Models of preservice teacher education that include year-long internships require classroom teachers who serve as school-based teacher educators to "bear a large burden for beginning teacher growth" (Bullough Jr., R.&Draper, R., 2004, p. 409). The success of field-based internships rests on cooperating teachers' ability to view teacher candidates as learners of teaching and themselves as teachers of teaching. This means that preservice mentors not only understand the content to be taught--the learning to teach "curriculum"--but also are able to design learning opportunities based on knowledge of their intern and what she needs to learn (Feiman-Nemser&Remillard, 1996; Tomlinson, 1995). A core component of that curriculum of learning to teach is instructional planning. Considered a core task in "the work of teaching" (Ball&Forzani, 2009, p. 497), planning is often identified in university teacher preparation standards, state teacher certification standards, and more general standards for professional practice such as those developed by The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). While most teacher candidates receive some university support in learning to plan, much of their learning occurs during student teaching or internships where novices plan particular content for a particular group of students under the guidance of an experienced classroom teacher who has practical knowledge of the context, curriculum and learners. Oftentimes, however, mentor teachers do not view themselves as teachers of planning or understand what teaching planning entails. Thus being a strong teacher of children does not automatically translate into the necessary skills needed to carry out the role of school-based teacher educator (Feiman-Nemser, 1998; Koerner, 1992).
