Proceedings IFTE-2020, 1647-1655

doi:10.3897/ap.2.e1647
VI International Forum on Teacher Education

Pedagogical Internship as a Tool of Teacher Professional

Formation
Svetlana A. Miniurova* (a), Natalia S. Belousova (b)

(a), (b) Ural State Pedagogical University, 620017, Yekaterinburg (Russia), 26 Kosmonavtov Ave.,
[email protected]

Abstract
The paper describes the "Pedagogical internship" project concept, presents the main directions of the project
implementation. School-University partnership is considered as one of the conditions for quality education of future
teachers.
Various approaches to the pedagogical internship organization are discussed in the study: "sequential" model of teacher
training for postgraduate education and "parallel" while studying at University. Teacher training cannot be carried out
as part of traditional reproductive education. The study presents the pedagogical internship program, the structural unit
of which is a comprehensive module developed in conjunction with employers aimed at creating an up-to-date set of
professional competencies that meet the teacher’s professional standard and industry-specific education requirements.
The purpose of this study is to identify the effectiveness of the developed internship program for the professional
competencies formation of future teaches.
Two main research methods are used in the study: comparison expert assessments and self-assessments of study
participants and statistical processing of the research results. The expert group included 15 teachers of internship
schools-bases (Yekaterinburg), 25 students of Ural State Pedagogical University.
As a result of the study, both the experts and the students recorded the maximum dynamics in the general professional
competencies development: the ability to carry out training, education and development taking into account social, age,
psychophysical and individual characteristics, including the students’ special educational needs and knowledge of the
professional ethics and speech culture basics.

Keywords: pedagogical internship, professional skills, teacher professional formation, professional competence, teaching skills,
School-University partnership.

© 2020 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Published by Kazan federal university and peer-reviewed under responsibility of IFTE-2020 (VI
International Forum on Teacher Education)

*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
1648 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Introduction

Practical training of future teachers at University is becoming more and more relevant in connection with
the professional standards introduction and the teacher growth national system. Teacher education
programs saturation with a variable system of practices and internships based on the School-University
partnership principles becomes a priority. Entering the teaching profession is most effective in the current
educational organization, which represents, on the one hand, professional actions and technologies samples
and, on the other – a field for gaining experience in solving pedagogical problems. The school becomes a
key source of the most important components of the professionally-oriented training programs content for
future teachers (Margolis, 2014).

The procedure for implementing the School-University partnership is regulated by the Federal law of
02.12.2019 N 403-FL "On amendments to the Federal law "On education in the Russian Federation" and
certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation". The normative act establishes that practical training can
be organized directly at an institution that carries out educational activities, including in its structural
division intended for practical training, as well as at an organization that operates in the profile of the
relevant educational program, including in its structural division intended for practical training, on the basis
of an agreement between these organizations (Federal law of 02.12.2019 N 403-FL).

Consequently, the problem of saturating teacher education programs with an extensive system of practices
and internships based on the principles of School-University partnership, in addition to relevance, also has
great social significance.

Purpose and objectives of the study

Purpose of the study is to identify the developed internship program effectiveness for the formation of
future teachers’ professional competencies.

Literature review

One of the promising forms of School-University partnership is a pedagogical internship. Traditionally, an

internship as a form of one-year postgraduate internship for graduates has been used in medical
universities.

In many countries, the stage of entering the teaching profession requires compulsory postgraduate practice
at school under the guidance of a mentor (Luchkina, 2009; Luchkina & Gracheva, 2010). For example, in
the USA, this is an obligatory one-year internship for future teachers. In the UK, the program "Entry into
 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 1649

the Position" is mandatory during the first year of work at the school. In Japan, a program of intensive
practical training of a trainee teacher with advisory assistance from a mentor is mandatory during the first
year of work at the school. In Canada, internships last one to two years as part of the Entry into the
Professionals program. It involves the development of the ability not only to teach a specific subject, but
also other aspects of work in the school: classroom management, interaction with teachers, parents and
colleagues; orientation in the curriculum of a particular school and district, etc. In Germany, confirmation
of the professional skills of a young teacher is carried out within the framework of the referendum for two
years. An analysis of foreign experience allows us to state that the general nature for the practical training
of future teachers is its mandatory nature, mentoring (tutoring, mentoring, supervision) and a duration of at
least one year.

