Cohort Use in Teacher Education: Benefits, Barriers, and Proposed Solutions.

To date, most of the literature on the use of cohort groups in teacher education has focused on the benefits and limitations of the use of cohorts within teacher education programs. This study extends this knowledge base by exploring the sources of these underlying tensions by soliciting qualitative reflections of faculty. The purposes of this article are threefold: one, to describe student and instructor perspectives about the benefits and challenges of the cohort system; two, to gain insight into the challenges of cohort implementation; and, three, to identify possible solutions and discuss the implications of using cohort groups for teacher education programs. (Contains 2 tables.)