17.1.

1Practicum III
 Course Title: Practicum III
 Course Code: Prac. 4032
 Credit hours: 3
 Contact hours: One month (block)
 Prerequisite course: Successful completion of Foundations of Education, Curriculum,
General Methods of Teaching and Subject area method I, Reflective Teaching,
Practicum I, Practicum II
 Year/semester: Year 4, semester 2

1. Course Introduction
Practicum is defined as a period of time student teachers spend in schools where they mainly
practice teaching under the supervision of an institutional supervisor and a school mentor. They
are expected to spend time with school teachers both in and outside classes, observing and
teaching. They are also expected to undertake a range of tasks through which they play teachers’
role including planning lessons, assessing students and reporting results.

As they make progresses in the process, they will be given more responsibilities for whole-class
activities, and hence they practice independence to operate in the class and at school
individually. During that student-teachers should take the opportunity to take part in all aspects
of a teacher’s works such as, attending staff meetings and school-wide assemblies in order to
familiarize themselves with out of class school programs, etc.

Student-teachers need time to put theories into practice to try out their ideas in a ‘safe’
environment. Thus, they need to observe school teachers with different teaching styles, practice a
range of styles to find out what best suits them. Over the whole course of their time at school,
they should find the opportunity to work with a number of teachers and classes, as well as with
their partners to get sustainable professional experience to work with varied groups of students.
They should also have the opportunity to practice teaching in their respective subject area and
thereby prepare themselves for actual teaching. They should practice teaching, for example with
the same class (es) over a period of two weeks or more, or with the same class(es) on the same
day(s) each week over a series of weeks.
To count as a ‘day’ towards the minimum number of required days of teaching practice, the
candidates should spend the normal full teaching time of the day at the school. The final period
of the practicum (supervised teaching practice) before graduation should be a normal class
teaching in which the student-teachers take a full teaching load, as much as possible; so that they
can be assessed on their readiness to assume responsibilities as independent teachers. If time
permits, the practicum should extend over a block period of supervised teaching practice to allow
the trainees work fully on planning, developing, teaching, assessing and reporting. To this end, it
is desirable to schedule the duration of practicum for not less than four weeks of a term.

Ideally student-teacher will take full responsibility of planning, developing, teaching, assessing
and reporting for a class or classes over a period of at least four or five days per week throughout
a term. During this period, they are holistically immersed into the school environment as
members of staff, with classroom teaching load and other responsibilities, under the supervision
of school mentor and with other teachers of wider experiences.

With respect to national standards, they should fit to the Minimum Competency Standards
indicated in the MoE guideline. This standard could be measured through the competencies
achieved in the course contents which include application of content knowledge, professional
and pedagogical knowledge and skills, dispositions, and student learning.

2. Course description

The practicum is a three-credit course. One credit requires two contact hours. The total number
of hours required in the semester for this course is 3 credits and 16 weeks, or 48 hours.
Therefore, it is recommended that Student Teachers spend around 48 hours in the school for
four consecutive weeks’ full time practicum engagement. Student Teachers are expected to
make s t r i c t regular visits to schools throughout their program, starting in the first day of the
first week to the last date of the fourth week and carry-out school activities independently.

The course consists of two important parts:

 A school placement in a secondary school, and

 A seminar that meets regularly
 a) School placement in Practicum III

The practicum experience should provide Student Teachers with placement in secondary
schools. This teaching practice builds on experience, when Student Teachers worked with
students at secondary schools. The practicum should provide Student Teachers with carefully
sequenced and supervised experiences, with Student Teachers assuming responsibility for
teaching their major subject with the whole class. Thus, Student Teachers should assume full
responsibility for classes of the four weeks.

During the practicum, Student Teachers are expected to critically select and use appropriate
materials, resources (including persons in the community), evaluate and adapt textbooks and
utilize relevant technology, and to have experiences with classroom management and a
variety of evaluation techniques (including authentic assessment). Collaboration with other
Student Teachers and professionals in the school setting should be encouraged in order to
develop team-building skills and utilization of all resources to enhance children’s learning.

