Reducing practice-shock: First-year student teachers' experiences of a campus-based teaching practice model

Abstract

Most initial teacher education programmes include a compulsory teaching practice module and there are various models that could be used for first-year students' teaching practice. In South Africa, the Minimum Requirements for Teachers Education Qualification document provides guidelines for teaching practice in initial teacher education programmes, but it does not include specific implementation guidelines. To address this gap, a campus-based teaching practice model to prepare and support first-year students was implemented at a South African university. In this article, I explore first-year students' experiences of this model. I used a mixed methods research design to address this aim. I found, according to their claims, that 89% of participants had benefitted from this model since it provided them with critical insight into what it means to be a teacher. The results of this research could benefit teacher educators and initial teacher education institutions in other places.

“Surviving and Thriving”: An Autoethnography of a Black Afro-Caribbean Early Career Teacher in a Northern Ontario First Nation Community

“…Some behaviours take much more time to be learned (i.e., learning to be resilient and vulnerable) than a two-year teacher-preparation program allows. However, increasing research (Caires et al, 2009;Delemarter, 2015;Moosa, 2019;Stokking et al, 2003) on specific efforts to reduce practice shock has demonstrated increased ECT retention. Our recommendation for teacher preparation programs is to provide teacher candidates with awareness: implicit discussions on the realities of teaching that will alleviate practice shock, and to intentionally include discussions on extraneous contexts, such as an FN school community and potential situations for BIPOC teachers.…”

The use of online discussion board and blogs to enhance History student teachers' Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

“…WIL is an indispensable part of teacher education which is compulsory and serves as a means of assisting student teachers to experience the classroom practice and atmosphere before starting their careers (Moosa, 2019). Through teaching practice, student teachers are afforded an opportunity to practice what they learnt theoretically during lectures in an authentic classroom context.…”

“…Thus, WIL and teaching practice are usually used interchangeably with concepts such as practicum or teaching experience. Furthermore, the student teachers are also afforded an opportunity to learn from observing their mentor teachers and intervening in and influencing the classroom activities as a whole (Milne, 2006;Moosa, 2019). Thus, the Department of Higher Education set teaching practice as compulsory for all student teachers, with the duration ranging from 20 weeks for BEd and 10 weeks for PGCE students under the supervision of experienced mentor teachers (Du Plessis, 2010;Dreyer, 2015, in Taole, 2015.…”

“…There has not been agreement and any similarity in how student teachers should do their WIL or interact with their mentors. Different universities design their own rules and guidelines of how student teachers should do WIL and be mentored (Moosa, 2019). This dissimilarity prompted the university in question to introduce the debriefing -a face-toface group reflection -to deal with any challenges the student teachers might experience during WIL.…”

Teaching Practicum Assessment Procedures Adopted by Primary Teachers’ Colleges during COVID-19 pandemic era in Zimbabwe

“…The Teaching Practicum (TP) component of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes was significantly disrupted, as the national lockdown period coincided with the time that many ITE students were engaged withTP in schools. In education, the term 'teaching practicum' is used interchangeably with concepts such as workintegrated learning (WIL), teaching practice, teaching experience, professional training or school-based training (Moosa, 2019). The school-based component of teacher training programmes in Zimbabwe is referred to as the Teaching Practice.…”