e-Learning platforms intro

Originally, I had planned on writing about the introductory seminars for Moodle in my last term at teacher training. It was an interesting experience, but I kind of got away from the topic as the term went on. Now I got the opportunity to hold a Mahara workshop for a couple of teachers and sort of experience the whole process from a different perspective. Although I've been working with Mahara for quite a while now, I actually never got around to work with it in a primary/secondary school setting.

The premise at both the workshop and my seminar was that the attendees were all rookies in terms of the platform itself. For the Moodle course, there were student teachers in their last term, while for the Mahara seminar, there were experienced primary and secondary teachers present. Obviously the biggest difference was that for the Moodle course we had a full university term to work with, but the Mahara seminar took around 2-3 hours. Therefore it is clear that there is no way to attain the same level of detail in a couple of hours compared to a process that lasts a couple of months.

My first encounter with both platforms was very similar. The first time I got in contact with each of them I basically didn't have any guidance. Our first Mahara version was very low on features and usability compared to every version since. Also, we were the first group at the university to use the platform, so we were kind of the test-dummies. I guess that's why my whole mindset later was to just go out there and click my way through everything by myself. I say that because my first encounter with Moodle was me getting the task of creating and filling a Moodle course structure with content, but the content I was supposed to work in, being nowhere close to my field of expertise.  So as I built and explored, I simultaneously learned about the platform itself - about what it can do, how it can do it. A thinking process for how it can be used properly for my own work started right away.

This "click-and-explore" approach is obviously not always the ideal choice. Especially when it comes to beginners for e-Learning platforms, there is a bit of restraint. Although I like to tell the participants in my workshops that they should do exactly that, I always leave it to the very end. It is important to get rid of the "fear of the unknown" in the beginning. The relationship between user and platform has to become somewhat natural for them to be able to use this approach. The best way to achieve that is still a simple step-by-step guide about the basic handling of the system. The key is to get to a spot where the handling becomes second-nature and you can focus on more important things, namely talking about the actual benefits for using a specific platform.

Of course it takes a while to get over the shakiness, but most of the time e-Learning platforms work along the same principles and it is enough to give participants a simple framework of how to use the system. This is all easier said than done, but unless attending a workshop about a new e-Learning platform is "mandatory" (in their own mind), the participants are open to experiencing new things. It also adds extra motivation, helps swaying their mood and opinion if they are shown the "upgrades" a platform can bring to their teaching and their work.

All in all, it is interesting to think about personal experiences with a certain kind of introductory method and how it can work in various settings, be it beginners in the field of e-Learning or absolute pros wanting to try out something new.

Connecting Theory and Practice

This is one of my favorite teacher-education related questions, because most of the time, it seems like this is what it's all about (or at least, what is should be about, and also what a lot of people want it to be). It often feels like certain issues already arise during teacher training, and instead of them being worked out, they just foster and later come out when the teachers are in school. The problem with that is - if they aren't fixed right away, they will be really tough to iron out when it becomes a real issue. New teachers have a lot to worry about, they can't just take some time off and think about their mistakes and try to fix them. Usually, there is also no time for lengthy consultation, not that there is no help and support available, but rarely can every party involved actually take time for that.

For me personally, there are two examples of how theory can be connected to practice seamlessly. Although I was regularly made aware of it during the last couple of years, it got me thinking again a couple of days ago. I might have written about this topic while I was in Sweden, but it randomly came up again this week. I was talking about someone who apparently did some sort of mediation course as an addition to his regular studies. The point was, that this person really enjoyed that course, just like I did when I attended a conflict handling seminar at the university. He talked about how he could use it more and more for his regular work. Although the demand for that specific help wasn't that high, it kept getting better and better, but that is not the point. 

The point for me was simple. He talked about how much this course actually helped him in his private life. This is where I remembered the time in Sweden, where I was attending this course pretty much simultaneously to working at a couple of schools. The combination of these two happening if you will, was the best experience I could have asked for. One day, I heard about all this stuff at the university. (This is especially interesting, because it was a course designed for teachers, it was conflict handling in pre-school and school.) And the next day, I could, or to be more precise, I had to use the techniques I was taught the day before, in real-life situations. I crack a smile to this day thinking about how it all came together, it couldn't have been any better. As someone who wants to become a teacher, nothing is better than getting to know some techniques and being able to immediately use them in a real-life. Before I get into this connectivity more, I'd like to share another experience.

