External placements in university teacher training degrees

Abstract

A comparative evaluation of the curricula of university teacher training degrees has been carried out within the ECALFOR Project, an international consortium of 19 institutions from nine countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. One of the aspects analysed was the development of external placement, also known as pre-professional practices or internships, as part of the training of future teachers. The main objective of this analysis is to extract information on the internship process in university teacher training degrees to obtain a solid basis for decision-making on future university quality assurance policies and processes. Using the content analysis methodology, the self-reports of each institution participating in the project were analysed, concluding that there is a wide variation in the number of hours of external placements across the study plans analysed (the average duration of placements in centres/schools is 510 hours, ranging from 160 hours in the lowest study plans to 1200 in those that focus on more practical training). However, regarding student supervision, in most institutions tutoring is shared between the university and the placement centre, regardless of the country or the characteristics of the university where the degree is taught.