Rewriting Field-Based Literacy Practicum Experiences

High-quality, field-based practicum experiences provide learning opportunities foundational to future teachers' pedagogy that coursework alone cannot replicate. However, access to these field-based placements for preservice teachers can be limited at times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter explores how one instructor of an intermediate literacy course, which carries a 20-hour field-based practicum requirement, rewrote a traditional field-based literacy experience to design a virtual practicum experience. Following a review of the literature, this chapter is divided into three key parts: (1) design elements of a virtual literacy practicum, (2) preservice teacher perceptions of a virtual literacy practicum, and (3) comparisons of preservice teachers' experiences in a traditional in-person literacy practicum to a virtual literacy practicum. Finally, suggestions for re-writing traditional field-based literary practicum experiences will be provided.

New Zealand Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Practicum and Potential for Video Review

<p>This qualitative study of 20 pre-service early childhood teachers investigated the students’ perceptions of their practicum experiences and views of the potential for video review use using two on-line surveys of Student Teachers (STs) in their second and third year of study in a New Zealand undergraduate three-year degree Initial Teacher Education Programme (ITEP). This study found STs perceived practicum as highly significant within their ITEP and value practicum opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in the real-world context of ECE centres with children and within teaching teams. However, STs reported a wide range of perceived challenges indicating that the practicum is problematic at times. These challenges involve the establishment of relationships and communication, transparency of assessment practices, and STs’ agency. These issues appear interrelated and impact upon student teacher responses within, and perceptions of, their practicum experience. Students were ambivalent to the potential use of video review while also recognising the benefits to their teacher development. The findings of this study provide further evidence of the need to re-examine the traditional practicum model and to consider alternative approaches by ITEP’s including video review.</p>

New Zealand Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Practicum and Potential for Video Review

<p>This qualitative study of 20 pre-service early childhood teachers investigated the students’ perceptions of their practicum experiences and views of the potential for video review use using two on-line surveys of Student Teachers (STs) in their second and third year of study in a New Zealand undergraduate three-year degree Initial Teacher Education Programme (ITEP). This study found STs perceived practicum as highly significant within their ITEP and value practicum opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in the real-world context of ECE centres with children and within teaching teams. However, STs reported a wide range of perceived challenges indicating that the practicum is problematic at times. These challenges involve the establishment of relationships and communication, transparency of assessment practices, and STs’ agency. These issues appear interrelated and impact upon student teacher responses within, and perceptions of, their practicum experience. Students were ambivalent to the potential use of video review while also recognising the benefits to their teacher development. The findings of this study provide further evidence of the need to re-examine the traditional practicum model and to consider alternative approaches by ITEP’s including video review.</p>

THE EXPERIENCES OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS TEACHING PRACTICUM DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the prohibition of close contact and this unprecedented issue has led to the abrupt closure of schools and universities across the country. Teacher education programs have taken a toll as the final year students would not be able to fully experience the working environment in a school during teaching practicum. Thus, this systematic literature review aims to explore the lived experiences of pre-service teachers teaching practicum experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, after screening from 23,084 research articles, 8 relevant articles that focus on the teaching practicum experiences of pre-service teachers during the pandemic were chosen for review in order to achieve the objective. The findings show that the pre-service teachers teaching practicum experiences can be categorised into intrapersonal development or interpersonal development. Pre-service teachers seem to have a positive perception towards the change as they understood the importance of the transition from face-to-face learning to online learning during the pandemic. Other than that, positive or negative teaching practicum experiences highly depend on the institutions as much as the pre-service teachers depend on themselves. The future agenda and implementation of the findings are also discussed.

The use of block and integrated practicum structures within employer-sponsored pre-registration nursing programmes: A Critical Realist study

This study, underpinned by Critical Realism, explores the use of block and integrated placement frameworks within employer-sponsored pre-registration nursing programmes at a United Kingdom university. Digitally recorded, commercially transcribed semi-structured interviews involving four stakeholder groups (employers, students, mentors, and practice tutors), were exposed to qualitative content analysis, and yielded four common themes; connectedness, role transition, carer work and difference. Most respondents perceived the block model as being more effective in promoting connectedness, facilitating role transition, and mitigating against perceived difference; although use of the integrated model was considered more desirable for services having to release these students from carer work. Results also highlight various factors which may influence the most appropriate choice of practicum model, including individual student characteristics, the service in which learners undertake their non-registrant care work, the nature of the placement and mentor autonomy within their clinical role. Congruent with the principles of Critical Realism, efforts to establish potential underlying causative mechanisms associated with practicum experiences are underway and currently involves scrutiny of these results against key features of the Theory of Human Relatedness. Furthermore, a regression analysis to identify the statistical relationship between the placement model completed by two national cohorts and retention rates/degree classifications is in progress. This combined work contributes to the extremely limited body of knowledge in an important area of curriculum design within nurse education.

A-188 Starting Well: Creating Training Opportunities for Graduate Students Interested in Neuropsychological Assessment

Objective Practicum experiences are critical to internship readiness. While established guidelines for practicum training in clinical neuropsychology exist, the application of such guidelines across training sites has received little attention. The objective of this study is to compare practicum training models across different sites. Methods We surveyed training supervisors regarding the cost and benefit of training practicum students in their setting. Results Despite wide variability across settings, results indicated that on average, practicum sites spent around 6 hours per week in direct active training and onboarding during the first 1–3 months of the training year. After 3–4 months, the hours spent on supervision decreased to about 1–2 hours of individual supervision and 1–2 hours of group supervision per week. By the 8th month, each practicum student provided the clinic with approximately 36 hours of direct service (considered an administrative benefit to the clinic). Conclusion Training practicum students is a labor of love, with overall net administrative benefits to the clinic. An advantage was seen in settings with multiple trainees, trainees at multiple levels, and tiered supervision models with access to diverse didactic experiences.

Devising in the Pandemic: Trauma and a Dramatic Redesign of a Youth Theatre Tour

Z402 Youth Theatre Tour was designed from a critical performative pedagogical positioning (Weltsek, 2019). Here learning emerges from how individuals and communities perform their emergent identities as they cross literal and metaphorical socio-cultural borders. Z402 resulted in a 100% student created new play, parallel workshop, and study guide. This new play was based solely upon the students’ perspectives, voices, and ways of being. The design used devised theatre, the use of improvisation and games, to create a new play versus a solely written approach. The new play dealt with healing in the face of suicidal thoughts. The course addressed four Indiana educational licensing requirements; student technical, artistic, educational, and class practicum experiences. In March 2020, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the University instituted obligatory Online instruction. Students redesigned their stage play into a virtual experience using Zoom and integrated their emotional struggles due to pandemic isolation. The live play, slated for three schools, is now accessible to a large virtual audience

From one-to-one to one-to-many

Pre-service teacher librarians in the United States often are en route from careers as classroom teachers and view field experiences as needless repetitions of student teaching. Meaningful internships can be pivotal in helping students explore potential roles, build collegial networks, and gain valuable on-the-job insight. For an educator in transition from a single classroom to a manyfaceted school library, field practica can provide crucial opportunities to shift to the organizational, collaborative mindset outlined in Information Power, the U.S. school library guidelines (1998). This paper presents an instrumental case study gathered as part of an ongoing study of practicum experiences.