Session Information
01 SES 05.5 A, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
When practice teachers set out to teach in the primary school as a part of their educational training, they are confronted with collaborating schools that manage and perform the practicum period very differently. The schools have different approaches as to how their obligations regarding being an educational arena for practice teachers are met. The fact that teacher education takes place in multiple arenas with multiple cultures, can challenge the sense of educational coherence (Elstad, 2010; Hart, 2020; Valencia et al., 2009 in Ulvik, Eide, Helleve og Kvam, 2021). This variation and the fact that mentoring in many cases is taken care of by individual mentors (mentors are primary school in-service teachers, who undertake the responsibility of mentoring the pre-service teachers during practicum) may have an effect on the degree to which the pre-service teachers profit from the practicum (Hvalby & Thortveit, 2022). Other studies have shown that holistic and structured approaches are important factors when it comes to professional development in mentoring pre-service teachers during their practicum (Nesje, K. & Lejonberg, 2022).
The responsibility for educating new teachers is divided between the teacher education and the primary schools. Both institutions have the professional development of the pre-service teachers as a primary responsibility. During practicum the obligation of the schools is creating and facilitating a link between theory and practice. In a Danish context, the importance of connecting theory and practice is stated in a regulation from the Danish Ministry of Education, underpinning that the pre-service teacher must acquire theoretically founded practical skills in preparing, generating, performing and evaluating their lesson plans during their practicum (Bekendtgørelse om uddannelsen til professionsbachelor som lærer i folkeskolen, 2015).
This study aims to gain insights into the approaches to practicum of primary school management and thereby enable a specific understanding of:
- the distribution of responsibility at between the informants
- the specific tasks regarding the practicum
- the process of recruiting qualified coordinators and mentors
- the view on relations between theory and practice
- the view on mentoring skills
- how these factors may (or may not) affect the quality of the practicum.
In a Danish context, a study like this has not previously been undertaken.
The research question is as follows:
How does the school management and the coordinator of the practicum period interpret the obligation of being an educational arena for pre-service teachers?
I expect that the analysis will lead to an increased understanding of the opportunities in a strengthened collaboration between primary schools and teacher education. In 2020, The Danish center for social science research published a large literary review concerning teacher education in an international perspective. One of the finds stresses the need for a longer and better practicum period that is closely integrated with the activities of the teacher education (Foged, Nøhr & Slottved, 2020). The intent of creating a stronger link between the two parts is a main element of a recent political agreement concerning a new Danish teacher education. This agreement emphasizes strengthening the partnership and collaboration between the teacher education, the municipalities and the school principals (Ministry of higher Education and Science, 2022). A Norwegian study (Heggen and Thorsen, 2015) also points to the importance of school engagement in mentoring tasks. They ask to see a more legible culture and a commitment towards being a “practicum school” as an integrated and legitimizing part of the schools’ professional and developmental profile.
Method
The study is a qualitative study consisting of data from 12 semi-structured interviews conducted in 6 different primary schools in Denmark. Each interview was recorded and has a duration of approximately 45-60 minutes. The respondents are the school principal and the coordinator of the practicum in each school. In the early phase of the project, six primary schools were chosen in collaboration with staff from the teacher education. The ambition was to select different schools focusing on the size of the school (small, medium, large) and in urban or rural areas. This selection was made by the manager of the practicum at the teacher education, who is not a part of this study. The qualitative interview (Brinkmann & Tanggaard, 2015) was structured so that the main part of the questions was given to both informants. This would allow a comparative approach to the analysis, which is executed in both a vertical and horizontal scope. The strategy regarding the analysis is a combination of inductive and deductive methods across all empirics (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Patton, 1990). With the themes in the back of mind and based on theory and inductive open coding with subsequent thematization. In the thematic part of the analysis a definition of professional development has been included (Rønnestad, 2008) as well as an understanding of the term reflection (Korthagen & Wubbels, 1995) The approach to the respondents is anti-essentialist and focusses on language and social interaction as constituting for social practice. Inspired by the theory of practice architecture, a part of the interview questions was focused strictly on the actual context. E.g. “Which specific tasks do you have on the day where the school receives pre-service teachers for their practicum period?”. This would allow an insight into the dynamic relations between the sayings concerning individual practices and the cultural-discoursive arrangements in their specific context (Kemmis, S. et al., 2014). This field has great awareness in Denmark at the moment and the long-term ambition is to expand this research and include data from in-service teachers, staff from the teacher education – and of course the pre-service teachers.
