Student teachers volunteering in pre-service programmes in successful schools: Contributing to their successful training

Abstract

Following recent literature on the field of teacher education, this is considered as key factor in promoting school success. In this regard, most research has been dedicated to clarify which type of education is most effective to train successful teachers in order they can face properly the challenges of modern societies. This article contributes to this ongoing debate by providing the self-reported benefits among student teachers of the Rovira i Virgili University who have served as volunteers in Learning Communities where different Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) are executed. Learning Communities is an evidenced-based project which is widely implemented in schools worldwide. This project is based on the development of SEAs that have been investigated by different European competitive projects. Findings illustrate that these actions are improving children’s academic performance and school climate regardless of the context they are applied. In the present study, based on a mixed-method approach, three different data collection techniques have performed addressed to students teachers: group interviews, semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. Results demonstrate the impact of being volunteers in these schools which are summarized on two main facts. First, the quality of the student teacher’s training and professional experience improved through their involvement as volunteers in schools as Learning Communities. Second, this involvement in Successful Educational Actions has a great impact in the improvement of children’s and families’ learning. Drawing on these results a reformulation of teacher education is openly discussed. In fact, research evidences the benefits of construct teacher education programmes based on theories and practices that are scientifically effective to reduce educational inequalities.