Student teacher experiences of the teaching practicum in an initial teacher education programme in the Western Cape

Abstract

Student teacher experiences of teaching practicum are crucial in attaining the level of readiness necessary to qualify as competent teachers. Practicum is multifaceted and its effectiveness is determined by several factors – adherence to the norms and standards that govern an acceptable school-based mentorship, student teacher assessment, student teacher assignment to teaching schools – as prescribed under the teaching school-university partnership practicum model. The study design, targeting ten student teachers who completed their teaching school-based practicum after a 4-year B Ed foundation phase programme, explored student teacher experiences of school-based mentorship and assessment. To substantiate the findings, qualitative data were collected through biographical forms, semi-structured interviews, the evaluation of teaching practicum portfolios and the Teaching Practicum Manual for Sessions 1 and 2 as implemented by a selected university offering an ITE programme with practicum mentorship. Content and thematic analysis were used to identify themes, with a series of common themes identified based on empirical, theoretical and policy findings to determine the impact of the existing practicum approach, school-based mentorship model and assessment model on student teacher levels of readiness to teach. The findings to this research work are a true reflection that student teacher experiences of the teaching practicum are determined by the nature of school-based mentorship and its teaching school support and that such experiences are the most significant and influential moments in shaping their development as a teacher. Student teachers established that the assessment of practicum was either conducted inappropriately or the number of visits were inadequate to determine the actual performance of the student teachers, classifying the whole process as full of bias, unreliability and inconsistencies. The study contributes to the ongoing research in programme development and curriculum delivery assessment in relationship to teaching practicum experiences of student teachers in initial teacher education programmes.