In Russian higher pedagogical education two models of internship implementation have been tested:
sequential and parallel. The sequential model is implemented as the primary postgraduate specialization of
bachelor's degree graduates in one of the teaching professions, conducted on the basis of educational
organizations under the supervision and guidance of the corresponding university chair (Gevorkyan,
Savenkov, Egorov, & Vachkov, 2015). The parallel model assumes a student's practical profession
immersion in parallel with higher education in the framework of in-depth practice in the main educational
program or additional education (Dubinina, 2010; Furyaeva, 2014).

An analysis of various approaches to the organization of support for young teachers’ intern training allowed
us to develop an authoring program of pedagogical internship.

As part of the parallel training model, we have developed a pedagogical internship program, which has
been implemented since 2015 at Ural State Pedagogical University on the additional education principles
(Miniurova & Leonenko, 2015) The program contains several modules that were developed in conjunction
with employers and are aimed at forming labor functions that meet the teacher professional standard
requirements and the educational environment industry specifics. It is possible to vary modules depending
on the current requests of the educational organizations where interns are sent. The following program
modules are basic and invariant: "In-depth profile training", "Psychological and pedagogical technologies
for working with various students’ contingents", "Practical pedagogical deontology", "Modern forms and
methods of educational work", "Information and documentation support for teacher activities" (Miniurova
& Leonenko, 2016; Miniurova, Leonenko, Bagicheva, & Byvsheva, 2017).
1650 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Methodology

At the stage of internship program approbation was conducted an empirical study to assess the
effectiveness of the students' competencies formation (in accordance with the Federal State Educational
Standard for Higher education (FSES HE). Two main research methods are used in the study: comparison
expert assessments and self-assessments of study participants and statistical processing of the research
results. The expert group included 15 teachers of internship schools-bases (Yekaterinburg), 25 students of
Ural State Pedagogical University. The data were subjected to mathematical and statistical analysis using
the Mann-Whitney U-test (at p≤0.01).

Results

According to expert assessments, statistically significant shifts were obtained for all formed competencies
(figure 1):

Installation stage
Control stage

*GPC2 GPC5 **PC1 PC6 Document

handling

*GPC – General professional competencies

**PC – Professional competencies

Figure 1. Dynamics of the interns' formed competencies development level according to expert assessments
based on internships (average values)
 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 1651

The maximum dynamics is recorded in the general professional competencies development: the ability to
carry out training, education and development taking into account social, age, psychophysical and
individual characteristics, including student’s special educational needs and knowledge of the professional
ethics basics and speech culture. Significant dynamics occurred equally in the professional competencies
development: readiness to implement educational programs on the subject in accordance with the
educational standards requirements), readiness to interact with participants in the educational process. Also,
the experts noted the document handling skills and knowledge development in teacher's activity.

From the point of view of interns themselves, the dynamics is also positive and reliable (U-Mann-Whitney
criterion, p≤0.01) for all formed competencies (figure 2):

Installation
stage
Control
stage

GPC2 GPC5 PC1 PC6 Document

handling

Figure 2. Dynamics of the formed competencies development according to the interns’ self-assessment
(average values)

