Examining the difficulties and support during an inquiry-based practicum: pre-service teachers and school mentors’experiences

Abstract

An inquiry-based practicum promotes the development of an inquiring teacher practice involving cycles of planning-action-observation-reflection. This study explores the difficulties and support experienced by pre-service teachers during their participation in an inquiry-based practicum, also collecting the school mentor perceptions. The participants were 14 PSTs and their 14 school mentors. The instruments were semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. The results mainly reveal shared difficulties in setting learning objectives, regulating teaching practice and choosing the focus of intervention. Mentors overlooked PSTs’ difficulties in selecting research articles, a key obstacle. PSTs valued help with tasks related to feedback, especially when the mentor gave them advice to analyse their teaching practice. At some stages, mentors underestimated the importance of their role, which contrasts with the PSTs’ view. This study shows the need to create collaborative spaces where PSTs and mentors share how the inquiry process goes by analysing the prototypical difficulties that have arisen.