Student teachers reflect: Real world perspectives on a learner-centered model of teacher preparation.

Using the idea of learner-centered experiences, we have been examining the learner-centered model of teacher preparation (Raiber et al., in press) in which students gain teaching skills and reflective practice through means of both peer and public school teaching using the plan / teach / archive / reflect procedure for each structured teaching episode. The longitudinal study at Texas Tech University evaluating the effectiveness of teacher preparation using the learner-centered model is an ongoing process of data collection and subsequent evaluation. Prior research has indicated that students value these procedures highly, and almost uniformly believe that they personally improve in the areas of confidence, teaching, leadership, planning, use of time and clarity of directions (Killian, Dye, & Buckner, 2008). More recently, student reactions to the beginning of their experiences compared with reactions to their student teaching experiences revealed that student teachers rated