Creating a Sustainable and Supportive Teaching Practicum in Rural and Regional Locations

Josephine Ryan ACU, MelbourneMellita Jones ACU, Ballarat and Caroline Walta - La Trobe, Shepparton

Overview of presentation• Why this project-our story• Research context• Project activities• Methodology• Findings• Discussion

Why this project

The project aims to create a sustainable, supportive model of practicum in rural and regional locations through:

• inter-university cooperation – rural campuses of ACU and La Trobe• supportive technology-both courses are mixed mode

(intensive/online and in school, often at a distance from the campuses)• creating improved partnerships with rural and regional

supervisors. What do they want?

Rural and regional teacher education

• Difficulties of attracting and retaining teachers• Rural candidates need to travel to study• Rural campuses struggle to provide range of courses• Absence of rural and regional in teacher education

Inter-university cooperation

• Generally competitive relationships between universities in teacher education

• Differing requirements practicum documentation from university to university

• Bradley suggests we must cooperate in rural contexts

Information communication technology

• Incessant change in ICT• Education at a distance inevitably means

technology• Teaching principles should prevail

Project activities1.Inter-university cooperation-shared supervision of each other’s PSTs-shared ICT platform to support learning during

the practicum -inter-university regional clusters of PSTs for

peer support in person and online learning

Supportive technology Investigation of options such as Skype to

improve communication during practicum Direct communication with supervisors

through email Supervisor access to shared website

Creating improved partnerships with rural and regional supervisors

Consultation about what creates strong practicum partnerships

Evaluation of communication options Perceptions about recognition and rewards

such as VIT/Master’s credit

Project designPilot 2010 Semester 2

Shared LMS (ACU & La Trobe)

2 regional clusters of PSTs from ACU and La Trobe (9 PSTs)

11 Teacher supervisors involved

Supervision for each other in 2 areas of rural Victoria

(2 visits)

2011 S2 Shared LMS (PebblePad)

All 80 students in ACU (27) and La Trobe (53); 4 cohorts mixed in regional clusters (one purely online group)

80+ teacher supervisors

Shared supervision based on location: some in person; some Skype; some phone; some email

Shared supervision (main study)

• 4 lecturers (2 ACU and 2 La Trobe)• Each in charge of one Professional Learning of

Team of 20 ACU & La Trobe PSTs; discussions on Pebble Pad and communication with supervisors.

• In cluster 4 via Skype; 4 by phone; 4+ visit; others by email

Methodology

Mixed mode study which aims to understand- Perceptions of participants of initiatives though

interview; survey and focus group; lecturer reflections

- Quality of the support and learning in regional clusters through discourse analysis of online discussions

- Currently pilot completed and analysed and main study activities complete but not evaluation (therefore some anecdote here)

FindingsInter-university supervision

• shared supervision presented few difficulties for lecturers (used each other’s documents)

• PSTs and supervisors were happy to see an ‘experienced ’ person; where from mattered less.

“I just saw it as...someone with experience and knowledge just gave me some advice and some guidance.” (PST)

Inter-university supervision (contin.)

Supervisors: if it increases visits it is valuable.Too often “you might get a phone call but you don’t

get a lot apart from the paperwork.

Supervision without visiting is like:“giving something to my students and never looking

at it.” Lecturers: “It was the person that makes the difference. Unis

are pretty much all the same.”

Shared ICT platform

Pilot showed that it needs to be accessible/owned by all (Pebble Pad for main study)

Supportive technology

1. Pilot: Inter-university on-line discussion for support and sharing resources flourished;

2. Inter-university reflection more difficult to foster.

3. Hence structured discussions through Pebble Pad (called Professional Learning Teams) in main study.

5 weeks of PLTsWeek 3. What are the top 3 strategies for creating a productive

and effective learning environment, and why do they work?

Week 4.

Comment from PST in week 3. " We're walking into schools full of all this knowledge on "research done on Middle Years Schooling" and "Teaching - Best Practice" etc and yet, what we're seeing and been forced to be a part of , is almost a polar opposite"

This is one rather pessimistic image of schools today. What are you seeing, (or what will you do in your classroom,) that gives you hope that schools are giving students what they need for living in contemporary society?

Supportive technology (continued)Use of Skype as a supervision tool– Preliminary data from main study: – -some supervisors and PSTs open to it – -some school IT supports it– -best set up by PST

Comparison between approaches to come

Communication over distance

“Especially the first week... I was reading an input and it actually set me up to feel more confident in that there were other people going through what I was doing... I found that very supportive.”

“One of the girls talked about power teaching and I’d never heard of that before so I went from there...and if I wasn’t on that blog I would never have heard of it.”

Creating improved partnerships with rural and regional supervisors

1. Supervisors divided as to what they want except direct email to supervisors is effective.

2. Supervisor access to Pebble Pad in a lecturer-supervisor gateway with practicum resources(e.g. pod casts on mentoring). This did not work in terms of professional discussion. For information?

For investigation via survey & interview

- Supervisor perception of:- Various supervision approaches - Elluminate as PD tool for supervisors- VIT module on mentoring

A sustainable and supportive practicum for rural locations

Inter-university supervision accepted by PSTs and teachers; beneficial for lecturers and universities.

Supportive ICT Inter-university discussions effective for PST support and resources especially for a small cohort. Learning?

-Shared website for supervisors not effective-Skype: mixed finding

Questions and discussion

Can universities cooperate in rural

contexts?

Contact detailsALTC project: Pre-service Teacher Education Partnerships:

Creating an effective practicum model for rural and regional pre-service teachers

Josephine RyanJo.ryan@acu.edu.auMellita JonesMellita.jones@acu.edu.auCaroline Waltac.walta@latrobe.edu.auAlan McleanAlan.mclean@latrobe.edu.au