The second example is also nothing new or surprising. In my experience, schools and/or countries have different approaches when it comes to substitute teaching. I can't say which one I think is better, I can only compare the two forms that I know of. I assume the more common way for substitute teaching (at least in Austria), is that if one of the teachers can't make it, somebody else from the teacher group has to step in. That obviously means that whenever somebody has an open spot, and still a few hours "left to spend", that teacher gets (has) to take that lesson. 
Now a different approach is to have 'external' substitute teachers coming in and replacing the missing teachers. It is basically an on-call situation, where if someone can't make it, they give a substitute a call and ask him or her to come in and take that one, or possibly even more lessons. I was lucky enough to experience the latter, not only that, I got to experience it in a different country. I must admit, being a student-teacher and always looking for additional ways to gain experience at that time, I was more than excited to being able to do that, even though the age groups were not really the ones I was studying for. Upon coming back, I had a chat with one of my colleagues, who, similar to my story, started teaching a couple of hours at a school in his second year (out of three). We agreed on quite a few things. 
Mainly that there is nothing more valuable than being thrust into the fire. Compared to "teaching practice", being a substitute teacher means that you are on your own, and that it is REAL. There is no mentor or guide who will help you if you get stuck during a lesson,  you have be quick to adjust and think on your feet. The responsibility is all on ones shoulder. And since reflection is the basic tool for any student-teacher, not even that is lost, because, and I say this from experience, you really WANT to reflect about the lessons you had.

In thinking more and more about these stories, the question for me became about how a real connection can be made between the two, without turning the whole system upside down, especially because there are a lot of efforts to improve the educational system, on every level. Lower secondary schools in Austria have started to incorporate more and more team-teaching in the main subjects. I really like this approach, and it offers a lot of possibilities to make life better for student-teachers. 

The way it is set up now, it could very well stay the same. For the first term, all student-teachers are only observers in the classroom. Starting with the second, they take on more and more responsibilities. The biggest difference would actually be from the universities side. The teaching student-teachers receive should change, so that it really reflects what they are already experiencing at school. 

Like I already mentioned above, the connection has to be made at a different stage in the process. Now with the help of team-teaching, there is room for a different approach. Student-teachers could learn very specific practical things in their own education, and with the support structure of another teacher, who would just keep going with their own teaching, the student-teachers could work on their own. That way the up and coming teachers could try out stuff and have an experience similar to what a substitute teacher would go through. Maybe the idea would be to incorporate many different methods and ideas into the practical teacher education. It would mean that student-teachers take part in mostly seminars, where there is constant communication and collaboration. There is no need for old-timey lectures where student-teachers sit and listen for hours on end, because that is not what they will need in school. The most important thing they should be able to do is communicate. With communication comes collaboration. In my opinion, there can never be enough seminars. The need for smaller groups is there, and makes it easier to connect with each other. It would help with the practical training as well, in seminars there is the possibility to work out things together. The groups get a topic they should teach the next day, but since not everyone is in the same situation, there has to be some change in the method and the approach. The best way to figure out what to do, is talk to somebody else and get their opinion, in the end maybe they can use this method in their own teaching. 

The good thing is, both issues are relevant. There is already something in place for both, the intriguing thing would be find out how they really work, and if there are means to improve upon them. There are many opportunities out there for change, and the easiest way to improve the educational system is by improving its teacher.

Glad-uation

The last couple of seminars came and went, the stress to get the final few grades in time was mounting, but it all soon disappeared into a calm and somewhat empty feeling - it was actually time for the graduation.

I wanted to write something after it was all said and done, but it actually didn't feel like it would have been possible, or even necessary. We finished our teacher training program after three, now seemingly not so long, years. It started slowly but nonetheless exciting. It felt like the right choice and everybody was eager to learn, improve, reflect and go on the way to become a teacher. The more time people spend with the teacher training program, the more they get to know how everything works, which is obvious - but in this case, it was not a good thing that you could peak behind the curtain more and more.

Although I spent my second out of three years studying and working abroad, my classmates and me started our last year with a similar opinion of everything. It is kind of amusing to think about that - my opinion changed because I encountered a whole new world, while studying abroad and my classmates just got fed up with everything that kept coming their way at home, but either way, we both ended up at the same waypoint. 

The closer you get to the end, the more the motivation creeps back in. At the end of the day, you still want to finish and graduate on time with everything in place. Added motivation came from the fact that apparently only a pretty low percentage of classes actually graduate within the time frame given for this Bachelors program. So if you have an opportunity to be part of this special group, you change to a different gear.