Opportunities for peer coaching as well as coaching by the Cooperating Teacher and University
Supervisor should be provided. Student teachers should be encouraged to take advantage of the
opportunity to interact with parents and develop skills for communicating with parents under
the guidance of the Cooperating Teacher.

b) Seminar in Practicum III

Seminar will accompany the practicum to help Student Teachers link the content of the pre-
service program content to practice. The seminar should provide Student Teachers an
opportunity to clarify and revise their teaching goals and their beliefs about a wide range of
educational issues. Although the seminar should be related to and build upon classroom
observation and teaching experiences, it should be focused on inducting Student Teachers into
professional practice. Habits of thinking that provide the foundation for continued growth as a
teacher are as important as strategies for solving immediate classroom issues and problems. The
seminar should also provide a forum for Student Teachers to share and resolve problems or
challenges they are experiencing during their practice.
Student Teachers will be asked to complete several types of assignments. Most, but not all, of
these assignments will be directly linked in some way to classroom experiences. For example,
Student Teachers will:

 Present an analysis of own or a peer’s teaching, and

 Receive feedback from the university supervisor, mentor and if possible from peers in a
non-defensive way.
3. Objectives of the Course

All of the assigned tasks should be flexible enough to allow for adaptation to a wide variety of
classrooms. Student Teachers will be able to:

 Reflect on teaching practice at placement schools,

 Learn from teaching practice at placement schools, and
 Collaborate with peers, the Cooperating Teacher, and University practicum Supervisor,
and establishing professional relationships.
4. National Competences Embedded in this Course
The national competences embedded in this course include the following:

 Facilitate students’ learning

 Plan to support students’ learning by considering students’ developmental level,
experience, curricular materials, etc.,
 Practice/apply diverse active and reflective instructional techniques pertinent to
objectives and contents and promote construction of knowledge based on
learners’ prior experiences,
 Value and demonstrate understanding of individuals’ differences in learning
styles, learning needs, and abilities in designing learning experiences, executing
lessons, and managing students’ behavior,
 Manage instructional environment and learners’ behavior in the teaching
learning process,
 Use instructional resources (out-of school and in-school equipment) and
technologies to facilitate student learning,
  Use subject-specific pedagogic and academic knowledge to provide learning
experiences that are related to experiential learning, and
 Present lessons in engaging and motivating manner.
 Assess students’ learning and use the information for improving teaching practice
and students’ learning
 Use various assessment techniques to diagnose students’ learning needs , teaching and
learning process in accordance with the objectives and content,
 Monitor and assess students’ learning progress continuously to provide timely and
constructive feedbacks to students and use it as the basis for ongoing planning of
teaching,
 Record students’ learning progress and outcomes, and
 Provide students’ academic information for students themselves, parents and
concerned bodies.
5. Course Contents(Course Activities)

Week I

 Prepare instructional materials,

 Utilize appropriate instructional materials for a given topic.
 Prepare annual plans, unit plans and lesson plans effectively,
 Use appropriate teaching methods and strategy for a specific topic of emphasis,
 Justify why he/she has utilized a given method, teaching material and assessment
techniques to teach a given topic,
 Effectively manage a classroom,
 Work with students, who need extra help,
 Teach lessons for their major subject matter each day,
 Reflect on his/her teaching practices,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their Cooperating Teacher using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post- observation Reflection,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their University Supervisor using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, pre-observation guide, and Post-observation reflection sheet,
  Prepare for a midway triad meeting, and
 Use the Notes for Self-Assessment indicating all the evidence they have collected and
how this meets the very purposes of the practicum.

Week II

 Continue activities above, taking over responsibility for planning, teaching, and assessing
the major subject throughout the week,
 Participate in co-curricular activities,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their Cooperating Teacher using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post- observation Reflection, and
 Prepare for a formal observation by their University Practicum Supervisor using the
Formal Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post-observation
Reflection.

Week III

 Continue activities above, taking over responsibility for participation in co-curricular

activities, planning lessons, teaching, and assessing the subject with the whole class
throughout the week,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their Cooperating Teacher using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post- observation Reflection, and
 Prepare for a formal observation by their University Practicum Supervisor using the
Formal Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post-observation
Reflection.

Week IV

 Continue planning, teaching and assessing the subject throughout the week,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their Cooperating Teacher using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post- observation Reflection,
 Evaluate and adapt the textbooks to the context he/she is in,
 Prepare for a formal observation by their University Supervisor using the Formal
Observation Cover sheet, Pre-observation Guide, and Post-observation Reflection,
  Prepare for a final triad meeting, and
 Prepare a Professional Portfolio (Use the rubric provided in the practicum handbook as a
guide.).

