Partnerships in Preservice Teacher Education

1. Partnerships in Preservice Teacher Education Anne Scott & Adam Staples (SEDVIC) TD grant

2. Project Aims • To establish structures for welcoming international students into the School of Education referred to as the Buddy Partnerships; and, • To establish structures for communicating supportive feedback about international students’ academic writing referred to as Writing Partnerships.

3. Buddy Partnerships • team comprised ACU National staff and preservice teachers from the Melbourne campus: • Dr Anne Scott, Mr Adam Staples, Ms Elizabeth Murray, Ms Maria Muskovic, Ms GayanjiAmunugama, Ms DelphineLubin, Ms Dominique Smith and Ms Julia Ripley (SEDVIC) • Ms Mary McInerney and Ms Geraldine Butler (Mission Engagement) • Ms Mary Campbell (IACE)

4. The pilot project group: • Socialised with international students (ACU students and chn in the local commission flats) • Reflected on their experiences as a group and considered implications for themselves as teachers and issues affecting learners

5. The pilot project group: • listed challenges some international students faced; • discussed and offered to implement a series of strategies to promote inclusive behaviours with international students; • offered to work with International students using the WebCT training unit ICT Essentials to become familiar with some of the tools and functions for example, participating in online discussions; • offered to present summaries of complex aspects of coursework such as definitions and examples of learning theories; and, • identified related strategies which promote inclusivity for use in primary and/or secondary classrooms.

6. Developments from the TD grant • given the success of the pilot Buddy partnerships, implemented a similar process with all preservice teachers enrolled in a core unit in BEd3 - EDFX207 Community Engagement in 2009. • 130 BEd3 working as tutors/learning partners with international children in the Homework Club on the Atherton Gardens, Fitzroy Estate. • The activities addressed socialisation, inclusivity, and enabled BEd3 preservice teachers to learn and use the Reflective Inquiry processes for responding to experiences as journal entries, similar to those produced in the pilot project.

7. Photos of journal entries and workshops

8. Writing Partnerships • team comprised both ACU National staff and preservice teachers from the Melbourne campus: Dr Anne Scott, Dr Josephine Ryan, two ACU National international MTch Primary preservice teachers and 15 BT/BA secondary preservice teachers enrolled in the English Method class (SEDVIC); Ms Nancy Reid and Ms Pat Hacker (Academic Skills Team).

9. Pilot project group: • Secondary English method PSTs gave written feedback to international primary PSTs on drafts of written assignments

10. POSITIVES • high levels of engagement and interest from all participants: • secondary English method preservice teachers reported valuing the authentic task. • international MTch Primary preservice teachers appreciated the feedback but would have liked more specificity in the constructive feedback and the opportunity to resubmit their work again after having had another go. Unfortunately, the latter suggestion was not feasible given the nature of assessment tasks in a 12 week semester.

11. Developments from the TD grant • In 2009 Dr Ryan embedded the activity into the assessment schedule for the English method unit (as an optional activity)