When it was all said and done, there was a strange feeling - it felt just like before. Nothing has changed. I guess that happens when regardless of the qualifications you receive, you feel like you just want to leave the institution as soon as possible, especially when you feel like it doesn't actually prepare you for your future as well as it should. 

My biggest motivation and moment of happiness were the new challenges that lie ahead. These last two terms felt like a basic course, and even there, a basic course that doesn't even offer you any good basics. Now that this is out of the way, I'm looking forward to a different study program. I will be able to focus more, almost solely, on the educational topics that have been the closest to me the last couple of years. 

So in a sense a Glad-uation means that you're both glad that you managed to finish your education, as well as being glad to start with the things that are in your wheelhouse and more advanced. Either way, it has a positive connotation.

Topic round-up: performance assessment, law, content and a change

Since my last post we have reached a new waypoint. We are so close to finishing that there are actually more days off for official holidays, than there are days where we have to be present at the university. With this shift in direction came the interesting change in demeanor and/or mindset for quite a few of our teachers. Before, I often wrote about my general issue of not enough real-life-related teachings for us, but since the last term has started, it feels like there is somewhat of a panic creeping in, with the realization that a lot of the student-teachers are really going to be in schools ‘teaching’ in around 6 months.

In the three years of this teacher training program, just now at the end, we are hearing about performance assessment. For me this brought up two thoughts: Is the actual performance asessment really that important for student-teachers? Shouldn’t we only learn about didactics, methods, how to teach and communicate properly with kids, rather than focusing on the end-result? But this is something we have no real control over, since most of it is the 'law'. The second issue that’s bothering me is that we get stuffed full of all these assessment-topics in almost every seminar. This can get annoying real fast, especially if you get to hear the same exact thing in consecutve seminars. Now I’m not entirely certain if that is because of the lack of communication between the teachers themselves, or just simply the problem of teacher-education-policy. Either way, it is frustrating. Even taking it a step further and truly focusing on the content, you don’t get very far because of the regulations that are school-law. In our classes (lower secondary school) there aren’t that many different assessment methods that you can use, because in order give the kids grades, there are a couple of regulations you have to abide by. 

Working through the school-law for grading and performance assessment, painted a much clearer picture on why teachers tend to have a somewhat high burn-out rate. It is not easy taking everything into account, which is why it feels so wrong to have this big of a focus on not true-to-school-life related topics. While we were going through this law, we often heard that we also have to take into account how parents would react, and that it has to be made clear for all the participants how it works. I think all this can be really tough on beginner-teachers, it would be helpful to have some kind of a guide or mentor that they could contact when they have issues.

Like I already mentioned above, it has been fascinating to see how the teaching went away from plain content to ‘how would you teach that in class’ more and more. But it also brings me back to my other point, why just now? It has to be their conscience whispering to them ‘do you realize these people will stand in front of a class in less than 6 months?’ I find it somewhat amusing, but more disturbing. And again, I wouldn’t want to blame our teachers entirely, I think everybody has their part to play, some do it better and with more effort, some don’t even bother looking up the ‘rules of the game’ or thinking two steps ahead. Whatever it may be, soon it will be all over for us. Regardless (or in spite of) all the troubles through the last couple of years, there is already a sense of relief in the air, which will quickly change for many people, when they are thrust into action just a couple of months from now.

Prepared or not, here wo go

We are closing in our final couple of months as student-teachers, soon we will be actual teachers. Our current teachers somehow always manage to squeeze this reminder in, every seminar or lecture. Even though they keep reminding us about the fact, they still don’t seem to actually do anything particular to prepare us well enough. It might be my current state of mind, because of certain seminars I’m attending right now, but through various discussions with colleagues, more times than not, there seems to be an overwhelming notion that we’re still not doing close to enough that would make our life easier, as soon as we are in class.

Sometimes it feels like the closer we get to the end, the farther away we get from learning things that are practical. Most things that stand out to me right now, are things that are negative. I seem to keep hearing things like, “almost no school can actually support this” (in terms of using computer or similar) or “we can’t do anything about it, it is the law” or “your students probably won’t be able to do that”. Now the more you keep hearing about this, the less fun it gets thinking about entering this world for real, in a couple of months. For most students-teachers, there is a general feeling of just wanting to leave the institution and finally learn from the real-world.

