Abstract
In most of the German federal states, a long-term internship is part of teacher education at universities. Notably, an internship aims to relate theory and practice. Despite the important role attributed to mentors, only little is known about their perspective. According to previous results, the mentoring of students varies. This could be due, among others, to different ideas about the relationship between theory and practice. The explorative inter-view study presented below is therefore dedicated to mentors’ ideas of the relationship between theory and prac-tice. The following research questions were investigated:
1) Are the mentors prepared for the task of linking theory and practice?
2) Do the mentors' stories on successful and unsuccessful mentoring experiences reveal theory-practice-relational figures, if so, which and do efforts to relate theory and practice become apparent?
3) Do theory-practice-relational figures become visible in the mentors' narratives on their own learning history, if so, what and what relative role does knowledge play from the mentors' perspective in the context of their skill development?
4) What understanding of knowledge of the mentors is reflected in the transcripts and what relevance is attribut-ed to knowledge in comparison to experience, reflection of experience and personality?
The results show that the mentors rarely address the theory-practice relationship, use the term “knowledge” to name both knowing that and knowing how, and attach greater relevance to experience for skill development than to didactic and pedagogical knowledge.
Translated title of the contribution | Theory-pracitice relationship in internships: The perspective of mentors. An exploratory study |
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Original language | German (Austria) |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Fields of science
- 502052 Business administration
- 503 Educational Sciences
- 503002 Applied education
- 503007 Didactics
- 503014 Subject didactics of social sciences
- 503030 Business education
- 501016 Educational psychology
- 501003 Occupational psychology
- 501011 Cognitive psychology
- 603102 Epistemology
- 503001 General education
- 503005 Vocational education
- 503006 Educational research
- 503025 School pedagogy