The role and quality of internships in teacher education and the practical relevance of university teacher training courses from the students’ point of view

Abstract

The theoretical content of university teacher training can be linked to practical experience through internships and practical teacher training courses. Study findings suggest that teacher students’ percept internships as central part of their university teacher training. To date we know little about how teacher students define the role and quality of internships and practical teacher training courses. In this study, we used focus group interviews to investigate students’ perceptions about the role of internships in teacher education as well as about teacher students’ perceptions of their quality. The results show that teacher students perceive intern-ships as an opportunity to test and get feedback about their teaching competences and to verify their career choice. The participants (N=12) in this study further per-ceived practical teacher training courses as encouraging to transfer theoretical con-tent into practice, but also wished a stronger academic foundation in their courses. Furthermore, we discuss possible implications for university teacher training.