I have written about teacher-education a couple of times, and I have always been critical, but sometimes it gets really tiring to complain about it, because there are so many things that make you uneasy. It is recommended to us from the beginning on to reflect, be it about our teacher training or just seminars - but then almost none of our own teachers reflect about their work - some would even call this hypocritical. Sometimes, I don’t understand the reason for people to do this, because I would think that if I’m educating future teachers, I would want to form the best teachers I possibly can. It can seem like lecturers and teachers just want to feel good themselves, because they did some teaching. Obviously, it is not easy with all kinds of different sets of rules and regulations that are all politically motivated, but I’m still often disappointed, about how little self-awareness or situational-awareness people seem to have.

One of the reasons this problem occurs, is because the levels of the participants are so different. Here comes the real fun part, just like I mentioned above, one of the key topics we talk about, is individualizing and differentiation in our teaching, and focusing on the specific learning needs kids have; but no ones focuses on individual student-teacher-needs. We are all treated the same way, even if you already have experience or great ideas - it doesn’t matter. My second issue with this is that most of the student-teachers are grown ups, so in some sense - they are supposed to behave and think like adults. I understand that this is not always possible, but especially in this profession, you have to grow up fast, if you are not already there, because you need a strong character. Now even if that is not the case, you are not going to help this, if you are treating those people like teenagers. They will certainly not become more thoughtful and mature with that kind of treatment.

I don’t want to go on more about this topic, because my thoughts and feelings might change throughout these final months, but one of my favorites quotations a friend told me, when discussing a similar topic, puts things in perspective for me: “Common sense is not as common (as you think)”.
The addition in the bracket is what he added to the original quotation from Voltaire, but I put it in, because it enhances it even more, and its great to think about...

Teacher training - content or methods?

Just like there are different schools (i.e. primary and upper), there are different forms of teacher training. Regardless of how much politics influence the way education works, I still think more specific and individual attention could be brought to the way student teachers are lead down their path of professionalization.

Teachers of almost all subjects, obviously need to have some kind of knowledge basis for their particular subject. For one, teachers have to be able to build/form a lesson, based on the knowledge that the children should acquire, and it is also quite important to be able to answer additional questions somebody might have about a topic.

Teachers also have to know, which methods to use in order teach a certain topic, more importantly, the proper methods for the children. They might have to face the challenge of varying levels in class, or they have to adjust one method, because it just doesn’t fit the particular need for a class.

I would like to take up one of these two points. Especially, because I feel like I’m part of one, and I’m not having fun as a student (teacher) myself, the way I’m confronted with it now.

I’m going to take two personal examples from the last couple of years. One of my biggest passions, ever since I was young, is sports. It never really mattered, if it was a specific sport, it never mattered if I could only watch it on TV, I always enjoyed it. Even later, when I got older, not only did I participate in sports as much as I could, but I also got into coaching after a couple of years. With coaching in a specific sport, came trainer education and trainer certificates, where sometimes you get away from one sport specifically, but you focus more on movement and movement games. Now, in fairness, I might be different from other coaches or trainers, but for many specific movements, I don’t actually have to do and feel the movements myself, to be able to see what could be wrong with them and fix it. This can lead down a very tricky path - how credible can somebody be, if they never really tried it themselves? Well, the end result of sports movements should be that the athlete is able to perform them, without mistakes and economically. Maybe it is a deeper lying issue, but I personally don’t care how I can reach those results; if I get good and proper feedback, and it works, thanks to that, I will be happy. I don’t necessarily think the background of the trainer or coach really matters. The key thing to keep in mind: the coaches main goal is to get you to the end result.

As I mentioned above, there is a situation, which brings this whole big question to the forefront every time I’m involved. My second subject, besides English, is History and Social sciences. As you can imagine, History lessons tend to be very dry. Obviously History teachers have to have a very broad understanding and knowledge, since the topic itself is vast. But to be more specific, I’m in a teacher training program for 10 to 14 year olds. So to be very blunt, I don’t really care about all the details regarding wars and empires, I would really love to know, how I can make these topics interesting for children. Unfortunately these things never get mentioned, leaving me little to no real preparation for the things that I should teach, but at least I know a bunch of interesting topics in detail. I’m always surprised that most of the time our teachers never even taught in the same kind of schools we are going to teach in - which in turn wouldn’t be an issue, because it doesn’t really matter where you come from - it only matters where it leads us, but this part of learning for myself and not for my job is beyond me. To compare it to the previous paragraph, I think the key for a teacher is the same thing as for a coach - get you to the end result - but this time, the end result is that children acquire certain competencies and a knowledge base to be able to evolve, and either attend a higher education institute or get work, and I’m not sure if they would achieve those goals if I talk to them, or maybe let them read about history for hours on end.

