The Practicum in Teacher Training: A preliminary and qualitative assessment of the improved National Institute of Education-School Partnership Model in Singapore

Abstract

In light of the recognition of the limitations that training institutes and teacher educators have in providing sound practical experience to trainee teachers, the National Institute of Education (NIE) in 1999 embarked on an improved Partnership Model with schools playing a greater role in this cooperation. This model was implemented with the Post Graduate Diploma in Education programme. This paper describes the rationale and context within which the new model was proposed and implemented. It also provides a qualitative and preliminary assessment of the extent to which the objectives of the new model have or are being met, what problems were encountered and how these were resolved, through feedback obtained from principals, School Coordinating Mentors, the NIE Supervision Coordinators and trainee teachers.

Assessing the Performance in EFL Teaching Practicum: Student Teachers’ Views

“…As a support to the findings of this study, teacher trainees in Singapore indicated that although lesson planning was a very time consuming and stressful task, writing detailed lesson plans assisted them to reflect on their teaching strategies and classroom procedures in a more organized manner (Wong & Chuan, 2002). Moreover, peer teacher evaluation is considered as a subordinate assessment measure of performance by the student teachers in this study.…”

Cooperating Teachers as School Based Teacher Educators : Student Teachers' Expectations

“…Given the finding of the study carried out by Wong and Goh (2002) a concern that surfaced about cooperating teachers was the level of competencies with which the CTs mentored and assessed the student teachers. Professional Development training to upgrade the mentoring skills was recommended.…”

“…In 1999 the NIE-School Partnership model was developed. The concept of partnership in this model, as explained by Wong & Goh (2002) "rests upon the understanding of the complementary strength of NIE (the provider of theoretical knowledge) and the schools (the provider of practical knowledge) and how these can be fruitfully joined for the benefit of the trainee teachers." (p.200) The role of NIE in this model was to provide student teachers with theoretical knowledge and principles underpinning practices.…”

Piloting Teacher Education Practicum Partnerships: Teaching Alliances for Professional Practice (TAPP)

“…Korthagen, Loughran and Russell (2006) express concern that "contradictions persist between theory and practice within teacher education institutions and, in many respects, little progress has been made through several generations of rhetoric about teacher education reform" (p. 1036). Wong and Chuan (2002) suggest this may be because tenured academics in higher education, metaphorically at least, look down on both the status and knowledge of their school colleagues. However, a more useful explanation might be a mutual lack of understanding as the longer term research focus of academics comes up hard against the immediate daily classroom responses required of teachers, particularly where the academic has no "chalkface" experience (Grundy, Robison, & Tomazos, 2001).…”

“…Although not proposing a model, Thomson (2000) advocated the concept of teaching as a practice to break the binary relationship and draw more equally on the strengths of both universities and schools. Wong and Chuan (2002) report a National Institute of Education in Singapore Practicum Partnership Model initiative wherein schools were allocated a broader role in teacher education, induction, and mentoring. Brady (2002) reported cases of university staff collaborating with primary teachers in developing pre-service teaching curriculum, alteration of course structure in response to partnerships, and initiation of joint research between academics and teachers.…”