208
of the school year intends to set up the preservice teacher for success. The preser-
vice teachers attend the first 12 days (two student-free days and ten consecutive
days) of the new school year and experience firsthand how the school year begins.
Preservice teachers attend professional learning sessions with their mentor teacher,
assist their mentor in physically setting up the classroom and observe how the class-
room environment is developed and how relationships with learners are built. They
also observe their mentor teaching and assessing, and have the opportunity to par-
ticipate in developing student profiles. This initial component of EPL3 provides the
preservice teacher with the opportunity to become an integral part of the classroom
and teaching team.
After the initial 12 days in EPL3, preservice teachers continue to attend their
placement classroom 1 day each week for 10 weeks and have specified tasks
allocated to perform that include profiling, planning, teaching and assessing. During
this time however, the preservice teachers are also attending university classes
whereby they are completing their final theoretical, curriculum and pedagogy
courses. EPL3 is one of their final courses and has a weekly tutorial that supports
the preservice teacher during their placement with preparatory and reflective tasks.
Once the preservice teachers have completed all university coursework and assess-
ment, they begin a 3-week continuous block placement that requires them to engage
in the full range of roles and duties of a teacher.
Following on directly from EPL3 is embedded professional learning 4 (EPL4).
Although the mid-year holidays separate the EPL3 and EPL4, the momentum
gained in EPL3 can be further developed as the preservice teachers are required to
immerse themselves in the role of the teacher by teaching continuously for 4 weeks.
In this respect, the preservice teacher continues to cultivate the teaching knowledge,
skills and behaviours expected of a workplace, ‘classroom-ready’ graduate. The
identified planned outcome of EPL4 is that the preservice teachers demonstrate all
37 descriptors of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) at
graduate level. Thus, at the conclusion of EPL4, preservice teachers are assessed
against the graduate standards and, if they are successful, continue onto an intern-
ship. Embedded professional learning 5 (EPL5) consists of a compulsory unpaid
internship that provides an opportunity for the application and consolidation of the
APST at the graduate level. During the internship period, preservice teachers are
granted ‘authorisation’ to teach’ by the Queensland College of Teachers (the state
regulatory authority) and are able to assume 50% of their mentor’s workload.
Preservice teachers, in many instances, team-teach with their mentor and are viewed
by their school as a beginning classroom teacher.
The 13 weeks of continuous placement that the preservice teachers experience
(along with the associated work experience days) in the final year of the BLM pro-
vides them with explicit opportunities to develop into ‘classroom-ready’ graduates
who have the ‘know-how’, ‘know-what’, ‘know-why’ and ‘know-when’ (Ambrosetti,
2010 , p. 39). Feedback from preservice teachers confirms that the final-year immer-
sion and internship program are considered the most valuable part of their degree
and indicate that they experience growth in their confidence of becoming and being
a teacher (Ambrosetti, 2015 ). However, some barriers are faced by the preservice
S. Tindall-Ford et al.