In Greece -in some universirties-we apply the Learning by Design approach to allow teachers to engage in action research design activities. Teachers design their curriculum and then apply it in real class context. They design-reflect-apply-evaluate and redesign their curriculum... WE considered teachers as being reflective practitioners and designers,, See more at http://neamathisi.com

Eugenia,

thank you for sharing this. One quick question: Do you include teacher students from university into your Learning by Design Approach or is this tailored to certified teachers who have a job in the school System?

A combination of both. Open is to give them freedom to assess what they are finding on the field and to keep detailed journaling with some guidelines of what a supervisor visiting a student on TE (teaching experience) would like to see recorded in their daily journals; what they noticed, why is it significant to them; how they think they can use it or not use it and why. The guidelines may not be rigid but will give them ideas of what to look for as they see teaching and learning unfold before their eyes. It should give them the chance to write freely without having to tick a box.

Then when the supervisor goes to visit, s/he can read and assign marks (subjective at best) as have been pre-assigned after observing a class with the student; and then they (supervisor and student-teacher can discuss together what was observed and what reflective journals the student-teacher has been recording. Student-teacher must write a reflective journal everyday of the class s/he observes. Such journaling must be read by the supervisor and assigned a mark which accumulates to an overall mark. Journaling will help students with the final report Without a mark, students may not take TE seriously. Good luck.

From your description it is not entirely clear to me if the student teachers have to observe themselves or if they have to observe other (senior) teachers. In the first case I would recommend you to look into the work of Maaike Endedijk on self-regulated learning of student teachers. In her research she uses logs to capture learning experiences of student teachers during their internship.

Thank you Hildert for your ideas. To clarifiy: My question is about a 3 week internship very early in the program (after the 1st semester) in which the main focus is on the observation of other teachers and of the everyday life in School. It is called an orientation practicum to help students to explore the challenges of the life of a teacher.

First, lets admit that teaching job belongs to the men and women of instruction, to those who have devoted themselves to the others' becoming, to those who enjoy helping others to dominate and overcome their learning obstacles to become useful and helpful people of their kind. Teacher acts as a bridge to let the people joyfully and happily pass him through from what they already are to what they potentially deserve to be. Could you ever imagine how venerable and self rewarding this job is? No one can understand this except those men and women of education and human development.

To generate (not train or produce) a teacher first we should let the candidate learn from himself in communication with his/her learners to get a deep sense of learning appreciation. to do so, let the candidate openly express his feelings from his/her first teaching experience and how he/she has deliberately developed it.

Rewarding teaching candidates for their encouraging experiences helps them to feel influential and leading others to become a better learner and social actor.

To me, self evaluation, peer evaluation, learner evaluation and even evaluation by parents can improve teaching character and personality respectively. We should apply a procedure in teacher education to to let the candidate get the essence of human development and leading learners to become what they potentially deserve.

Deserve to be followed, to be impressed, to be appreciated for their creative and humanitarian wonders actions. Therefore, why not to develop a mean to let the candidates learn from their performance, learning outcome, learners' reaction and expectations, as well as from their superior leading colleagues, while letting them to imitate their past wonder teachers versus those who disliked their teaching most. Good luck

Wow great question, as a Leadership member for school improvement it is my experience that it all comes down to what is going on in the classroom. If we don't nurture the learning environment conductive for student success, collaborate to plan for learning, and analyze data concerning student performance more than one way we cant get a good insight of what student will be able to do and should know. For learners like yours, it is very important that they are guided with specific observation checklist and elaborate later with open ended question in which they use their practical observation experience in a more structured way. Beginning learners need to know what to look for in order to make a better connection with the role of the teachers and the purpose behind it. As an example: I can do a walk-through observations in 3 minutes to know what is going on in the class but it also takes years of experience to be able to do that.

Hmm..... for the early practicum you describe, Margarete, and the goal you mention ("help students explore the challenges of the life of a teacher"), I lean toward a very open-ended approach of observation and description (seems a great time to practice just recording what they see without judgment) followed by a reflection on clear and also potential challenges - with a rationale for why these particular situations (or competing efforts for equally valid aims) might become challenges. I also didn't catch how much theory they've had before the internship, but my sense is not much, so looking with an early lens of making that transition from student to teacher perspective could happen more naturally with a less restrictive set of guidelines.