4.2. Continuous assessment activities
The activities of the Practicum and their timing throughout the different phases are specified in the teaching plan and in the instructions in the virtual classroom. These activities aim to accompany the students throughout the practical training process, which involves accompanying them in three distinct moments: the moment prior to access to the educational institution, the moment of the practical training and the moment after the lived experience. Throughout this process, the method of reflexive practice becomes the guide to carry out continuous assessment activities (challenges).
The Practicum is structured in six activities or challenges. Below, the objective of each activity is detailed and the weight given to the qualification that is obtained in the assessment of the Practicum.
- Challenge 1. What does it mean to be a teacher in the 21st century? Construction of teaching identity.
The objective of this first activity is for the students to reflect on the meaning of the teaching profession in the current social and cultural contexts, and also on the configuration of the teaching professional identity, while establishing a dialogue between the experiences, motivations and own representations with those of other education professionals. - Challenge 2. Why is ethical training for teachers necessary?
The objective of this activity is for the students to reflect on the ethical principles that must guide the professional practice of the person who practices teaching, and also to identify the strategies suitable for managing and solving possible critical incidents or ethical dilemmas specific to the educational activity. - Challenge 3. Knowledge of the practical training center.
In this activity, contextualized in the first observation phase of the Practicum, the student must analyze the context of the practical training center and its environment in depth, and must also identify the characteristic features of the professional role, the roles and functions developed by their mentoring. - Challenge 4. Development of the reflexive habitus.
The objective of this activity, which involves the preparation of a reflective journal that will accompany the students throughout the course, is to promote the habit of systematic ethical reflection on the set of actions observed, experienced and implemented throughout the three phases of the Practicum. In addition, this activity helps to link the theoretical knowledge learned in the master’s courses with direct experiences in the professional world. - Challenge 5. Design of the learning situation.
This activity consists of designing a learning scenario that the students will have to implement with the students of the educational institution where they are conducting their practical training. The activity should be designed throughout the second phase of the accompanied intervention in the practical training, and must be implemented and evaluated during the third phase 3 of independent intervention. - Challenge 6. Final practical training report.
This activity marks the conclusion of the Practicum course. First of all, the students must evaluate the implementation of the learning scenario they have carried out with the class group in the independent intervention phase. Secondly, they must conduct a final review of the master’s skills they have either developed or consolidated during the practical training period at the educational institution.