Extending ‘Supervisory Reach’: using new information management technology in the teacher education practicum

Abstract

Central to some of the problems encountered in different approaches to the practicum in teacher education are those associated with the roles of supervisors, their responsibilities, and the nature and forms of communication across the supervisory triad. The latter involves university supervisor, school cooperating teacher and student teacher. Another problematic area is concerned with developing and promoting reflective practice. In this study, new-generation instructional information management technologies were used, and their effectiveness evaluated, in facilitating technology-supported supervisory processes. In the information-rich environments created by integrated instructional information management systems (IIMSs), allied with communications technology, practicum supervision is now possible substantially free of temporal and geographic constraints. In addition, the study investigated how data routinely generated by teachers, and stored within a commercially available IIMS, might be contemplated by student teachers and their supervisors in promoting reflective practice. It was found that the congruence of a number of new information technologies, appropriately applied to support practicum experiences, can enrich the experiences of student teachers and their supervisors. All participants in the supervisory triad required specialised training in the use of new instructional information management technology applied specifically to practicum supervision. It is concluded that, for the transformative potential of new IIMSs to be realised in changed practices, they must interact with professionally informed minds, using appropriate supervision models which optimise the information technology potentials offered by this new technology.