In both cases I’m not a big believer in really having to do the actual ‘work’ (the sport or knowing specific topics), but I do think it is important to know how to get to the finish line. And especially in cases, where teaching and learning is involved, it is far more important to know how to teach, than what to teach.

Negucation - this is not a good title

A supportive environment, be it family or friends is very valuable on all stages of life. Growing up and getting older, one starts to be more aware of the surroundings. In the workplace, or just among friends, conversations get more mature and more reflective. Talking about achievements or various skills among co-workers or friends tend to go in a positive direction, at least most of the time. Not many people try to negate or downgrade what somebody else did on purpose when having a regular conversation. Most people in todays society have a positive and encouraging outlook on things. To me, it is rather surprising that a very important field of work has not embraced this mindset.

A lot of times, kids in school are everything but encouraged to try things and be hopeful for their future. They are told how ‘bad’ they are doing and that they ‘failed’ in various areas of school life. It’s no surprise where this comes from. Student teachers are treated the same way by their teacher during teacher training. No wonder many of them take on this attitude and live it to the fullest in their profession. But why is that? How come one has to deal with disrespectful behaviour from teachers so many times? And where does this all come from, is it just this generation of university teachers, or is it something that was common before?

I can’t speak for more countries than the ones I’ve been living in. I’ve spent a year in Sweden, where it was almost a culture shock for me at the university, but that is not the point. I’m curious where this came from in Austria. It might be a societal issue in general. If one would follow the classic stereotypes that are known about Austrian people, one could probably find connections to where it came from and how it developed over time.

I’d like to take it back to the basic educational point of view. If the student teachers get treated this way, then they are going to treat their students the same way. I believe in change in education from the top. More people can be reached if teacher education is fixed than by fixing yourself and just your own classroom. But how to start?

First of all, higher standards need to be set for new student teachers. It has to be clear that these people are directly responsible for how the society will evolve in the next twenty to thirty years, it is a big responsibility. If you set higher standards, you also have to embrace people who have better basics than others (e.g. prior work experience, certificates, coaching). And this is exactly where it all starts: people with a better basis than others can not be treated the same way. They are further ahead, so they need different challenges or they are going to lose interest. If it continues they get frustrated by the way they are treated because everything is adjusted downwards to suit the “new” student teachers, and so the negative vibes begin. The same could be said for student teachers who are actually new, in the same breath they are treated like little children. If you enter a study programme you obviously finished some high school or got the accreditations to attend a higher educational facility, meaning, you are capable of doing ‘real’ university things like working independently and getting things done on time. Unfortunately teachesr manage to mess up both of these student groups which in turn leads to teachers who treat their kids on a similar scale.

Somehow there is this strange feeling of being between two university-blackhole-systems - the teacher education is obviously very important for any country in general, but then again, there is no respect or encouragement for students who want to be part of it; then teacher training does not prepare you for what you would actually want and need out of it, and your own teachers don’t even have the experiences which would be helpful to you, which in turn makes them condescending; but the teacher training program wants to have ‘competent’ professors and so on...frustrating on some levels.

Education is something positive. And although there are plenty of teachers and schools that do good work, there still are kids in school hearing that they can not do anything every day in school, and sometimes at home. I’m liking the idea of teachers also switching to the roles of guides and mentors more and more. Sometimes the best ‘teaching’ is just to encourage. Encouraging to try, because there is no failure. If there is no way out, there is nothing wrong with asking a classmate or the teacher will help figuring stuff out. But if right from the start the mindset is ‘how difficult something is and that so many fail at it and that you couldn't even finish another task’, how much fun is it to even start and try. Especially thinking about students who need a little extra help, imagine just being positive around them, they will get through it even if its way harder for them. Telling them that it gets harder and harder, and if they don’t manage the basic things it can be impossible, is not going to help. There are so many competencies that are needed later in in life that could be taught through an encouraging attitude.

I feel like so much good can come out of Education, out of schools and universities, but it has to start with the attitude. It has to be made clear that in certain roles people are role models, if they like it or not, but they have to realize that their actions are far reaching. Imagine a teacher in teacher training having a positive influence on one of his groups with 25 student teachers, these student teachers will go out in their respective schools and give the same positive influence to each of their 100 students. So this one teacher can influence the lifes of 2500 kids. How great is that?
Instead of focusing on the negative things, education has to get a positive spin. It is great to have people who want to become teachers. It is an amazing opportunity to help those student teachers make a difference in schools. It is awesome to be able to work with kids and youngsters and help them evolve and develop.

And even Negucation is a great title!

