University Coordinators – Support and Supervision of pre-service teachers during professional experience
The University Coordinator supports site coordinators, supervising teachers and pre-service teachers during a professional experience placement. Successful placements depend on an effective partnership between university staff, school-based teacher educators (supervising teachers and site coordinators) and pre-service teachers.
Important processes for enacting a successful partnership are shown in the flowchart below. These processes ensure:
- Support for all pre-service teachers regardless of their mode of enrolment in a course or geographic location for a professional experience placement
- Clarity for all participants about the valued tasks and activities and the expectations of a pre-service teacher for a given placement
- Timely provision of feedback for pre-service teachers in relation to their strengths and areas in need of improvement
- Consistency of judgements about the quality of a pre-service teacher’s progress towards, or demonstration of, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Level) at a stage appropriate for a specific professional experience placement.
The processes shown by the flowchart symbols are explained in more detail in the following table.
Symbol, focus and purpose | Suggested preparation / supervision / support strategies |
---|---|
Focus: Information and Guidelines booklet Purpose: Building knowledge of the expectations and assessment requirements for clear and accurate communication and support | University Coordinators should take particular note of the following sections which are included in each Information and Guidelines booklet:
Note: The PowerPoint below illustrates each of these important sections of the Information and Guidelines booklets with explanatory notes. |
Focus: Planning templates and other unit assessment Purpose: Providing targeted support for placement tasks and the collection of evidence for the university-based portfolio task | University Coordinators should be familiar with the unit learning materials on the Moodle site and the unit profile with a particular focus on:
Note: Samples of planning can be found in the Evidence topic on the Schools and Pre-service teacher pages of this site. |
Focus: Contact / site visits Purpose: Support, clarification and consistency of judgement against the standards for the placement | University Coordinators contact supervising teachers and pre-service teachers to clarify expectations and provide support and guidance during the placement. Contact includes:
Note: Suggested guidelines for contact and support are included in the topic “Guidelines for support. |
Focus: Reporting Purpose: Record keeping for final grades | University Coordinators respond to the Interim Report to provide feedback and support to pre-service teachers. They check all reporting documents for accurate completion and co-sign the summative report with supervising teachers, site coordinators and pre-service teachers. |
Key sections of the Information and Guidelines booklet
This PowerPoint identifies the main sections of the Information and Guidelines booklet that are important for University Coordinators to understand and be able to explain and discuss with supervising teachers in the early stages of a professional experience placement.
Guidelines for support: Contact or Site Visits during professional experience
The guidelines provided here are examples of practices that University Coordinators can use to support high quality professional experience placements. The guidelines include suggestions for communication with supervising teachers and site coordinators and strategies for monitoring and moderating the pre-service teachers’ progress in the placement with school / learning site partners. The suggested strategies are outlined to support academic staff involved in supervision roles for professional experience, particularly those staff who may be undertaking this role for the first time.
Initial Contact with supervising teachers / site coordinators
Contact during the block placement – monitoring and moderating pre-service teachers’ progress
Resources for University Coordinators
These resources can be used to support the moderation process during site visits. They can be used to guide oral feedback or record written feedback for pre-service teachers in distance locations after the University Coordinator has received samples of artefacts from their working portfolios.
Each checklist uses the same rating scale as the Interim and Summative reports and identifies artefacts that would be useful sources of evidence for monitoring the pre-service teacher’s progress. The checklist descriptors are based on the Guide to Making Judgements for each placement to create a useful guide for evaluation and feedback purposes.
Professional Practice 1 Moderation Checklist
Professional Practice 2 Moderation Checklist