What Happens in the Practicum: The Contribution of School-Based Practitioners to Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Student teachers spend a high proportion of their time in schools as part of their preservice training. Concern has been expressed about moves to increase this time, because it appears that much of what occurs in the schools more closely resembles a teacher training model than one of teacher education. This study sought to investigate whether school-based mentors who had been trained in principles of teacher education more closely resembled teacher educators in the activities undertaken and the interactions they had with their student teachers than did their untrained counterparts. Measures were developed to distinguish teacher education activities from those of teacher training. Three of the four mentors who participated in the study defined their roles in ways more consistent with teacher education than did their untrained counterparts and scored more highly on the measures developed for the study. Implications for teacher education are discussed. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/SM)