What are the practicums?
At UC, we understand how fundamental it is in the training of teachers for excellence to have a set of experiences in the early stages of their training that will allow them to analyze, approach and put into practice what they learn.
Great part of these experiences happen in the school classroom. With this objective in mind it is that the Program’s curriculum includes six progressive practicums in which the students are assigned to Schools, from different sociocultural contexts, also guaranteeing an alternation between primary and secondary school classes.
During these practicums, teacher trainees will be accompanied by a supervising professor (SP, or PS in Spanish) from the university and a collaborating teacher (CT, or PC in Spanish) from the school.
In these progressive activities, students will develop actions and interventions that will vary in complexity according to their curricular progress, until they take over the role of teaching in one or more classes during their Professional Practicum.
For the training of our future teachers it is imperative that what they learn is implemented in the system’s school classrooms before they enter the labor market. Through them they will realize how to put into practice their knowledge and what they have learned, perfecting different teaching modalities. Thus, as graduates from the Program, whose curriculum is based on practice, they will have concrete and varied tools to face the different challenges involved in teaching.
The Program Practicum Coordinating Office assigns each student with a school for the whole first year, taking into consideration variables according to each student’s situation and curricular progress, each school’s requirements and the characteristics of the Practicum Workshops that need to be taken every semester.
The Program of English Language Pedagogy for Primary and Secondary Education includes six practicums from the second semester on. They are organized in the following way:
It is worth noting that, as shown in the diagram, all practicums are done during the second term each year and enrollment will depend on each student’s curricular progress.
They have an essential role as liaison between the university and the school context. Additionally, they are mentors and evaluators in each student trainee’s processes.
Part of their tasks are: