also heard of it and was not happy with us, as
told by the assistant principal. I don’t intend to
give them a poor impression, as I really say
nothingy. I think it is unfair to me if they
believe the one-sided argumenty. (Second
interview with Esther in second STP)
This year we heard such gossips like teachers
complaining about pupils’ stupidities. It’s nat-
ural that the more contact you have with
teachers, there will be more opportunity for
conflicts to take placey. The reason for
increasing conflicts was due to their prejudice
against usy. It’s because of what that teacher
rumoured about us. As a result, it seemed that
she tried to avoid us and looked at us in an
unfriendly manner. In return, we didn’t feel
happy seeing her eithery. Though we sat in the
same staffroom, I considered that we two were
sitting in a corner and didn’t have much
communication with the teachers. (Interview
with Esther after second STP)
4.3. Challenge and support in the supervisory
context
In the context of a unidimensional institute–
school partnership in the present study, the
tertiary supervisor entered the student teaching
context as a disenfranchised outsider of the school
(Slick, 1998). There was no link between tertiary
supervisors and regular teachers in contributing to
student teachers’ professional learning, making it
rather difficult for student teachers to cross-
reference their learning from regular teachers in
the socio-professional context with the more
theoretical forms of knowledge learned in the
campus-based part of the teacher education
programme. Student teachers’ interaction with
tertiary supervisors occurred on an occasional
basis in the supervisory context with supervisory
conferences being the core of teaching supervision.
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492 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
The findings of this study revealed that supervisors
adopted a range of conferencing strategies and the
conferences focused on immediate classroom
practice rather than wider educational issues as
well as practical rather than theoretical issues
(Tang, 2000). Some of the conferences generated
growth-producing learning experiences while one
of them was rather unproductive and threatened
the student teacher’s sense of self as a teacher.
Tertiary supervisors’ affirmation, constructive
feedback and attempts to bridge campus-based
and school-based learning rendered an appropri-
ate mix of challenge and support which engen-
dered productive learning experiences for student
teachers. In the first student teaching period,
Joseph’s English Language supervisor gave con-
structive criticisms to his way of teaching gram-
mar. Upon receiving advice from the supervisor,
Joseph planned to give more practice opportu-
nities to pupils instead of explaining grammatical
rules in detail. He also expressed his appreciation
of the EPA supervisor’s initiative in explicitly
linking up theory and practice to facilitate his
professional learning.
The supervisor’s suggestions sounded very
systematic. I taught the topic ‘‘Importance of
food’’. I had searched for some information
before. There was a lot of information. I
considered the limited time of the lesson and
so I talked a little for each part without linking
them together. Besides, I failed to teach them in
depth. The supervisor’s comments are correct.
She asked me to use a concept map, say, food.
It then led to different aspects and finally to the
importance of food. I have [learned concept
map in the Institute]. However, I have never
applied it as she did. (First interview with
Joseph in first STP)
Conversely, too much challenge without ade-
quate support generates unproductive learning
experiences and threatens student teachers’ sense
of self as a teacher. Frances considered the total
support she received from the tertiary supervisors
inadequate in the first student teaching period.
Making reference to the intensive support pro-
vided by Practicum Supervisor, Frances requested
her Chinese Language and English Language
supervisors to offer similar close guidance to her.
Unfortunately, both supervisors rejected her re-
quest due to scheduling problems. Worse still, her
sense of self as a teacher was threatened when both
the Chinese Language and English Language
supervisors failed her teaching with strong criti-
cisms and demands within a few days. She had to
face three additional supervisory visits (two con-
ducted by the second supervisor of Chinese
Language and one by the second supervisor of
English Language) which all took place in the last
week of the student teaching period. The confer-
encing approach of some supervisors disempow-
ered her sense of self as a teacher and she lost
much of her confidence in teaching.
