Student perspectives on internship advisors in the context of Supervised Teaching Practice

Abstract

The internship advisor is a teacher with the necessary professional experience, who welcomes the student into his/her class. This is someone whose contributions become essential for the realization of the Supervised Teaching Practice. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to present the results of a research work that integrates the perspective, of students who perform STP in Primary Education, about the role and function performed by the internship supervisor, in the with regard to the monitoring it provides to them. This investigation included data collection procedures based, firstly, on a quantitative methodology, on the results obtained through a questionnaire survey of 48 students, deepened by a qualitative methodology, on data obtained through a focus group of 6 students. The results show that students value the monitoring given by supervisors, in some of its aspects. In the first impact with the school reality, they value very positively the way they are informed of all aspects of functioning, norms and different bodies, but they are very critical with regard to their involvement in actions with families and the community. They extol incentives for the use of diverse and developmentally appropriate teaching methods and learning techniques. They understand that the advisor is important, in the sense that it provides more effective learning and a deeper knowledge of what practical reality is. At the same time, they value accompaniment based on respect, understanding and intellectual honesty.