6. Learning and teaching approaches

a) School experiences

In the field experiences for the practicum each Student Teacher will develop a plan for gradually
increasing responsibility in the classroom, working with their University Practicum Supervisor
and the Cooperating Teacher. Student Teachers can expect the following types of activity and
progression during the practicum in the four weeks. The Student Teacher:

 Takes responsibility for planning lessons and teaching for longer blocks of time,
 Uses a variety of student assessment and evaluation techniques,
 Implements appropriate ways to track individual student development in the subject
area,
 Adapts and implements subject units, but does not necessarily create them,
 Evaluate and adapt textbook content to the demands of the context,
 Performs co-curricular activities related to their areas of training, and
 Every student teacher enrolled will be assigned to a secondary grade class.
b) The Practicum Seminar

The focus of the seminar should be reflecting on what Student Teachers see in their
observations and emerging classroom issues. The seminar provides intensive engagement with
theory and practice. Groups should be small enough to allow ample opportunity for discussion
of what has happened in schools and how school events relate to what Student Teachers have
learned in their program.

The temptation is to over-program seminar sessions with how-to topics related to managerial
issues. Student Teachers will be very positive in their response to sessions that have such a
practical orientation. However, leaving time for emergent topics is critical if the seminar is to
respond to the field placement. It is important to deal with substantive issues related to teacher
professionalism and broader educational and societal issues that affect teachers and the
communities in which they will work.

The role of the seminar Instructor (who may also be the University Practicum Supervisor) will
be to listen critically and guide participants in identifying problems, becoming self-critical,
choosing alternative courses of action, and relating practical issues to theoretical perspectives.
In some cases, participants will want to engage in informal inquiry and periodically report on
their findings. These inquiries may be collaborative; for example, all participants may decide to
look at behavior management systems in their classrooms or at students who seem to pose
behavior management problems. Or, they might think about an issue related to social justice; for
example, how students from minorities or poor families are treated by their peers. These
informal inquiries can lead to enrich discussions about alternative practices and their effects on
classroom climate.

Seminar Instructors will need to be familiar with the overall teacher education curriculum in
order to build on what Student Teachers should already know. There will be many opportunities
to review and reinforce learning from prior course work. Because teacher preparation is front
loaded (that is, they learn what they will apply later), Student Teachers may not immediately
apply what they have learned. Rather than assuming that they have not learned the basic
concepts from their prior course work, the seminar Instructor should be prepared to provide a
scaffold from these prior experiences in the program. This will support transfer of learning.

Specifically, the practicum seminar will utilize a variety of teaching and learning approaches
but rely heavily on reflective journals and small group and peer interaction. Specifically, a
student teacher needs to:

 Present all the tasks he/she has carried out during school placement, and
 Invite, accept, and utilize feedback from the Cooperating Teacher, peers, and the
University Supervisor in a non-defensive manner.
7. Roles and Responsibilities of Key Stakeholders
8.1 Summary of the responsibilities of the student teachers

There are three major aspects to the Student Teacher's role during the semester:
  Hisor her activities in the classroom, school and community;
 Participation in the weekly Practicum seminar; and
 Continued reflection and documentation of professional growth.
The Student Teacher should become involved in the instructional program of the class room as
soon as possible. The Student Teacher will assume more responsibility for planning and
instruction through activities such as:

 Assisting individual students,

 Working with small groups,
 Taking responsibility for planning and teaching sections of whole class lessons,
 Assisting the Cooperating Teacher with planning and teaching whole lessons,
 Teaching selected lessons under the Cooperating Teacher’s guidance and be open to
receiving feedback. (these should be lessons that are part of the on-going curriculum,
not lessons planned off-site and that do not relate to what is appropriate in the
classroom),
 Assuming over-all management for part of the day, and
 Assuming overall management of the classroom.
During the semester, Student Teachers will engage in a variety of experiences in their
classrooms. Attending teacher’s meetings, parent meetings and the like are encouraged, where
this is possible. The Student Teacher is expected to play an active role in deciding how he or
she will take on new activities and in assessing her or his effectiveness. The Student Teacher is
also expected to participate as a regular staff member of the school in terms of professional
behavior.

8.2 Summary of the responsibilities of a mentor

The practicum student will make the transition from a professional business/tradesperson to a
professional educator. Through the activities of observing, conferring, assessing, and reflecting
the mentor provides essential input to the practicum student's professional growth. This is a
voluntary partnership and must be based on mutual respect and trust. The student must feel safe
to take risks throughout the instructional process and be encouraged to step outside their
traditional comfort zone and experiment with nontraditional instruction strategies and
methodologies. The mentor is responsible for visiting the practicum student's classroom,
reviewing instructional materials, and collaborating on the development of lesson plans and
related materials. The mentor, therefore, needs to carry-out the following responsibilities:

a) Observing

The student teacher must be systematically and objectively observed, especially when teaching
lessons, so that objective data are gathered. The student teacher must be conferred with to ensure
that data collected are interpreted in a manner that promotes professional growth. The student
teacher must be able to determine his/her own effectiveness in meeting the objectives of the
lesson taught, and in meeting the objectives of the practicum.

