This paper offers an overview of what motivates and challenges Australian supervising teachers to work with preservice teachers in their classrooms. In the contemporary Australian context of new National Professional Standards for Teachers, a new national curriculum and new standards for Initial Teacher Education programs, what motivates and…

The language of "impact" has been foregrounded in the recent lexicon of Australian initial teacher education (ITE). How teacher education programmes and supervising teachers identify and assess the impact of pre-service teachers' work with learners across a professional placement is a pressing issue for ITE providers. This paper reports…

Positive relationship building between the university and the schools that receive their pre-service teachers are crucial to developing quality educators fit for the teaching profession. This paper presents an overview of a mentor workshop that was introduced by the professional experience unit of a regional university in Australia. The aim of the…

Teacher educators across the world face a daunting task: preparing predominantly White, middle class, pre-service teachers to be effective educators of diverse students. With predispositions arguably more powerful socialising influences than pre-service education (Lortie, 1975), selective recruitment has been advocated: "picking the right…

While embedded in teacher professional standards and assumed aspects of teacher professionalism, willingness and ability to engage in professional dialogue about practice and curriculum initiatives are rarely examined or explicitly taught in teacher education programs. With this in mind, the authors designed an assessment task for pre-service…

This paper reports on research that suggests a new view of assessment of the practicum in teacher education. By transcending the stereotypes of "failing" student teachers who do not achieve traditional benchmarks, this new lens highlights the complexity, diversity and inequality of experiences through listening to the voices of the…

This study focused on supervisory processes used by primary teachers in Queensland, Australia, who were perceived to be excellent student teacher supervisors. Structured interviews were conducted with 32 supervising teachers working with student teachers, some of whom were also interviewed. Synthesis of data collected from these interviews…

This study explored, through phenomenological interviewing, the impact of a semester-long collaborative professional development course on the perceptions and practices of four teachers in relation to their supervisory roles. Results indicated that the teachers valued work that was self-directed, considered their expressed needs, and let them…

The supervision of neophytes in all professional vocations is a complex and multifaceted process and not really achieved without adequate training and experience. This project's aim was to develop innovative, problem solving, teaching resources in the form of "case knowledge" episodes to provide "strategic knowing" activities…