Individualizing and Differentiation - Principles

Its been a while now, but studies have picked up the last week. It is a quite rare occurrence but I also encountered a couple of interesting things. They all centered around one topic, individualizing and differentiation in the classroom.

One of the better seminars I participate now this term is called ‘individualized support’. The seminar itself flew by kind of quickly because we only had it 4-5 times in the last two months. Nonetheless the information we got and had to think about was great. To finish off the seminar we had to think about our personal principles when thinking about individualizing and differentiating in school based on our experiences and what we have talked about in the seminars. Many of the points tie in with the things I got to know in a couple of schools I visited and worked in. These are the things that I wrote down:
- create an environment that suits both the kids and the teacher
- have enough space for learning
- pick up every child where it stands, evaluate status before beginning
- pick appropriate material and methods for the level the child is on at the moment
- make sure to have individual learning goals, while also keeping class goals in mind
- be in constant communication about their progress
- constant adjustment of material based on needs of the children
- know your role as a teacher, sometimes you have to lead, sometimes you to accompany them
- knowledge about methods
- differentiated performance evaluation

These things are certainly core thoughts for anybody who digs deeper into this topic. When we got this task to take down 10 points that are important to us, I went on a step-by-step basis as you can see. As we were talking about the points with our teacher and other students it became clear that not everybody did it that way. For one, it shows again how different people work, it is, one the other hand, a little bit strange that other students teachers didn’t build a sort of ‘program’ with these points, but just jotted them down to talk about them. I feel like it is important to have a guideline of sorts, which is what I had in mind while writing. It obviously depends on how they interpreted the assignment. I think student teachers more often than not need a good guide and guidelines, since that’s why they’re at teacher training. 

But back to the actual list. I have been to a couple of schools now and most of the time the school building, but even more so the classroom, just felt good. They didn’t make you feel constricted, but only very few schools, namely one out of the six schools really had enough space where you would immediately think ‘this is perfect’. If there are session with open learning and individualized methods you definitely need a lot of room, a lot. If you think about yourself, sometimes you like to read a book in your bed, but sometimes it is also nice to read a book while sitting at a table drinking tea. Most of the time in schools though, the kids are made to sit at their desks all day, regardless of the task, I won’t say it is bad per se, but I know I can’t work on certain things while being in a seated position for more than four hours. In that particular school it was amazing to see how different the children looked like while working. Some of them sat on the ground, some of them very on their stomach, others were sitting alone at a desk, some were working together while standing at a desk etc. Seeing scenarios like these make me wonder why it is so common to sit at desks at school all the time, I wouldn’t want all the children in class to become desk-workers, they are hopefully going to spend their working days in various different environments.

A couple of the points are about topics that are in discussion in education all the time anyway; evaluation before you start, evaluation of the progress and testing afterwards. It all seems simple, but these are phases very most damage is done. And it’s not only about evaluating if somebody needs extra help or a specific kind of method, it is also about children who are gifted in a way, they can just as easily be left behind if they don’t get challenged and supported to improve. Unfortunately all evaluation processes hinge very much on how politics view education, schools and the curriculum.

The last thing I’d like to add is the fact that even though many school systems are sometimes limited by politics, it is absolutely valuable for student teachers to know about the right evaluation methods, various progress checks and different testing models. It is also vital to know about didactics and methods in the field of individual learning. It will make your teaching better and yourself better, and allow you to get the most of the situation regardless of the circumstances.

I’d like to close on a fun note with a video that summarizes everything I just said in less than a minute, plus, it shows exactly what it actually looks like, including the disregard for somebody who is ‘different’.

Motivation to become a teacher - one for the money, two for the show?

Now that I’m in my final year of teacher training and I'm so close to the finish line, a questions keeps popping up, on why all the new students decide to take on teacher training. To be fair, sometimes I ask myself the same thing about people already attending teacher training. When you start at my university, there are admission interviews, where you are asked a couple of things, while they try to find out what your background is and why you want to attend teacher training. Of course interviews like these are easy to manipulate. I’m not talking about manipulating the interviewer, I’m talking about manipulating yourself and making yourself believe intentions that might not be ones really pushing you (or might not be reasons you could publicly state without drawing ire of the your counterpart). So I’d like to think more about the situation or idea that started the process. 