b) Conferring

Conferring with the student teacher gives the mentor opportunities to provide highly
individualized feedback. Mentors should be prepared for both formal and informal conferences.
Analyze data collected during his/her observation time to identify critical episodes, patterns, and
learning consequences. Anticipate the practicum student's needs, interests and probable
behavior. Have observation data readily accessible. An effective conference contains a mutual
exchange of ideas and discussion topics. Encourage the practicum student to analyze his/her
progress and identify steps towards improvement.

c) Assessing

Assessment of the student teacher's progress and the coordination of a professional development
plan is essential. Monthly coordination with the regional coordinator and/or field supervisor via
site visits, phone calls or email, completes the practicum partnership and assessment process and
ensures the practicum student has a safety net and support for professional development and
learning.

The objective and critical analysis of the student teacher's progress is not a simple task. The task
will be simpler if a systematic and objective technique of data gathering and data interpretation is
used. While “gut level feelings” may be accurate, they are never credible without objective data
for support.

8.3 Summary of the responsibilities of cooperating teacher

The cooperating teacher is expected to:

 Share school and classroom policies and procedures, the curriculum, the
daily/semester schedule, and provide the Student Teacher with a class list, school
textbooks, teacher’s guides etc.,
 Work with other members of the Practicum triad to set up a program for the Student
Teacher's gradual assumption of all classroom responsibilities and building up to the
student teacher taking on the planning, teaching, and assessing of the subject he/she is
conducting. This plan should include provisions for Student Teacher involvement in all
instructional tasks as well as non-instructional tasks such as home-school
communication, parent conferences and staff development,
 Work with the Student Teacher and university supervisor to set up a lesson plan
format to be used by the Student Teacher. The student is required to provide the
supervisor with comprehensive written plans prior to each formal observation,
 Cooperating teachers may also want to require written plans in addition to those
required by the supervisor, for example, for sections of a lesson,
 Formally and informally observe and provide feedback to the Student Teacher(use the
forms provided in the handbook),
 Meet daily to discuss classroom events and make plans, and
 Provide assessment to the university supervisor and participate in triad meetings to
discuss the Student Teacher’s performance.

8.4 Summary of the responsibilities of university supervisor

The university supervisor is the official representative of the university. Therefore, the
supervisor has responsibility for the supervision of Student Teachers, serves as the liaison
between the university and the cooperating schools’ personnel, and helps establish and
maintain positive relationships between the two institutions. Through classroom
observations, conferences, and the weekly seminar the supervisor will:

 Make at least four one-hour observation visits through out the four weeks, with at least
two of these visits followed by a three-way conference involving the student,
cooperating teacher, and university supervisor. The focus of these visits will depend on
 the needs of individual Student Teachers, and
 Guide entry into the profession through discussion of issues of professional practice,
providing a guided seminar experience, and conferring with the Student Teacher
before and after classroom observations and giving feedback on teaching to the
Student Teacher.

8. Evaluation and grading

The practicum is often the first opportunity that student teachers have to experience what it is
like to be a school teacher. They are concerned with their own and others' views of themselves as
beginning professionals. For this reason, open communication is encouraged throughout the
practicum sessions so that the ongoing evaluation of teaching is a natural component of each
day's work. Student teachers should be given written and verbal feedback from the university
supervisor, mentor, if possible even from their peers. Student teachers are also encouraged to
participate in self-evaluation activities with guidance from others. Each student teacher teaching
practicum is a four-week course. The student teacher's progress in this course will be measured
by a letter grade from the University Supervisor based on the final evaluation given by the
mentor teacher and the University Supervisor.

Assessment Total Points

a) Mentor Evaluation25%
 Mentor Teacher Lesson Evaluation
 Mentor Teacher Lesson observation
b) University Instructor’s Evaluation 75%
 Lesson Evaluation
 Class observation
 Post-Observation Reflection
 Portfolio
 Attendance and punctuality
 Total Possible Points 100 %
Students will receive final letter grades that reflect their work throughout the practicum. Letter
grades of A, B, or C indicate successful performance during the practicum. Letter grades of D
and F are not accepted as passing grades for the practicum. The university supervisor will
determine the final grade for the student. In order to receive a grade for the course, all work
must be completed at an acceptable level. Student-teacher with more than two absences during
the four-week will automatically receive a failing grade for the course.

References

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