Expected Outcomes
The pre-analysis has shown a wide range of interpretations regarding the distribution of responsibility concerning the practicum. Hence, one large theme is the arbitrariness that characterizes the collaboration between the school principal and the practicum coordinator. Furthermore, the analysis shows a deficiency of educated mentors. Especially, the coordinators articulate the need of professional learning and development for their colleagues. More specifically, the coordinators request easier access to ensure an ongoing development within the field of mentoring and supervising the pre-service teachers during their practicum. The data points in two directions regarding the teacher’s ability to sufficiently provide mentoring. While simultaneously being the primary teacher of the students in the practicum class, the teacher is also mentoring. The double role is demanding and requires great overview – an overview that some respondents are confident that their colleagues master. Others state an obvious need for education so that the teachers/mentors are able to meet the complexity of mentoring and supporting the growth and professional learning for the pre-service teachers. Multiple reviews emphasize the importance of mentors being educated in order to provide qualified supervision to the mentees. (Böwadt, 2021, Hobson et al., 2009; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011 Shockley et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2008) Considering the Danish political agreement concerning a new teacher education (Ministry of higher Education and Science, 2022), the ambition to focus greatly on the link between theory and practice – and between practicum and education – a conclusion might point towards prioritizing 2nd order (ongoing) professional learning for in-service teachers in primary schools, so that teachers will be more qualified to undertake the mentoring and thereby improving the professional learning of the pre-service teachers. This especially involves the mentor’s ability to create sustainable links between theory and practice.
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. Böwadt, Pia Rose (2021): En mere praksisnær læreruddannelse? Udkast til en forskningsoversigt. Foged, S. K., Nøhr, K., Slottved, M. (2020) Læreruddannelsen i et internationalt perspektiv – En litteraturkortlægning. VIVE – Det nationale forsknings- og analysecenter for velfærd. Heggen, K. & Thorsen, K. E. (2015). Praksisopplæring - et felles projekt mellom høgskole og praksisskole? Nordisk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(1). Hvalby, M. & Thorveit, J. (2022) “Det er en fremmed tanke å skulle ha studentene for seg selv” - om veilederteam i lærerutdanningenes praksisstudium. Nordisk tidsskrift i vejledningspædagogik. Ingersoll, R. M., & Strong, M. (2011). The Impact of Induction and Mentoring Programs for Beginning Teachers: A Critical Review of the Research. Review of Educational Research, 81(2). Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer. Korthagen, F. A. J., & Wubbels, T. (1995). Characteristics of Reflective Practitioners: towards an operationalization of the concept of reflection. Teachers and Teaching Nesje, K. & Lejonberg, E. Tools for the school-based mentoring of pre-service teachers: A scoping review in Teaching and Teacher Education 111 (2022). Elsevier. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2.ed.). Sage. Rønnestad, M. H. (2008). Profesjonell utvikling. In A. Molander & L. I. Terum (Eds.), Profesjonsstudier (pp. 279–292). Universitetforlaget. Shockley, R., Watlington, E., & Felsher, R. (2013). Out on a Limb: The Efficacy of Teacher Induction in Secondary Schools. NASSP Bulletin, 97(4). Brinkmann, S. & Tanggaard, L. (Eds.)(2015), Kvalitative metoder: en grundbog (2nd ed.). Hans Reitzel. Ulvik, M., Eide, L., Helleve, I. & Kvam, EK. (2021): Praksisopplæringens oppfattede og erfarte formål sett fra ulike aktørperspektiv. Nordisk tidsskrift for utdanning og praksis, Vol. 15, No. 3. Wang, J., Odell, S. J., & Schwille, S. A. (2008). Effects of Teacher Induction on Beginning Teachers’ Teaching: A Critical Review of the Literature. Journal of Teacher Education. Web: Bekendtgørelse om uddannelsen til professionsbachelor som lærer i folkeskolen (2015): https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/lta/2015/1068 Ministry of higher Education and Science: https://ufm.dk/lovstof/politiske-aftaler/aftale-om-reform-af-laereruddannelsen-13-september-2022.pdf
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