Probably one of the two most common reasons I’ve heard, is that back in the day, the person got to spend time with smaller siblings, or younger relatives or the young family members of friends. The fact that this was a lot of fun, leads many people down the path to becoming a teacher. There is nothing wrong with that, but sometimes I think people don’t realize the difference between spending time (i.e. playing) with siblings or children they know, and working with kids and youngsters in a school environment. Obviously this person could have discovered their talent while spending time with those kids and now wants to build up on that. I’m not sure there is a distinction, or I don’t know if anyone could tell that apart, but the basis remains the same - these people have experienced interacting with children as being something that means a lot to them and as something they want to do more.

The second reason, which I never really understood, is that many people want to do better than one of their own teachers they had in school. I know I had a couple of really bad teachers, e.g. disrespecting their students and just treating them like nobodies. Maybe my coping-mechanism is different, but as soon as I left school, I just completely eradicated those people from my memory. I couldn’t draw any motivation from those situations, because I know better. This post is actually connectable to those cases. Judging from the experiences students, including myself, had in their schools, those teachers maybe had not so noble reasons to become a teacher. Again I’m not talking about the obvious one that they manage to tell themselves, I’m talking about the real reasons deep down. Anyway, many students get their motivation because they think they can do better, and want to do better then their own teachers. It is a valid reasoning, but if they don’t have any talents or the proper social skills and work ethic, then it’s a nice wish, but probably not smart. As a sidebar, where I’d add the same argument, is people wanting to become a teacher because they had such great teachers and enjoyed school so much. Again, nice idea, but not smart.

The third reason has more to do with our economy then anything else. The last couple of years, and probably for a few more, there is a pretty big teacher shortage in my city. Even if you are not from the city it is something that is intriguing. Although everybody knows that the pay is not worth the stress you might face, but in this case, you are basically guaranteed a job, a job which you probably won’t lose that easily, and your pay will be pretty decent in a couple of decades. Now if I read that last sentence to a stranger trying to convince him to start education, I think more times than not, they would gladly accept. 

I can’t blame anyone for any of those reasons, all of them are valid and understandable, but sometimes I can’t help but think about the kids those people are going to work with. Of course in an ideal world, if you show up and are willing to work, the proper teacher education program will form you into an acceptable teacher. Not only that, but I think that it can change people and spark something inside them and change their true motivation deep down, because either way, apparently education means something to them.

Transition - Gone in Sweden or Back to Austria

I started my teacher training in the fall of 2010 in Vienna at a ‘Higher Education Faculty’ for teacher training. Before that, I studied something completely different at a proper University in Vienna for a couple of years. During that time I also completed courses at the National Sport Academy in Austria.

As you can see, before I moved to Sweden to study and work I went through various tertiary educational facilities. Since I spent the last couple of years in the teacher training program I was familiar with teacher training. While I was in Sweden I attended regular English courses, history courses and most of all, courses for student teachers and pedagogy students. I was sort of used to a high level before because the University program I previously attended was not easy. The courses at the Sport Academy were also on a high level, but it was something I’ve been involved in for many years before, making it less of an ‘issue’.
Thinking back now, it’s surprising in a way that the level-up to a Scandinavian University was relatively easy. I really enjoyed learning. I really enjoyed studying again. For the first term abroad I told myself to only focus on studying, don’t look for work, just be full-time student again, at least as long as it’s enjoyable for you. As the end of the first term was nearing I started working again and beginning with the second term I was more in thesis-writing mode than classic student-mode. But this whole year of various university-experiences gave me a lot.

I’ve been back in Austria now for almost two months now, and back at teacher training for a couple of weeks, starting my final year. These first weeks made me think a bunch.
It already felt so different, even though I’ve only been to a couple of seminars. These two seminars, maybe 6 hours in total sparked the question for the title of this post: was it more of a transition going to a swedish university or is the ‘real’ transition now my final two terms back at an austrian faculty?

It almost seems like more of a philosophical question than an actual scientifically thought-through theory. The first two years of teacher training in Austria weren’t perfect, and weren't easy. This has a lot do with how the training is run and how the laws are made, and the study plan is executed. I didn’t always feel like I was improving and learning a lot, maybe I was getting a bit frustrated in my second year, which had a lot to do with my decision to study abroad. But then again, I didn’t really know what to expect, I knew I wanted to improve, learn useful stuff as a future teacher and become better and better at it. If I would have stayed in Austria for my entire studies I believe I couldn’t be as good as I can be with the experiences that I had abroad. Now the point here is more that being away from this specific institution can be more valuable than staying there. Can I even really assume something like that? What if I would have stayed, I wouldn’t have an opposing opinion because there wouldn’t have been the experience?
In my case, this might have happened anyway. Here’s why: one of my closest friends, who was in the same teacher training program went to study abroad a year prior to me going. Judging by those experiences my opinion changed even though I was still at ‘home’. We talked about what she has been learning, and how big of a difference it was to really learn something.

