Supervising Preservice Teachers (Online Course) - What role do I play in the professional experience?

Key Question - What role do I play in the professional experience?

Who is involved in the professional experience placement? (5 min)

Consider the main partners and their perspectives of professional experience placements.

The diagram below displays the complex nature of relationships within a given professional experience placement. You can click on each section of the diagram to read more about the roles and involvement of each segment.

Diagram 1: Interactions across the professional experience placement

Initial Teacher Education Program (University) - Values a consistent and high quality placement experience for all their students, with fair and consistent judgements made of their students.

School - Values the learning opportunities a professional placement offers both the preservice and supervising teachers, but is mindful of any interruption to student learning and/or school operations.

Preservice Teacher - Values a positive and whole-school placement experience, with high quality support to help them develop their practice.

Supervising Teacher - Values a well-prepared and committed preservice teacher who communicates well, is open to feedback and willing to implement suggestions made.

Why should I take on a preservice teacher? (5 min)

As a mentor/supervisor teacher within a community of practice it is important to develop an understanding of your motivations and potential challenges. This will, in turn, help you to develop an understanding of your role in this process.

The Mentoring Profile Inventory provides timely and free feedback across eleven dimensions about how you conceive of and carry out your work as mentor/supervisor with a preservice teacher. The inventory takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Comment on the specific reasons as to why you would, or anyone should, take on a preservice teacher. Refer to the role you believe supervising teachers ought to play in the development of preservice teachers.

Ensuring an effective placement experience (15 min)

Effective partnerships between universities and schools that support successful professional experience programs for preservice teachers rely on positive communication systems, mutual understandings and a focus on learning and collaboration between all stakeholders. This requires:

Passionate committed academics that demonstrate an understanding of schools, teachers and preservice teachers, supported by administration staff and university leadership (Kiggins & Cambourne, 2007).

Meaningful and respectful relationships between university academics, school leaders, teachers and staff (Le Cornu, 2010).

An understanding of the policies, roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders pertinent for situational contexts (Orland-Barak & Hasin, 2010).

Effective communication between all stakeholders (Le Cornu, 2010, 2012).

Shared experiences between all stakeholders with a focus on learning within a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

In school coordinators and volunteer mentor/supervisor teachers committed to preservice teachers, the teaching profession and professional development (Clarke et al, 2012; Yip 2003).

A view of collaborative practice that views the preservice teacher as a colleague-in-training (Jaipal, 2009).

Infrastructure and funds to support effective partnerships.

In this section, you will be presented with a range of perspectives regarding the professional experience placement. Specifically, you will see comments from the range of stakeholders involved in a given placement, be it the supervising teachers, preservice teachers or the initial teacher education provider/university.

Once you have read the comment, you will be asked to reflect on those aspects of the experience that were truly valued. Your role of course, when working with the preservice teacher, is to try and provide professional experiences that will support their development and give them opportunities to enhance their own capacity.

Once you have considered these perspectives, you will have the opportunity to share your thoughts about the challenges associated with realising these kinds of professional experiences in reality.