Abstract:

The teaching profession is engaged, on a number of fronts, with critical issues including those related to teacher preparation and readiness to teach, teacher attrition, workload, and workforce shortages. Considerable research energy has been invested in understanding what might positively impact each of these areas. However, less attention has been given directly to how the design of professional experience placements (practicum) might make a greater contribution to supporting beginning teachers as they face these issues on joining the profession. Little is known about the consistency of professional experience placements and the relationship to what initial teacher education (ITE) students learn while on placement. Also poorly understood are the ways in which professional placements can contribute to building ITE students’ ability to innovate when confronted with the unexpected, possibly impacting their future resilience, longevity, and progression as professional teachers.

This presentation reports on the second part of a multi-phased study that examines the impact on ITE student learning of professional placements incorporating a purposeful pedagogic design. The various elements of the overall placement design will be explained and justified with supporting data from the first phase of the research. The key focus in this presentation will be the second phase of the research which aimed to examine the learning experiences of ITE students, supervising teachers, and academic mentors in a placement explicitly designed to support collaborative self-development in a shared epistemic space. The research was theoretically framed as a practitioner inquiry to collect and collaboratively analyse data with regular feedback & discussion loops informing the ongoing research and enactment of the placement design. Data was collected across a 4-week placement in comprehensive, public, Sydney metropolitan high schools. Data collected included participant demographic data, observational data of classroom interactions, audio-recorded reflective conversations, student exit slips, and a final ‘conference’ day incorporating various reflection and forward planning activities. Findings point to the importance of establishing a mindset that learning to teach is a collaborative and lifelong enterprise. Specific features that participants reported as making significant contributions to their learning to innovate will also be highlighted. Future phases of this research project will examine the impact of designed-in features of subsequent placements and longitudinally follow these teachers into their early years as professional teachers.

Keywords:

Practicum, professional learning, collaboration, epistemic space.