Some supervisors gave too many negative
comments in their supervision. I consider that
they had substantial effect on student teachers
since adverse comments would tremendously
destroy our confidence. As you know, con-
fidence is important to teachers. (Interview with
Frances after second STP)
4.4. Challenge, support and the construction of
teaching self
We have seen examples of student teachers’
learning experiences in terms of challenge and
support in each of the three facets of the student
teaching context and the impact on the teaching
self. The complexity of professional learning lies in
the relative nature of challenge and support, i.e.
what happens in specific aspects of the action
context, the socio-professional context and the
supervisory context relative to the strength of
individual student teachers’ teaching self at parti-
cular states of professional development. This
probably accounts for the idiosyncratic nature of
student teachers’ professional learning (Elliott &
Calderhead, 1995). We now go one step further to
examine the dynamics between the core self and
teaching self in the midst of the interaction of
challenge and support. By pulling together the
interaction between challenge and support in the
student teaching context and the dynamics be-
tween the core self and teaching self, we can
develop a systematic portrayal of student teacher’s
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
Challenge
High
Retreat
Low Tension
Dissonance
Stasis
Fig. 1. Challenge, support and the construction of the teaching self in the student teaching context.
learning experiences. Fig. 1 illustrates the four
possibilities these complex dynamics generated
from the findings of this study, on the basis of
which we can understand what constitutes pro-
ductive learning experiences in the student teach-
ing context.
4.4.1. Low challenge, low support
A student teaching context with low challenge
and support is unlikely to foster productive
learning experiences. Suki experienced stagnancy
in her professional learning in Civic Education as a
result of the lack of challenge and support in the
subject context in the second student teaching
period. She was assigned to teach the topic
‘‘Population’’ which she perceived as factual and
uninteresting. After she found herself able to cope
with the use of English medium in teaching the
highly motivated and well-behaved classes, she lost
impetus to engage in her professional learning in
the low-risk action context. Though she had a peer
teaching the same subject in the school, she did not
find her peer facilitating to her professional
learning. The absence of professional dialogue
493
Growth
From tension to equilibrium
From dissonance to resonance
Confirmation
Equilibrium
Resonance
Support
Low High
with the regular teacher and the lack of input from
the tertiary supervisor also caused inadequate
challenge to stimulate her professional growth.
Suki’s professional learning experience in Civic
Education probably illustrated a state of ‘‘stasis’’
(Daloz, 1986). The student teaching context with
low challenge and support created little tension to
drive the construction and reconstruction of her
teaching self.
My peer and I are extremely different. There is
no stimulation at all. We simply [exchange
information about our own teaching and] know
more about each other. (Second interview with
Suki during second STP)
For Civic Education, I had very little contact
with the regular teacher on the one hand, and
on the other hand, no supervisor came to
observe my lesson nor did I have any contact
with them. So I just worked in my own way. I
was absolutely helpless and there was nothing
to stimulate my creativity. I therefore regard my
learning as stagnant this year. (Interview with
Suki after second STP)
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494 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
4.4.2. Low challenge, high support
A student teaching context with a combination
of low challenge with enhanced support is more
likely to generate growth-producing learning
experiences. Suki’s first student teaching experi-
ence probably illustrated this. The action context
in the first student teaching period offered a
reasonable level of challenge to Suki. The well-
behaved and motivated classes constituted a low-
risk action context, which freed her from investing
heavily in pupils’ discipline problems and allowed
her to concentrate on the pedagogical aspect of
teaching. Suki’s satisfying sense of self as a teacher
was affirmed in the ‘‘supportive’’ action context
with positive pupil responses. Pupils’ positive
responses to her facial expression, eye contact
and instructions in the immediate class settings
gave her a feeling of finding ‘‘herself’’ as a teacher
in the class settings, which indicated resonance
between her teaching self and core self.
