Session Information
10 SES 09 B, Research on Programmes and Pedagogical Approaches in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The paper will report on research-in-progress that examines practicum in teacher education internationally. Practicum is a contested part of teacher education programmes with different stakeholders wanting to steer the form and content of it.
The present study is focusing on student teacher experiences of practicum. What is the meaning of that experience to student teachers? What are the stories about (school based) teacher education that are constituted during the practicum? What are the encounters narrated by student teachers, and what are the meanings they hold for the student teachers? The focus is on lived experience and which parts of those lived experiences are chosen by student teachers to tell as a part of the narrative about teacher education practicum.
This paper discusses the responses of Swedish and Australian student teachers within a specific pedagogical context. It examines authentic situations through student teachers’ own accounts of the learning processes. These accounts emerge as part of the student teachers’ study programme where they respond to three questions related to their practicum as part of a course assignment. They reflect on, share and make sense of a memorable (or critical) moment during their practicum.
Knowledge construction is seen as a process in the individual mind in the sense that it entails interaction between previous knowledge and convictions and new ideas, theories, experiences and actions (Kroll & LaBoskey, 1996). Knowledge development is also a social practice related to individual as well as group beliefs, emotions, attitudes and identities. Knowledge development strongly depends on the quality of the interaction with others and on the tools provided by others, for its course and outcomes. Mere participation in social practices as such does not necessarily lead to knowledge development (e.g. Guile & Young, 2003).
Knowledge development is a process of transformation expressed in the growth of understanding and abilities, and changes in identity. In the case of teaching it is often suggested that the knowledge is tacit, not well articulated and very individual and private. This then begs the question ‘how are the student teachers to grasp and make use of existing private, individual and poorly articulated (tacit) knowledge in order to construct their own? Furthermore we understand knowledge as situated, specific to a particular situation and context.
Through their educational history, or their extended apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975), student teachers have developed views of teaching that inform their pre-understandings of and affect their expectations related to teacher education. As Loughran (2006, p. 91, 105) notes, the purpose of teaching for many student teachers in the beginning of their studies is primarily the delivery of content – a mere technical-rational approach which fails to address the requirements of a teaching that will encourage learning for understanding. Also they are not aware of the ‘invisible’ parts of the teacher’s work, namely thinking and planning. In order to help the student teachers to broaden their view of teaching and prepare them for their profession, teacher education programmes need to address the particular concerns and needs that the students have.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Clandinin, D. J. (2007). Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kemmis S., Smith T. J. (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education. Rotterdam: SensePublishers. Kincheloe, J. (2004). The Knowledges of Teacher Education: Developing a Critical Complex Epistemology. Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter, 2004, 49-66. Loughran, J. (2006). Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education. Understanding teaching and learning about teaching. Oxon, UK: Routledge. Männikkö-Barbutiu, S., Rorrison, D., with Zeng, L. (2011 pending). Memorable Encounters: Learning Narratives From Preservice Teachers´ Practicum in Sweden, Australia, China In M. Mattsson, T. V. Eilertsen & D. Rorrison (Eds.), A Practicum Turn in Teacher Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishing. Mattsson, M., Eilertsen, T. V., & Rorrison, D. (2011 pending). A Practicum Turn in Teacher Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishing. Rorrison, D. (2008). Jumping Through Spinning Hoops. Stories of the middle school and secondary practicum. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia. Nilsson, P. (2008). Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn — Primary science student teachers´ complex journey from learners to teachers. Dissertation. Linköping Studies in Science and Technology Education No 19. Rorrison, D. (2010). Assessing the Practicum in Teacher Education. Advocating for the student teacher and questioning the gate keepers. Educational Studies, 36(5), 505. Rönnerman, K., Furu, E.M., & Salo, P. (Eds), Nurturing Praxis: Action Research in Partnerships Between School and University in a Nordic Light. Rotterdam: SensePublishers. van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Cobourg, ON: Althouse Press.
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