Theme 1: Practicum / Field Studies.

From the pool of final-year preservice teachers, 85 noted practicum experiences increased their confidence to teach. Comments such as the one noted below were indicative of the group:

The best experience I had for increasing my confidence was the prac I undertook in a year 5/6 class. I also worked with a team of teachers and we developed the transition strategies for the for year seven students.

It seems the “hands on” nature of the practicum and the opportunities to “practice and reflect on lessons” combined with “observing and participating in middle years classrooms”, were viewed by the majority of the preservice teachers to develop

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there is nothing like teaching in the classroom for increasing your confidence to teach”. Varied practicum experiences in a number of different middle years classrooms, were also viewed as valuable for increasing preservice teacher confidence. A statement that

summarised the views of the group noted “the wide range of practicum has developed different styles of teaching for me and increased my confidence”.

Middle school teaching includes a range of subject areas and graduates can be expected to teach an assortment of grade levels. Gaining experience to teach on different grade levels and observing the associated teaching practices would broaden a preservice teacher’s understanding of how to approach teaching in varied classroom contexts. Analysing written responses signalled that being in different grade levels, allowed the preservice teachers to “really understand the diverse developmental issues that we as teachers will face” and “understand that all classes and children are different and require different approaches”. It seemed that opportunities to be a part of how different “teachers work together in different schools” increased their confidence that they could “easily be a part of this in the future”. Experiences in different contexts also allowed some preservice teachers to understand how schools “implement their middle years policies” and consequently they can “contribute to the middle years philosophy of the school”. Furthermore, preservice teachers claimed that teaching in varied contexts allowed them to “interact with a variety of teaching staff to gain a broader range of experiences” and interacting with “a vast array of students allowed the development of a greater range of teaching strategies”.

The majority of preservice teachers’ written responses indicated that being able to apply knowledge and skill in a “real-world setting” assisted them to become confident for

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teaching. They considered practicum as an opportunity to get “real experience in a real classroom” and appreciated the “real world nature of the experience”. They also commented that practicum allowed them to apply what they had been “learning in the university setting”, and “make sense of the middle years concepts and practices they had been exposed to as part of their degree”. Indeed, practicum was seen to provide them with the experience that helped them to make the “links between the theory and the real world of the classroom”. Preservice teachers recognised the value of learning in the university setting but also considered this learning as largely theoretical; hence, connecting

theoretical and pedagogical practices with practical classroom applications presented opportunities to link theory with practice.

Preservice teachers’ written responses highlighted the interactions with teachers in their roles as mentors. Preservice teachers appreciated the personal attributes of their mentor teachers, noting that they made them feel “welcome in the school and classroom by their warmth and generosity” and “their enthusiasm for having a preservice teacher”. Positive mentoring provided by the teacher during practicum was raised by the majority of the participants as developing confidence for teaching. It seemed that many of the preservice teachers had experienced “great supervising teachers” who “guided, provided advice and useful feedback” in classrooms that were “supportive to preservice teacher development”. The majority of the preservice teachers noted that positive mentoring experiences

increased their confidence by allowing them to “develop at their own rate” and “work and learn with experienced teachers who were prepared to “model practices and share their resources”. Preservice teachers are at different stages of readiness and self reported that they required differentiation of mentoring that targets their level of proximal development.

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Mentors who model practices allow preservice teachers to observe how teaching works (or in some cases, does not work). Modelling of teaching presented ways for preservice teachers to analyse practices and select appropriate courses of action for their own implementation of teaching. The responses indicated that the preservice teachers

appreciated that their mentors shared pedagogical practices such as “the best approaches for engaging middle years learners”, “teaching strategies that really worked”, and “ways for developing teacher-student relationships”.

Behaviour management can be an area of concern for preservice teachers as each classroom and context is different (Main & Hammond, 2008; Peters, 2009). Classroom climates are ever changing and preservice teachers need to be prepared with a range of management strategies they can use for middle years classrooms. Practicum, combined with advice from mentor teachers, was viewed by the preservice teachers to develop confidence for managing student behaviour. One participant whose comment was similar to others wrote, “I learnt heaps on prac about behaviour management that increased my confidence greatly” and “my mentor teacher modelled strategies that I used and were successful”. It seems confidence in behaviour management was increased by having experience in a class where they were able to “experiment and try out all the things we have learned at university and, observed during our course”.

As well as positive mentoring from supervising teachers, the “support provided by other staff members at the school” was viewed by a number of participants as being conducive to confidence development. Being “welcomed at the school by the principal and deputy” and “introduced to other staff members” as well as “invited by staff to team meetings”

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made the preservice teachers feel “confident we were valued members of the school community”. Administration staff members were seen as influential to how confident the preservice teachers felt being included within the school setting, for instance, “the admin team helped me use the photocopier” and “locate the rooms that were noted on my timetable”, which meant the preservice teachers felt “accepted they could be part of the teaching staff”.