I do think that I’m like a teacher! In fact, pupils
make me have confidence. Apart from my
preparation, when I work with them, they can
do what I have planned. So it reflects what I
have planned can work. Therefore, I’m con-
fident in planning something for pupils to do
and learny. Moreover, initially, I think that I
myself seem to grin cheekily. When I teach PE, I
have some facial expression and eye contact to
make pupils listen to me and follow my
instructions. (First interview with Suki in first
STP)
Indeed, Suki’s positive experience in the action
context was accompanied by the support she got in
the socio-professional context and the supervisory
context. As mentioned earlier, she developed an
affiliated socio-professional relationship with the
school. The friendly informal interaction, the offer
of a helping hand, the readiness to engage in
professional dialogue facilitated Suki’s profes-
sional learning and contributed to her sense of
self as fitting into the school context. Suki’s
satisfying sense of self as a teacher was further
confirmed by the PE and Civic Education tertiary
supervisors’ positive feedback in the supervisory
context. Both of them gave constructive feedback
on subject pedagogy with attempts to link up
Suki’s campus-based and school-based learning.
The low challenge in the action context and the
good support in the action context, socio-profes-
sional context and supervisory context laid the
ground for Suki’s construction of a satisfying sense
of self in a state of equilibrium. In short, her core
self and teaching self were in resonance.
4.4.3. High challenge, low support
Too much challenge in the absence of appro-
priate support tends to drive the student teacher to
retreat and causes disempowerment of the teach-
ing self. This constitutes unproductive student
teaching experiences. Frances’ failure to get
adequate support in face of the challenges of a
high-risk action context and the threat of failure in
teaching supervision, as mentioned earlier in this
paper, pushed her teaching self into the trap of a
downward spiral in the first student teaching
period. She was trapped in the vicious circle of
poor performance, negative feedback from tertiary
supervisors, negative feeling about teaching ability
and negative feeling about her sense of self as a
person and as a teacher (Dobbins, 1996). With
self-doubts about her ability to teach both
language subjects, she experienced great tension
within herself and dissonance between her core self
and teaching self.
Everything pressed on me all of a sudden that I
didn’t know how to manage. As a result, every
piece of work submitted by me [to the super-
visors] was unsatisfactory. Unsatisfactory sub-
mission always brought unsatisfactory feedback
that went with further adverse effect—a vicious
circle! (Interview with Frances after second
STP)
4.4.4. High challenge, high support
A reasonably high degree of challenge accom-
panied by an appropriate level of support is
perhaps most conducive to professional growth
and the empowerment of the teaching self. Avis’s
second student teaching experience best illustrated
this scenario. She found it difficult to handle
classroom management problems. Though the
high-risk action context in English Language and
Science teaching posed great challenge to her, the
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S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
support she gained in the engaged socio-profes-
sional context enabled her to grow productively.
The regular English Language teacher encouraged
her while the regular Science teacher engaged in
collaborative planning with her. Avis was regarded
by the school as a member of the teaching staff
and had quite a lot of involvement in staff
activities, e.g., teachers’ barbecue, visit to two
primary schools in Shenzhen (a city in Mainland
China across the Hong Kong border). She
considered herself more mature in reaching out
to different people in the school in the second
student teaching period. Her interaction with the
class teacher was very encouraging and confirmed
her sense of self as a teacher.
She [3C class teacher] told me that pupils liked
to attend my class as written in their weekly
journals. They said that my teaching was useful
to them. She said that pupils’ positive com-
ments were very encouraging to a new teacher.
(Second interview with Avis in second STP)
The ‘‘psychic rewards’’ in terms of pupils’
engagement in learning English Language and
the emotional bond between her and pupils also
constituted an important source of support for her
professional learning in the action context. Avis’s
productive learning experience was evidenced as
she gradually moved along states of tension to
states of equilibrium. The dynamic movement
from dissonance to resonance between her core
self and teaching self constituted the construction
and reconstruction of her teaching self.
5. Discussion and conclusion
This paper has argued that productive student
teaching experiences take place in a student
teaching context with an appropriate mix of
challenge and support which drives student
teachers’ ongoing movement from tension to
equilibrium and from dissonance to resonance
between the teaching self and core self. Though the
empirical study reported in this paper was
conducted with a limited sample of student
teachers in a concurrent teacher education pro-
gramme context in Hong Kong, the enriched
495
understanding of professional learning may be
used to illuminate further research on field
experience with student teachers in other pro-
gramme and institute–school partnership contexts.
