Field Experiences

Many teacher education courses have a field experience component. These experiences are designed to provide the student with the opportunity to observe, develop and practice the skills and knowledge associated with the courses. The Director of College of Education Student Advising and Field Experiences arranges all field experiences. Students are not allowed to contact school personnel in an effort to arrange their own placements.

It is the responsibility of the student to inquire as to whether a course has a field placement during advising.

Policies and Procedures

Field experiences are essential to many courses offered in the College of Education (COE) at Columbus State University (CSU). All field placements for students in the COE should be arranged through the Office of College of Education Student Advising and Field Experiences. This will allow the College of Education to do the following:

1. provide each student with a diverse range of appropriate field placements in his/her selected field,
2. maintain accurate field placement records for each student, and
3. verify diversity of student placements for accrediting agencies.

All field placements will be arranged with schools that have a Partner Schools agreement with CSU. These are schools in the Muscogee County School District, the Harris County School District, and the Fort Benning Dependent Schools. Individual requests for placements will be considered only for inductory courses. Students should not expect to be placed in schools where family members attend or are employed, where they have worked or attended or where there is some other personal connection.

Students are representatives of the College of Education at Columbus State University. There is, therefore, a responsibility to maintain professional behavior through attitudes, action and appearance while in the field setting. The cooperating teacher and the university supervisor will evaluate professional behavior and teaching skills each semester. These evaluation sheets will be kept on file for each student.

Students may be exposed to confidential information while in the lab setting. Confidential information should be treated as such. Discussion of the field experience should occur only at appropriate times within the university setting. Information should always be presented in a professional manner and should provide anonymity for the cooperating teacher, P-12 student and the placement site.

While placed in a school, students should provide identification and sign in and out through the school office at each visit. This will assist in the verification of attendance and number of hours completed by each student. Each student is advised to maintain an attendance log for his or her own personal records. and to be submitted to the course instructor.

It is the responsibility of the student to make all travel arrangements to and from the field experience site and to schedule adequate time to complete the field experience assignment.

Questions and concerns regarding placements should be directed to the SAFE Office in Jordan Hall, Room 107.