The Importance of Experience with Children in the Professional Training of Primary School Teachers

Ristret

The research literature has comprehensively demonstrated that teacher training must include the analysis of subject-specific teaching proposals, tools and methods for the transition from knowledge to competence to occur, and for the future teacher to know how to create learning environments in which students’ personal involvement is as valuable as their mastery of different subjects. The model that integrates the Metacultural, Experiential, Planning and Situated modalities, and which has been studied and tested over the past two decades within the Physics Education course at the University of Udine’s 5-year Master’s degree for prospective primary teachers, has proven its worth in the transition of subject appropriation from knowledge to competence. This then enables those who will become teachers to create learning environments in which there is effective personal involvement of learners. In this model, the Situated phase – which involves the implementation in classrooms of pathways designed by prospective teachers – plays an important role both for the in-training or in-service teacher and for introducing research-based instructional innovation and materials into schools. The model envisions an in-school micro-apprenticeship in science education, in this case Physics, capable of producing school-university links and collaborations on two levels: firstly, the sharing of trainee teacher skills assessments and, secondly, the contribution of educational innovation and professional development of in service teachers from the research-based teaching paths and materials. Situated learning, produced by field experiences carried out in the classroom and by the monitoring and analysis of children’s learning pathways and outcomes, allows for the consolidation of professional competence which is complemented with the reflection and evaluation of the entire training path taken by future teachers. Responsibility for the implementation and evaluation of Teaching Intervention Modules (TIMs) in the context of the Physics Education Course has produced a new model of institutional collaboration between university and school. In this model, triangulation between the Course, Laboratory and Internship is created, an integration that is achieved through innovative models of teaching interventions based on educational research into science education in primary school. Moreover, this approach has encouraged the integration of the professionalism of the experienced teacher with that of the teacher-in training. This paper analyses the impact on schools of teaching interventions involving 360 in-service teachers and an equal number of trainee teachers over three years.