239The authors argue that all stakeholders (schools, supervising teachers and university
supervisors) need to be committed to the goals of professional experience and sup-
porting pairs of preservice teachers during their placements. The authors also argue
that open communication between all stakeholders is important as well as the need
for strong levels of trust and respect between preservice teachers. Thus, strong, open
partnerships are foundational requirements when implementing an alternative
model. Tinkering at the edges however can be fraught.
Service learning can and arguably should be an integral part of initial teacher
education programs, yet it is not usually considered a traditional professional expe-
rience. The authors of Chap. 11 remind us that developing prospective teachers
should not be limited to professional experiences in classrooms, and they report that
nontraditional placements are promising sites for personal growth for participants.
Drawing on three examples of service learning placements, the authors show how
each example positions the preservice teachers as boundary crossers. This can be
seen in the way that preservice teachers undertake specific projects that are com-
munity partnerships and collaborations that contribute to growth in their teaching
competence. Likewise, the immersion programs presented in Chap. 12 are nontradi-
tional placements that aim to develop and/or consolidate real-world professional
knowledge and skills. These long-term placements can better enable preservice
teachers to take on the role of the teacher and embrace a wider range of the complex
elements of teachers’ work rather than what may be possible over a shorter period.
The authors report that these immersive approaches enable preservice teachers to
become part of the school community and better able to make connections between
theory and practice.
Classroom Readiness Is Enabled and Enhanced
Through Collaborative Spaces
Chapters 6 , 7 and 8 focus on the practices of mentoring within professional experi-
ence to show how these practices support preservice teachers to learn to be and to
become. Communication is key to transforming practice and to enabling self-
formation, and the authors of these chapters identify that mentoring as praxis pro-
vides a space for this to occur. Using examples of mentoring in action, the authors
highlight that when a mentoring relationship is a collaborative rather than a hierar-
chical expert/novice approach, a space for preservice teachers to learn to be occurs.
Chapter 8 provides an example of mentoring in action through an online space that
demonstrates how sharing practice with peers and experts can support preservice
teachers to interrogate their practice beyond the confines of the school setting.
In Chaps. 9 and 10 , research on how dialogues about practice can be enhanced
during the professional experience is reported. The use of a developmental assess-
ment rubric tool in Chap. 9 promotes professional conversations between mentors
and preservice teachers, and specifically encourages preservice teachers to reflect
14 Educating Future Teachers: Insights, Conclusions and Challenges