News | INSHIP

Fourth Transnational Project Meeting

Jun 4, 2021 | News

On 21st of May the fourth transnational project meeting was held in a virtual environment on Zoom. The meeting was hosted by the Universidad de Alicante in Spain.

The focus of the meeting was to review the INSHIP model with a specific highlight on professional socialization. The partners from Universidad de Alicante in Spain presented the work on professional socialization, outlined some key concepts, highlighted the main paradigms and stages in the professional socialization of teachers and highlighted some key aspects to reflect on professional socialization.

The partners also discussed the content of the questionnaire in the comparative study on pre-service students’ perspectives on teaching practice and further project activities.

Finally, the partners from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, presented the draft of the INSHIP Seminar I. The partners agreed on the content and organizational aspects of the seminar, which will be held as an online event in June due to the epidemic measures. We are looking forward to the implementation of the seminar.

Overall, this meeting was successful and effective, with a wide variety of content and topics discussed.

Teaching practice in the framework of pre-service teacher education in Slovenia

Dec 17, 2020 | News

In Slovenia there are three public universities offering study programmes in teacher education. The faculties of education, which are located at the universities, are the main institutions for pre- and in-service teacher education. They offer study programmes in pre-school and primary school and some programmes for two-subject teachers. In addition, there are some study programmes at other faculties, that also offer some teacher education programmes, especially for subject teachers in various academic and art domains, and in physical education. At the University of Ljubljana, about 10% of the students are involved in teacher education programmes.

The teaching practice in schools is a compulsory part of the education in the reformed Bologna study programmes. It is organised and carried out according to the principle of reflective practice and is intended to enable students to integrate subject-content and the pedagogical-professional knowledge through gradual introduction to teaching and the teaching profession. Teaching practice is organized differently in different study programmes: from four to ten weeks of teaching practice in undergraduate study programmes, and in some extend also at master level, mostly as a research work.

At the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, teaching practice has a rich history of 70 years. It is conceptualised based on theoretical and empirical research. Quality assurance in teaching practice has been ensured by the Faculty’s Teaching Practice Committee since 2014. Teaching practice in different study programmes is monitored and evaluated annually, both internally (by academic staff and mentors from schools) and externally (through the University’s evaluation system).

Third Transnational Project Meeting

Nov 11, 2020 | News

The third transnational project meeting was organized as MS teams video conference on 5^th and 6^th of November. The meeting was hosted by the Masarykova Univerzita team and attended by all partners involved in the project. The main objective of the meeting was to review the INSHIP-model with a special focus on the educational principles of partnership cooperation. The partners presented and discussed the progress of the work on the intellectual outputs assigned to each partner organizations with special emphasis on the model evaluation, professional socialization, and educational principles of partnership cooperation.

During this meeting, the partners from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, presented the structure of the first LTT activity (INSHIP-seminar I). The partners discussed important content and organizational aspects of the first INSHIP-seminar for academic staff.

Finally, the partners discussed about the dissemination activities and reviewed the timetable of upcoming project activities.

Overall, this meeting was successful and inspiring, despite the virtual environment. All partners effectively contributed to the successful organization of the meeting.

Project activities of the German INSHIP partners

Okt 20, 2020 | News

Research and Teaching Unit for School Education and Instructional Research at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (FAU), Germany

In the first year of the INSHIP project, the FAU team (Prof. Dr. Michaela Gläser-Zikuda, Dr. Florian Hofmann, Lisa Pösse) focused on an international literature review of teacher education and existing models of internship in teacher training. In a second step, the team analysed the models of internship in teacher education in Germany for a case study. There is great variation of teacher education programs in Germany (in 16 different states) due to the decentralized structure of educational policy. General aims and features of teacher education are determined by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK). Teacher education programs of all 16 federal states in Germany are divided into two phases – a first one for university studies including several periods of internship and training in schools. The second phase of teacher education takes place in schools and teacher training colleges.

To describe the structure of teacher education in more detail, the FAU team presented the teacher education programs of the federal states of Bavaria and Thuringia as examples of two different models for integrating teaching practice into the first phase of teacher education. Within the traditional Bavarian model, student teachers have to complete two shorter periods of practical training in a school setting. Teacher training in Thuringia includes an integrated semester of field experience in school. During this semester, student teachers participate in all parts of school life. The teacher education programs of most of the German federal states are similar to one of these two models.

In a third step, the German case study was enriched by empirical data according to the principles of a SWOT analysis. In order to gain a detailed overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the practical phases in teacher education, various stakeholders involved in the organization of teaching practice at the FAU were interviewed based on a semi-structured interview (academic staff N = 9; 7 female, mentors in schools N = 7; 5 female, student teachers N = 17; 10 female).

A snapshot of the main results illustrates that practical phases are seen as a very important part of teacher education by most of the stakeholders. It also became clear that good communication between stakeholders, criteria shared by all, a trustful relationship between mentor and student teachers, the teaching qualifications of the mentor teachers, and a constructive feedback culture are decisive factors in achieving the educational goals associated with the practical phases.

In the context of the INSHIP project, the FAU team also developed a first draft for a curriculum. The suggested program comprises one semester at university. During this practical semester, the student teachers should have the opportunity to observe and participate in all instruction related, and general school activities. They should be encouraged and supports to plan, implement, analyse, and reflect themselves and with the mentor, as well as other student teachers on classroom teaching. They should also participate in teacher conferences and further working groups at school. To support student teachers’ professionalization, core elements of the theoretical parts and practical experiences during the practical semester should be documented and systematically reflected in an e-portfolio. The FAU team has great experience with portfolio in learning, instruction, and teacher education.

Distance learning in the time of coronavirus

Jun 22, 2020 | News

During pandemic COVID-19, students of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education supported teachers in introducing distance learning. As part of the adapted teaching practice, the students helped teachers prepare materials for distance learning, recorded short video presentations of the learning content, provided individual assistance to pupils, and offered technical support to teachers in using online learning platforms and resources.

The materials for different subjects are available on the following link: http://ucnagradiva.pef.uni-lj.si/.

National case studies on teaching practice with SWOT analysis

Maj 18, 2020 | News

In the first year of the INSHIP project the project partners were focused on mapping and analysing the existing models of teaching practice and examples of good practice. The project partners prepared a detailed presentation of the national teacher education system and the organization of teaching practice in Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, and Slovenia.

The national case studies were supplemented with the empirical data according to the principles of SWOT analysis. The aim was to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of teaching practice in the partner countries from the perspective of different stakeholders: Students, university teachers, lecturers and organizers of practical training in higher education institutions, teacher mentors, deputy head teachers and head teachers, university tutors and continuing education advisors.

The results showed many similarities (e.g. the importance of partnership cooperation between faculties and schools), but also some specific experiences (e.g. organization and duration of the practical phase) with teaching practice in different national contexts.

In-SHIP model – SWOT analysis