The maximum dynamics from the interns point of view is recorded in the development level of the ability
to carry out training, education and development taking into account social, age, psychophysical and
individual characteristics, including the students’ special educational needs. It should be noted that at the
installation stage, interns assessed the level of this competence as the minimum in the formed competencies
profile. The maximum increase in the level of this competence is recorded in expert assessments. The
identified trend allows us to consider the module aimed at the formation of this competence, on the one
hand, as the most popular, on the other hand, the training content and technology – the most effective,
which is also recorded in the interns’ questionnaires.
1652 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Interns evaluate quite highly the document handling ability in the teacher's activity. At the same time, to a
lesser extent, they note the professional competence development, which implies readiness to interact with
participants in the educational process. Perhaps this is due to the fact that at the installation stage, students
rated the degree of its formation quite high, which reduced the zone of nearest development. According to
expert assessments, the dynamics in the development of this competence is more pronounced with the same
high level of communicative competence at the installation stage. Perhaps this competence for interns is not
yet included in the zone of active awareness and will be updated as the theory and methodology of
conducting classes are mastered.

In general, the analysis of the pedagogical internship program testing results allowed us to state the positive
dynamics in the level of all the formed competencies development and clarify the objectives of the
pedagogical internship program development.

The following areas were chosen as priorities at the next stage of the project development: organization of
interns' immersion in the profession through familiarization with the best educational practices, educational
and developmental classes to fill the deficit of students' competencies, practice-oriented work of interns
with mentors and tutors in educational organizations.

The database formation of best educational practices and the creation of a teachers-tutors and teachers-
mentors pool took place in close cooperation with the Education department of Yekaterinburg. Educational
organizations have demonstrated high involvement in the School-University partnership process and
organically integrated interns into current activities, providing all conditions for practical involvement.

The interns' deficient competencies analysis revealed the following. Students showed the lowest formation
degree of such competencies as readiness to accept different children, regardless of their educational
capabilities, physical and mental development, behavior characteristics; readiness to interact with
participants in the educational process (primarily with the students’ parents). To work with the identified
deficits, master classes were developed and conducted on the following topics: "Game technologies in the
work of a teacher", " Working with parents. Innovative technologies in working with parents»; a foresight
session "Secrets of successful work of a teacher with parents" was organized; trainings "Effective
communication" and "Speech improvisations" were held.

Discussions

The results of the study showed that both experts and students recorded the maximum dynamics in the
development of general professional competencies: the ability to conduct training, education and
 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 1653

development taking into account social, age, psychophysical and individual characteristics, including the
special educational needs of students and knowledge of the professional ethics and culture of speech basics.

Conclusion

A new stage in the pedagogical internship development was the students’ participation in the First large-
scale federal competition of teacher teams "Teacher of the Future" of the presidential platform "Russia-the
country of opportunities", which was held this academic year with the Ministry of Education of the Russian
Federation support.

Interns had the opportunity to learn new educational technologies and ways for building communication
with all educational process participants, which were demonstrated during the competition by the
organizers and participating teachers. The result of this stage was the signing of an agreement on
cooperation and interaction of the competition organizer "Teacher of the Future" – Autonomous non-profit
organization "Russia – the country of opportunities" with Ural State Pedagogical University.

The agreement subject is to support projects and initiatives that contribute to the creation of opportunities for
citizens personal and professional self-realization, development of practice-oriented education, training of
qualified personnel, including within the framework of the professional competition "Teacher of the Future".

This collaboration involves the student track development in the next season of the competition "Teacher of
the Future". Participation in a professional competition at the student's life stage will be a good start in the
practical activities field for future teachers.

Openness to the new, interest in the experience of the best pedagogical practices, search for relevant
solutions for the constantly updated educational reality are the key challenges of the competition student
track "Teacher of the Future", that are in tune with the idea of a pedagogical internship.

Thus, pedagogical internship as an innovative form of students practical training on the principles of
School-University partnership contributes to the professional development of future teachers, the design of
their personal and professional development. Employment of internship graduates in educational
organizations-partners of the project is a key indicator of its effectiveness.
1654 Svetlana A. Miniurova, Natalia S. Belousova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Acknowledgements

The work is performed according to the Development Program of Ural State Pedagogical University.

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