Qualified practicum period - Challenges and opportunities connected to proven experience

Education should be based on a scientific foundation and proven experience. This constitutes one of the cornerstones in the Higher Education Act (SFS, 1992:1434, 1 chapter §2) as well as in the Education Act (SFS, 2010:800, 1 chapter §5). However, the exact meanings of these concepts are not always clear and are interpreted differently by professionals (Bergmark & Hansson, 2021). During practicum periods, students encounter and develop proven experience. For instance, studies have shown that students' learning during VFU strongly depends on the social situation that the student and supervisor develop, which is assumed to influence the experiences created in their relationship (Strand, 2021). However, there are few studies that focus on aspects of teacher students' practicum periods (Toom et al., 2017), which, along with the multifaceted interpretation of proven experience, makes it interesting to study how local teacher educators share their experiential knowledge in supervision sessions with students.

The aim of the project is to study, discuss and critically examine different aspects of proven experience that emerge during supervision sessions between students and local teacher educators in the field. A broader objective is to contribute to bridging what is often described as a 'gap between theory and practice' in students' teacher education.

The project's theoretical foundation is rooted in pragmatism, where experiences are given significant importance. To interpret and understand how local teacher educators express proven experience, the project employs theories of teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2015). In the project, data have been collected in the form of video-recorded conversations between students and supervisors within the practicum periods. Seven conversations, ranging from 30-60 minutes, have been recorded and transcribed.

The project is funded by LUN. The researchers involved are Ebba Hildén, Susanne Duek, Åsa Melin, and Jehona Tahiri-Berg.Top of Form