THE ROLE OF PRACTICUM FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION: THE PERSPECTIVES OF STUDENT TEACHERS

In the last decade with the reforms required by the Bologna process the role of practicum in pre-service teacher education has been emphasized, making it a central component of European curricula. It has been observed over the years that this dimension has been mainly approached in terms of organization and supervision processes, and cannot be found many studies that focus effectively on what it represents for the actors and it contributions for professional development.

This study aims to understand the practicum at pre-service early childhood teacher education.
The objectives of the study are:
(i) to identify the role of the practicum for professional learning and development of early childhood teachers;
(ii) to know the difficulties and critical factors experienced by student teachers at practicum.

The methodology used is the mix-method research and data was collected through online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The participants are early childhood teachers that have graduated in the last three years from different Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. The qualitative data was analyzed through content analyze with the use of NVIVO 11 and SPSS 22 was used to analyze the quantitative data. To ensure confidentiality no information is disclosed without participant’s consent and the interviews were transcribed and sent to the participants for a final revision. The results confirm the centrality of practicum for early childhood teachers’ professional development. The construction of professional knowledge emerges as one of the main contribution of practicum. Another contribution is the student teachers’ awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of theoretical and practical knowledge. The data also show that the relationships with the educational context and with the different practicum actors (supervisors, cooperating teachers) has a supportive role for student teachers’ success. The study point out several difficulties experienced by the student teachers, namely: lack of time to respond to all the academic tasks; the interconnection theory practice; the development of reflection and research skills.