What is the Difference Between a Practicum and Student Teaching? Many people consider the terms synonyms, but your teaching degree program may require you to complete both. They are similar, but each has a purpose in preparing you for the classroom.
The Practicum
According to Wikipedia, the practicum is a graduate -level course in which you get supervised experience applying a previously-learned theory. That applies to student teaching as well, so what is unique about the practicum? Think about your first plunge into a cold swimming pool. Often, you slide in and spend some time getting accustomed to the water temperature before you actually swim. Practicum might be compared to that initial phase. Your textbooks may have contained information about the effects of cultural and sociological diversity on a classroom, but in practicum you will experience it.
The practicum course is generally taken the semester before you student teach. You will be assigned to a specific teacher for a set number of hours. You might not be in the classroom every day; the practicum is a class for credit, and so you will also be required to attend seminars and complete some coursework during this time. When you are at the school, you will spend some time in monitored teaching, but you will also assume some auxiliary duties such as grading papers or assisting in setting up lab experiments.
You will have no choice to which practicum you are assigned; that decision is made based on your degree concentrations. If you are completing an online degree, your practicum will not actually be in the classroom, but you will assimilate a portfolio of “artifacts” or documents such as teaching plans.
Student Teaching
Once you become accustomed to the school environment and have developed some self-confidence through the practicum, you are ready to be in the classroom full time. Your preference will be given some consideration in selecting your student teaching assignment. Someone described teaching as part craft, part art and part science. In other words, now that you feel comfortable in the environment, you will develop your style and hone your skills to perfect your craft.
You will learn how to teach content and discover which teaching methods work with special students, or in special environments. You will work with a specific teacher, gradually assuming more teaching responsibilities until you have control of the classroom. You will plan lessons and attend every meeting your mentor-teacher attends, such as staffing meetings, in-services and parent-teacher conferences. Your work day will be longer than an average teaching day because, at the day’s end, you will conference with your mentor.
Often, you will student teach in one class or school for the first several weeks of your assignment, and in another until it culminates. This is so you can experience more than one classroom setting. If you want to become an elementary teacher, for example, you may be assigned a class in the first-through-third grades at the beginning and end with one in the fourth-through –sixth grades. You may also be assigned a completely different school in the second part of the experience to see classes with more diversity.
Marks of Good Programs
Both programs prepare you for certification and for your first day in your own classroom. That is the goal of your education institution and of the school where you take your practicum or student teach. In order for the programs to work, there must be a partnership between both schools. The programs must be flexible and have some type of assessment procedure in place. Sometimes, you will be asked to keep a journal and attend student teaching seminars.
Although schools may classify practicum as simply an early stage of student teaching, it still serves the purpose of allowing you to get comfortable in the “water” before diving into the pool. That is the Difference Between a Practicum and Student Teaching.
