Teachers' experiences of mentoring on a flexible initial teacher education programme: implications for partnership development

Pitfield, Maggie; Morrison, Liz

doi:10.1080/02607470802587095

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This is borne out in other research on teacher and student teacher learning (Britzman 2003). Recent research acknowledges how specific contexts can enhance learning by developing the mentor's role and encouraging a broader approach to student teacher learning (Lock et al 2009), and by exploring how a flexible route into teaching on the PGCE course encourages mentors to view student teacher learning more holistically (Pitfield and Morrison 2009). The present article highlights how different types of learning opportunities are available in school subject departments for student teachers even when they are working in the same school and within the same PGCE partnership scheme.…”

Section: Student Teacher Learningmentioning

confidence: 98%

The different learning opportunities afforded student teachers in four secondary school subject departments in an initial teacher education school–university partnership in England

Douglas

2011

Journal of Education for Teaching

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To cite this article: Alaster Scott Douglas (2011) The different learning opportunities afforded student teachers in four secondary school subject departments in an initial teacher education school-university partnership in England, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 37:1, 93-106To link to this article: http://dx.This article investigates the learning opportunities in school subject departments for student teachers when participating in a postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE) course in England. The paper draws upon data gathered from a year-long ethnographic study to explain why learning opportunities were different for student teachers in separate school departments. Discussion focuses on three identified types of learning (learning by imitation, enculturation and innovation) and analyses how initial teacher education (ITE) resources were used within the school departments in order to work on student teacher learning. The paper concludes by highlighting some pertinent issues for ITE, and the implications of these for designing ITE programmes in the future. IntroductionIn England there are more possible entry options into teaching than any other country (House of Commons Report 2010). The PGCE course, featured in the research on which this article is based, is the most popular entry route with 59% of trainees in 2007-2008 (DCSF 2008. Its overall structure has most recently been centrally imposed on higher education institutions (HEIs) by New Labour government policy, and consequently it may appear to encourage a consistent approach to ITE. However, this apparent consistency belies the contested purpose of ITE work. The variety of possibilities for student teacher learning in the PGCE is shown in the research findings described in this article. These illustrate how mentors' and teachers' opinions on how they see their roles with regard to ITE may be influenced by and depend upon the relationships they have within their school and with higher education in ITE partnerships. The development of ITE partnershipsCircular 3/84 (DES 1984) prescribed requirements to establish a national model of ITE in England and Wales. Professional literature on ITE at that time was characterised by the dominance of the 'collaborative model' (Furlong et al. 1996, 48) and a number of PGCE courses including those at Sussex University (1965) and Leicester University (1980) had already established strong links with schools, as well as the Oxford Internship Scheme (1987), which was considered to be supporting the central *Email: alaster.douglas@roehampton.ac.uk Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 21:13 03 November 2014 94 A.S. Douglasideas of school-based education. Policy-makers' approval showed little appreciation of the pedagogical principles or resources needed to sustain such school-based schemes (Judge et al. 1994) but in 1992 imposed a partnership model of ITE across the country into very different situations than those where the models had been developed (DfE 1992). As a conseq...

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Section: Student Teacher Learningmentioning

confidence: 98%

The different learning opportunities afforded student teachers in four secondary school subject departments in an initial teacher education school–university partnership in England

Douglas

2011

Journal of Education for Teaching

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“…This partnership might act as an impetus for a greater involvement of secondary schools in the teacher education (Pitfield and Morrison, 2009). When a partnership is in place, it would lead to creation of safer professional spaces, which would facilitate growth of reflexivity among trainee teachers, school staff and teacher educators (Zeichner, 2010).…”

Section: New Possibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Korthagen, et al, 2006;Bates, 2008;Pitfield and Morrison, 2009;Du Plessis, Marais, Van Schalkwyk, and Weeks, 2010;Ssentamu-Namubiru, 2010;Zeichner, 2010). Teaching practicum is also considered as one of the most critical components of teacher preparation with the greatest impact on teacher quality (Zeichner, 2010;Graham, 2006;Tang, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Trainee teachers’ experiences of teaching practicum: Issues, challenges, and new possibilities

Mtika

2011

Africa Education Review

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This paper focuses on a qualitative case study concerned with teaching practicum as a pivotal component of teacher education in Malawi. It addresses some of the issues and concerns associated with workload, ill-defined mentoring support, and implementation of certain pedagogical orientations during teaching practicum placement. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that trainee teachers undergo varied and often challenging experiences during teaching practicum. To counter some of the concerns, suggestions are made to improve certain aspects of teaching practicum. There is need for authentic school -college partnerships, improved structures of school-based professional support, and a deeper awareness of the complexity of learner-centred pedagogy. It is imperative that teacher educators engage with these findings to further improve the design of teaching practicum and the overall quality of teacher education and teaching in Malawi.

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“…Teachers are often practicum assessors in other contexts (Borko & Mayfield, 1995;Pitfield & Morrison, 2009). However, in HK, assessors are almost exclusively teacher educators, probably because teaching was not a graduate profession until the late 1990s.…”

Section: Course Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Literacy-oriented pedagogy in the advice of experienced language teachers as prospective practicum assessors

Walker

2012

Pedagogies: An International Journal

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This study reports the impact of a professional development course on experienced, highly qualified secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language in preparation for their becoming paid assessors of student teachers on practicum. The course concerned a literacy-oriented pedagogy informed by literacy pedagogical content knowledge (LPCK). The course view of LPCK was contested disciplinary change from traditional sentence-based pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) about language to a genre-based view of both language learning and intellectual development as literacy development. The course providers were teacher educators committed to the new pedagogy because of its perceived relevance to social justice, that is, equal opportunity for students' development of academic English for tertiary English-medium study necessitated largely by the globalization of education. The course outcomes, in the form of the participants' spoken feedback to student teachers on practicum about 4 months after the course, were examined for evidence of teachers' course-compatible LPCK. The feedback was found to exhibit rather minimal evidence of the LPCK introduced in the course. Significantly, these findings were in contrast to those of Love's working with first language novice teachers. Personal, pedagogical and contextual reasons are proposed for the difficulties arising when experienced language teachers are faced with new roles and pedagogical orientation.

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Teachers' experiences of mentoring on a flexible initial teacher education programme: implications for partnership development

Cited by 13 publications

References 16 publications

The different learning opportunities afforded student teachers in four secondary school subject departments in an initial teacher education school–university partnership in England

The different learning opportunities afforded student teachers in four secondary school subject departments in an initial teacher education school–university partnership in England

Trainee teachers’ experiences of teaching practicum: Issues, challenges, and new possibilities

Literacy-oriented pedagogy in the advice of experienced language teachers as prospective practicum assessors

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