The purpose of this study was to elaborate the knowledge of the supervising teacher as enacted through mentor-mentee conversations that occur during practicum. An interpretivist framework using Clarke et al.'s (2014) Categories of Participation was used to consider how supervising teacher knowledge manifests in mentoring conversations with the…

The post-lesson mentoring conversation on work-integrated learning placements in teacher education is an opportunity for students to critically reflect on their practice. The potential for this learning to take place is diminished however, if the mentor is unskilled in the art of leading these conversations. This skill involves creating a dialogue…

Undertaking infant-toddler practicum during initial teacher education is critical to ensuring preservice teachers (PSTs) are well prepared for their future role as early childhood teachers. PSTs, however, can face challenges in infant-toddler practicum given the demands of this unique teaching and learning context. A knowledgeable, experienced…

This paper reports on a study of the children's book preferences of 82 Preservice teachers (PSTs) at one Western Australian University. The study found PSTs preferred older books published during their own childhood or earlier. Further, representation of people of colour was limited to only 8 of 177 titles listed by PSTs. Key influences on their…

The engagement of both school and university has played a significant role in initial teacher education. The focus of this paper is the growth of an alternative style of school-university partnership from a single school to a Hub of 19 school-university partnership, in the inner-west suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Four school and university mentors…

Purpose: Being literate can change the lives of Australian students. Therefore, graduating effective teachers of literacy is an imperative for Australian schools. Professional experience provides an opportunity for preservice teachers to refine their skills for teaching literacy under the guidance of a mentor teacher. This study investigates from…

Mentoring plays a critical role in providing a quality professional experience for pre-service teachers in their initial teacher education. There have been numerous studies about pre-service teacher mentoring, yet actual mentoring practice still remains varied and poorly understood. Consequently, there is a need for mentoring processes that can…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has assumed life as a central feature of higher education curriculum design in a wide range of disciplines with the ultimate goal of producing work-ready graduates. Under recent Australian government initiatives affecting teacher education, placement forms of WIL have been touted as the panacea for perceived problems…

This research involves two case studies, one in Melbourne, Australia the other in Gothenburg, Sweden, that focus on how using observation tools to gather classroom evidence of teaching and learning promoted opportunities to discuss and develop professional practice. We found that dialogues between pre-service teachers and more experienced…

International professional experiences have long been esteemed by universities and pre-service teachers alike. This paper analyses the experiences of six academics who have supervised Australian pre-service teachers undertaking international professional experience (PE), with a view to better understanding the problems and prospects that they…

This study explores supervising teachers' judgements about pre-service teachers during a practicum experience. Making judgements is a complex, subjective process with judgements being conscious and intuitive, influenced by individual beliefs, contextual expectations and personal learning biographies. This research draws on Social Judgement Theory…

The supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers during professional experience is complex work that requires a range of skills and capacities. Professional development for this work has traditionally been limited, however, and mentor teachers report experiencing tensions in their work stemming from their roles as both supporter and assessor…

Legislative guidelines regulate professional experience within initial teacher education (ITE) but little is known about teacher educators' perspectives on how these guidelines are operationalised. ITE providers, in collaboration with school partners, implement a range of programs designed to develop pre-service teachers' 'classroom readiness'. We…

The practicum is an important part of teacher education and has been widely studied from a variety of perspectives, including teacher candidates, associate or cooperating teachers, and supervisors. In this issue of "Studying Teacher Education," each author has written a self-study describing a personal journey of coming to understand…

In recent years there has been growing concern as to how to bridge the gap between the theory preservice teachers engage with as part of their learning in their tertiary classrooms and the profession. To enable pre-service teachers to make stronger connections with the profession, a mathematics teacher educator worked collaboratively with a…