Besides, the enriched understanding of profes-
sional learning generates insights on teacher
education practices. It suggests that higher educa-
tion faculty and school personnel should work on
the development of good student teaching place-
ments by engaging with student teachers as
persons and their emerging teaching selves as well
as structuring an appropriate mix of challenge and
support in the action context, socio-professional
context and supervisory context. This move
suggests possible implications at the pedagogical
and interpersonal as well as institutional levels.
The findings in this study have revealed that
different student teaching contexts offer varied
opportunities of growth for student teachers. It is
more likely that the student teaching context
provides productive learning experiences if its
different facets are characterized by a low-risk
action context, an affiliated or engaged socio-
professional context, a facilitating supervisory
context, or varied combinations of these features.
The development of growth-producing student
teaching contexts might have pedagogical and
interpersonal implications for those who are
involved in the teacher education process. Tertiary
faculty and school personnel might consider
facilitating student teachers to sharpen their self-
awareness (Trotman & Kerr, 2001) of their own
professional development and prepare for their
competence in facing the dynamics of challenge
and support in the various facets of the student
teaching context. It would be desirable for faculty
and teachers to be aware of the idiosyncratic states
of individual student teachers’ personal and
professional development and offer an appropriate
mix of challenge and support to foster growth-
producing experiences for them. In the programme
context of the study, the nature of challenge and
support in the action context and the socio-
professional context was largely determined by
school teachers while that in the supervisory
context depended on tertiary supervisors, without
any systematic co-ordination between the parties
involved. This missing link needs to be addressed
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
496 S.Y.F. Tang / Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 483–498
so that student teachers are more likely to have
productive learning experiences by making cross
reference of their student teaching experiences with
what they learn in the campus-based component of
the teacher education programme. The boundary
between the socio-professional context and the
supervisory context might need to be unfreezed,
which implies the collaboration between school
teachers and higher education faculty in facilitat-
ing student teachers’ professional learning. It is
important to have school teachers prepared to take
up mentoring responsibilities and schools to be
more ready to involve student teachers in the wider
school life. Preparing tertiary faculty for their
expanding role of setting the tone of the triadic
relationship among student teachers, mentor
teachers and themselves is also important. The
preparation of school teachers and tertiary faculty
would imply fostering a partnership culture at the
pedagogical and interpersonal levels, which prob-
ably needs to be supported by the establishment
of the partnership structure at the institutional
level.
At the institutional level, a move towards more
collaborative forms of institute–school partnership
is desirable. The formal establishment of institute–
school partnership structure sets a platform where
various parties have clearly defined roles and
responsibilities in structuring challenge and sup-
port in the different facets of the student teaching
context. Providing challenge and support to meet
individual student teachers’ learning needs and
closer collaboration between higher education
faculty and school teachers will probably have
resource implications. The unfortunate fact is that
mentoring student teachers is not often valued as
an important activity either in schools and
universities (Clarke, 2001; Tang, 2002; Zeichner,
2002). Perhaps the advocacy of developing good
student teaching placements is more likely to be
realized with teacher education being prioritized as
a major responsibility of higher education institu-
tions and schools and corresponding resources and
reward structures being put into place (Zeichner,
2002). With these institutional issues being gradu-
ally addressed, the prospect of developing good
student teaching placements which foster produc-
tive learning experiences is there.
Acknowledgements
This article is one of the outcomes generated
from the research project ‘‘Teachers’ Professional
Learning: Student Teachers’ Learning to Teach in
the Teaching Practice of an Initial Teacher
Education Programme’’ funded by the Hong
Kong Institute of Education. The author would
like to express her heart-felt gratitude to Professor
John Furlong of Oxford University for his
invaluable advice on the study, as well as Dr.
K.W. Chow of the Hong Kong Institute of
Education for his suggestions on the paper.
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