A practice-focussed industry partnership for geography education

Authors and presenters

• Bianca Coleman, School of Education, CALE

• Stephanie Richey, School of Education, CALE

Abstract

Critically appraising and reflecting on the practices of other teachers helps pre-service teachers (PSTs) to improve their own teaching practice (Atkinson & Bolt, 2010). In this presentation, we discuss our trial of a practice-focussed industry partnership (PFIP) between PSTs, in-service teachers (ISTs), and teacher educators (TEs) within a secondary geography teacher education unit. In the PFIP, we (the TEs) co-facilitated with the ISTs synchronous online group discussions that provided PSTs with opportunities to critically appraise and reflect on geography teaching practices, including: lesson plans, teaching materials, and de-identified student work samples.

Specifically, we will discuss the design and implementation of the PFIP, including the relationship we developed with the Tasmanian Geography Teachers’ Association whose members participated in the PFIP. We will explore some challenges we encountered in developing the PFIP (both institutional and professional) and explain the opportunities we see for embedding a PFIP model within teacher education at the University of Tasmania. We will draw on evaluative data we have collected to identify PSTs’ perceptions of the PFIP. its impact on their engagement with the unit, and how these findings have informed our thinking about future iterations of the PFIP.

Reference

Atkinson, D. J., & Bolt, S. J. (2010). Using teaching observations to reflect upon and improve teaching practice in higher education. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(3), 1-19. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ906466