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Special Interest Groups: National Field Directors Forum
(Note: The National Field Directors Forum is now an Affiliated Unit of the Association of Teacher Educators. Their website is here: http://www.mtsu.edu/~tsbrown/nfdfatewebpg.htm)
Ellie Herman, Chair
The University of Iowa
ellen-herman@uiowa.edu
Purpose:
The National Field Directors Forum (NFDF) is dedicated to developing quality field experiences, student teaching and internships assignments. Membership is comprised of educators who have administrative responsibilities in this area without regard to title, rank or size of program. The Forum provides leadership in the area of professional field experiences.
The Forum has a history for establishing and disseminating "Guidelines for Professional Experiences in Teacher Education," used by the National Council for Accreditation in Teacher Education (NCATE). These guides served as the indicators to assess the quality of field experiences during NCATE accreditation reviews. The recent development of new "National Standards for Field Experiences in Teacher Education" was completed in collaboration with the executive board of ATE. Currently, forum members are working with the ATE Executive Board to disseminate these new standards and identify various ways institutions can meet the twelve standards. Another major project is the development of a Directory of College Field Experience Administrators throughout the nation. This directory provides communication among professionals and facilitates the sharing of information between and among institutions. A newsletter is periodically mailed to members with pertinent items of news. During the ATE Annual meeting, the Forum honors members who have provided exemplary service.
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