Abstract
This paper details the perspectives of teacher candidates who participated in a paired practicum peer mentorship program. A total of 227 dyads of novice first year and mentor second or third year concurrent education students took part in a program that was developed with the intent of providing scaffolding through opportunities to engage in reciprocal learning. Of the 454 potential study participants, 166 elected to complete anonymous electronic post-program surveys documenting their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of this field experience model. Findings indicated that the majority perceived the practicum peer mentorship program to provide increased support through reciprocal learning and collegial collaboration, which enhanced their confidence and professional growth. Challenges included adjusting to the paradigm shift of paired practicum experiences, which necessitates deviating from perceptions of teaching as independent practice and developing contextual supports in collaboration with school board partners. The findings and implications may provide direction for teacher educators seeking to implement paired practicum experiences in attempts to scaffold candidates’ growth and promote their enculturation into collaborative communities of professional practice.
Highlights
Becoming a teacher is a complex journey that is fraught with the complexities of concurrently developing knowledge for practice, which is empirically evidenced, and knowledge of practice derived from experience in the classroom context (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999)
While the value of field experiences is well established, a persistent problem in teacher education is providing support as candidates endeavour to make sense of the knowledge of practice derived through their practicum placements, by relating it to the theoretical knowledge developed through coursework (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Falkenberg & Smits, 2010; Long & Steward, 2004; Loughran, 2006; Mueller & Skamp, 2003)
Research has documented that paired practicum experiences can increase support for teacher candidates (Bullough, Young, Birrel, Clark, Egan, Erickson, Frankovich, Brunetti, & Welling, 2003; Bullough, Young, Erickson, Birrell, Clark, & Egan, 2002; Gardiner & Robinson, 2009; Goodnough, Osmond, Dibbon, Glassman, & Stevens, 2009; Walsh & Elmslie, 2005)
Summary
Becoming a teacher is a complex journey that is fraught with the complexities of concurrently developing knowledge for practice, which is empirically evidenced, and knowledge of practice derived from experience in the classroom context (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Teaching was once perceived to be autonomous practice, concomitant with increased understandings that students socially construct knowledge, the importance of teachers engaging in collaborative practice has been acknowledged widely (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Falkenberg & Smits, 2010; Fullan, Hill & Crevola, 2006; Le Cornu & Ewing, 2008). This paradigm shift has affected teacher practitioners’ professional learning opportunities and promoted an emphasis on collaborative inquiry-based learning and classroom-based peer coaching, which includes co-planning and co-teaching (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, 2009; Fullan et al, 2006; Knight, 2009). The shift to expectations of collaborative practice affects teacher candidates who enter their profession as insiders who have gained considerable understandings of teaching through their biographical experiences as students (Lortie, 1975; Pajares, 1992)
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