Reorganization of Practicum in Initial Teacher Education: A Search for Challenges in Implementation by Ex-Ante Evaluation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v4i9.806Keywords:
Implementation of change, Initial Teacher Education, logic model, practicumAbstract
The background of the study is a perceived need of increasing quality in practice during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Sweden. In order to achieve higher quality, the government encourages reorganization towards a limited number of practice schools, competence development for supervisors and research focusing on the selected practice schools. The aim of this study is to present and critically discuss prerequisites for implementation of the reform. The paper focuses on how a preliminary logic model and a SWOT analysis can show challenges encountered during the implementation of the reorganization. By using the logic model and the SWOT analysis an ex-ante evaluation was carried out in two steps. The results disclosed that the motivation behind reorganization, improving the quality of practicum, might meet some challenges. Indicators of higher quality being attained are not provided; the local organization is expected to construct such indicators during the process. In contrast to the challenges the results showed that the implementation was supported by earlier good relations and a common idea of developing practicum in ITE. The implication for implementation is a need to have a dialogue about indicators for quality among different stakeholders in ITE. Without such a dialogue it can be disputed whether the change in practicum was successful.
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