“It’s worth it”¹ practitioner research as a tool of professional learning: starting points, conclusions and benefits from the perspective of teacher-students

ABSTRACT

The current study focuses on the concept PPS-PR (Personalized Professionalization in Pedagogical Fields through Practitioner Research), an approach that integrates practitioner research projects during internships. A central aim is to encourage teacher students´ professional learning (Bachelor of Primary Education). 312 Austrian teacher students carried out practitioner research projects and were invited to participate in an online survey at the end of the semester. The results show that the majority of respondents choose research topics predominantly related to the fields of methodical competences (e.g. classroom management strategies) and report consistent conclusions and long term benefits. The findings indicate that professional learning of teacher students can be supported by the PPS-PR concept. Therefore, practitioner research can be seen as a tool for developing competences that are stable and can furthermore be transferred to other situational contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Research based learning
• teacher education
• school internship

Acknowledgments

We thank our research team (Sabine Reissner, Gerda Kernbichler & Clara Obrecht), who provided expertise that greatly assisted the research. We would also like to thank the advisors for their engagement in developing the PPR-PS concept.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Response of teacher student; 3rd semester; Online Questionnaire No 1.

2. In Austria, primary school teachers teach all subjects.