Following a major shift in Swiss teacher education in the 1990s, teachers are now educated at the university level with a more research-oriented focus than before the reform. Furthermore, the curriculum in teacher education is not only more academically oriented, but also concurrently practice-focused. Swiss student teachers are highly involved in the clinical practical component from the outset. This approach provides more learning opportunities that help to strengthen the relationship between theory and practice. Prior to the reform, reflection on teaching was mainly incorporated into practical training. However, since the reform, reflection has been strongly embedded in the entire curriculum in order to support student teachers' reflective competence. The aim of this article is to discuss how students can be supported in developing a reflective attitude and a research-oriented stance, which have traditionally been seen as core elements of professional development. Three learning settings are presented, ranging from a more traditional approach to conducting research, to a current video-based training programme. Finally, consequences for teacher education are discussed.
Internationalisation of the higher education system continues to have a strong impact on national education policies. From an international perspective, learning to teach in globally competent and culturally responsive ways is a core element of teacher education. For this purpose, academically and practice-oriented student teacher exchange programmes have been established. It is often taken for granted that corresponding internships abroad offer positive learning experiences, but research shows that these expectations are frequently not met. This paper; therefore, investigates if and how learning takes place in multi-week international internships, what shapes, enables, limits or obstructs this learning. The investigation is based on a qualitative-hermeneutic approach with data collected from group discussions and analysed according to the documentary method. The analyses led to two ‘ideal types’: the first is based on learning from contrasts and includes sub-types in which the student teachers’ perceptions and interpretations are differentiated or distanced to a greater or lesser extent. The second ideal type, in which learning takes place through challenges, is also divided into sub-types which differ in the degree of self-efficacy experienced by the students. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how pre-service teachers can be supported so that the learning potential of their internships can be exploited more fully.
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