El Practicum en el aprendizaje de la profesión docente

Authors

Mercedes González SanmamedSalto de línea Universidade de A Coruña. Facultade de Ciencias da Educación. Departamento de Pedagoxía e Didáctica. A Coruña. España.Salto de línea Eduardo José Fuentes Abeledo Salto de línea Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Facultade de Ciencias da Educación. Santiago de Compostela. España.

Abstract

Practicum in the learning of teaching professionals

Practicum (post-graduate teacher education) is a key factor in the process of teacher education and a prime opportunity for trainees to learn about the teaching profession. The article views learning to teach as a dual process of socialising and gaining professional knowledge, both being part of the Practicum experience. The article describes the influences that affect professional socialization during teaching practice and evaluates from a dialectical point of view the changes that take place. Research shows the importance of biography in shaping professional identity. The author notes the preconceptions about teaching that prospective teachers have adopted in their pre-training experiences, and how those preconceptions act as filters for subsequent learning. The article reviews the contributions of several authors to the building up of teachers’ professional knowledge as well as the contribution of research to the view and analysis of teacher education. The article also analyses the problem of base knowledge for teaching, explaining the current debate about knowledge of teaching and knowledge for teaching, and pushing forward the need to recognize the contributions made by researchers and practitioners. Among the conclusions, the following must be noted: 1) The professional knowledge gained during Practicum is the ideal framework to assess the convergence of academic knowledge, obtained through research, and practical knowledge derived from experience. 2) The complexity of learning to teach is made clear during Practicum, when prospective teachers meet the challenge to harmonize preconceptions, propositional knowledge acquired in the training programme and practical knowledge observed in their tutor; and at the same time, they must pay attention to the requirements of the teaching environment around them.

Keywords

Pre-service teacher education, teaching practice, Practicum, learning to teach, teacher professional knowledge, teacher socialization, base knowledge for teaching, individual practical knowledge, trainee teachers.