Sharing initial teacher education between school and university: participants’ perceptions of their roles and learning

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how student teachers, mentor teachers and university tutors who participate in collaborative settings for joint reflection on practical teaching situations during students’ practicum perceive their roles and opportunities for learning in these settings. We are also interested in how the participants experience this kind of collaboration between schools and university in the context of initial teacher education. To this end, we created and analysed three settings for joint reflection among mentor teachers, university tutors and students. Twenty-seven students teachers in three schools as part of their Primary Education degree took part, along with their respective mentor teachers and university tutors. All the discussion sessions were videotaped and the participants were interviewed in-depth about their experience. Content analysis of the resulting material enabled us to describe the dynamics of interaction in each setting, the perceived role of mentor teachers and university tutors, and the participants’ perceptions regarding the learning achieved. We conclude that, for the participants, the creation of these settings for joint reflection enabled mutual learning and closer collaboration between schools and university, bringing greater coherence to practicum.

KEYWORDS:

• Practicum
• school-university collaboration
• mentors roles
• expansive communities of practice
• joint reflection settings

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the "Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca – Agency for Management of University and Research Grants" (AGAUR) under Grant 2014 ARMIF 00052.

Notes on contributors

Teresa Mauri

Teresa Mauri (PhD in Psychology) is a teacher and Professor at the University of Barcelona. Her current research focuses on two major areas: first, the study of the formation and development of teachers' practical knowledge, based on the analysis of the collaborative reflection between teachers in professional contexts and between tutors and teacher students in the practicum period; second, evaluation and formative feedback in Higher Education. She coordinates the line of research named "Joint activity, knowledge and learning in professional communities" of the Interuniversity Doctoral Program on Educational Psychology (DIPE).

Javier Onrubia

Javier Onrubia (PhD in Psychology) is a Tenured Lecturer at the University of Barcelona. HIs research has focused on studying processes of educational assistance, from a sociocultural perspective. In recent years, he has studied these processes in three particular kinds of situations: student teachers' joint reflection on teaching practice, computer-supported  collaborative learning and collaborative school consultation.

Rosa Colomina

Rosa Colomina (PhD in Psychology) is a Tenured Lecturer at the University of Barcelona. She has studied the mechanisms of educational assistance in adult-children interactional situations in family contexts and between teacher and students in formal teaching and learning situations. Currently, her research focuses on the study of reflection processes on practice situations for the improvement of teacher training.

Marc Clarà

Marc Clarà (PhD in Psychology) is a Serra Hunter Fellow at the University of Lleida. His research interests include teachers' reflection, teachers' emotion and decision-making, and dialogic educational interaction, especially collective inquiry.