The Use of an App to Value and Promote Student Teachers’ Informal Learning During Their Internship

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Current Issues in Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Workplace Learning (Table 6)

Abstract

Informal student teachers’ learning at the workplace is often undocumented and/or undervalued by themselves and their teacher educators. However, research shows that these learning experiences are valuable and important for student teachers’ development at the workplace. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the potential use of an App that can be helpful in capturing meaningful (learning) experiences of student teachers at the workplace, and to gain insight into the frequency and nature of documented informal (learning) experiences for student teachers’ development. The preliminary results seem to indicate that the App is helpful for student teachers to document their learning process at the workplace, and that the most registered (learning) experiences of student teachers relate to positive experiences.

Authors

• Tom Adams, KW1C

• Michiel Smits, Avans University of Applied Sciences