From pedagogy to practice: Mentoring and reciprocal peer coaching for preservice teachers

To facilitate early acquisition of effective teaching strategies, many deaf education teacher preparation programs provide students with opportunities to apply course concepts by working with children in practicum or field experiences. Providing students with guidance and feedback regarding their teaching efforts is an integral component of these practica. Reciprocal peer coaching provides an effective means of sharing feed-back when also paired with faculty mentoring of students. Program success is dependent upon the establishment of collegiality, teaching objectives/competencies, and critical evaluation of teaching methodology. This article describes a reciprocal peer coaching/mentoring program currently employed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio listening and spoken language teacher preparation program.