Chapter 15
Redesigning Authentic Collaborative
Practicum Partnerships: Learnings
from Case Studies from Two New Zealand
Universities
Beverley Cooper and Lexie Grudnoff
15.1 Introduction
For a number of years, initial teacher education (ITE) has faced criticism for not
adequately preparing teachers for the realities of teaching. Such criticism has
intensified in the context of widespread recognition that teacher quality is the major
in-school influence on student achievement (Hattie 2009 ) and the drive to improve
the education outcomes and opportunities for increasingly diverse student popu-
lations (UNESCO 2014 ). It is therefore not surprising that policy aimed at
reforming ITE in order to improve teacher quality has been at the top of many
nations’policy agendas.
Underpinning much of the reform is the widely held concern that teacher edu-
cation programmes, especially those based in universities, prioritise theory over
practice. There is a belief that the (over) emphasis on theory results in a disconnect
between what students learn in teacher preparation programmes and what they need
to do as teachers, particularly in terms of being effective with, and responsive to, a
wide range of learners (UNESCO 2014 ). Hence the focus of reform efforts in many
countries is on strengthening the practice components of teacher preparation
programmes.
The emphasis on practice, coupled with policy attention on the link between
teacher quality and student achievement, has resulted in a greater value being
placed on student teachers’experiential learning in practicum settings than on their
university-based learning. For example, the American National Council for the
Accreditation of Teacher Education Report (NCATE) report of an expert Blue
B. Cooper (&)
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
e-mail: [email protected]
L. Grudnoff
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_15
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