But what about students who don’t experience something like we did? Well, as far as I can tell after talking to many students, both primary school and secondary school teaching students, it seems like everybody wants more, wants something better. I can’t recall anybody saying that it’s enjoyable to be at this faculty, but the generally negative mood about teacher education in Austria is a topic for another day.

It seems to me that adjusting upwards is more natural because I’m always excited for challenges, and with that comes more work, but also more fun. This was probably an even bigger deal because my opinion about my program was on a downward spiral before, so having a new environment with challenging studies made even more of an impact. This up and down could also explain why it’s tough to be here again. It will hopefully calibrate itself again, although deep down I don’t want to revert back to ‘lower levels’ again.

Teacher training - writing training or speaker training?

Going through teacher training can be plain and simple. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to experience teacher training in not only two different countries, but at two enormously different institutions. Readers of this blog will know what my home institution is and that I’m spending an exchange year in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main difference between these institutions is that in Gothenburg, the teacher training takes place at the University, whereas in Austria I attend a “Pädagogische Hochschule”. Although the official english name is ‘University of Teacher Education Vienna’ it is technically not a university. They act under different sets of laws and regulations, and the teaching itself also differs. 

Although I studied at the university before, comparing two teacher training programs is easier than just judging them based on university principles. The basic goal of university education, in most cases, is that graduates can go into research or have an academic career, maybe ending up as a professor. Student teachers have, regardless of where they attend, a pretty straightforward goal with their education, they want to become good teachers. When you look at the difference in the teacher education programs, I experienced two distinctions. In one program the focus is reading and then writing. In another program it is more about experiencing and reflecting. When thinking about what teachers are actually doing as their job, you will realize most teachers speak. Obviously teachers have to adept in writing to parents and other school officials, but speaking is the main skill that they have to master. Now I can't say that there are no speaking activities in these programs, but there is a significant amount difference between practicing these skills. When looking at the whole picture, one would assume these circumstances should have some effect on the actual education student teachers receive.

Every university tries to keep high educational standards, but sometimes this can backfire. The courses for student teachers all follow specific curricula which were developed by lecturers and adjusted throughout years of experience. It is very tough to find the right balance for the difficulty of tasks. Tasks can easily overwhelm student teachers. Every student has a different background and different experiences with certain things, therefore some might struggle more with creating presentations, while others might find it tough to write an academic paper using references. Somehow I feel like this kind of challenge prepares student teachers for their classroom work, because these things do not change. Kids will always have different talents and they will always be good at different things, so experiencing something similar could be helpful for the future teaching.

A similar issue arises with having too many tasks to complete. Especially in teacher training, where reflecting on what we are actually is the key, simple producing of tasks is not worthwhile. The feeling of ‘learning nothing’ can quickly take over the work process, thus making the work that is put in superficial itself. On the other hand, the same thing can occur if there is not enough to do. Student teachers are in way perfect, they want to learn and become better at what they do, so doing task after task, without seeing much benefit in them, can also hinder the reception.

I can’t really offer any closure, because I myself am currently going through these things and experiencing them as they come. And otherwise, nobody would really expect of me to have groundbreaking ideas. My question is summarized in the title, but with any school system and education, I am not sure if there is something teachers and lecturers can do. Curriculum developers always have politics and society in the back of their head, screaming from different sides about what they should do and implement. The best thing to do is to reflect on it and discuss it with colleagues who might go through similar experiences.

Study visit - the English school

My second school visit in sweden was on individual initiative. My previous post about Hagaskolan was made possible by a course for international students I was attending and my third school visit was through a university project for my english course.
The English school was basically the first school that I found out about. I got in contact with the principal who was so nice to give me the chance to visit and be part of lessons in his school and also get some work in a different capacity, but thats a topic for later.
Unlike Hagaskolan, this school also had secondary school classes, resulting in the opportunity for me to be part of lessons of my “designated” age range. This is especially important because the credit-transfer situation at my university at home might get a little tricky in the end. But again, this is a topic for another time.

So here you can find some of my impressions and thoughts. It could seem a little bit jumbled at this, but that is due to the fact that I didn’t formulate reflections after I took down the notes (shame on me). But in this case it can be interesting to reflect on something that happened a few months ago and had many different experiences come in between.

From the beginning on I was impressed by the language proficiency. Obviously if the school is named “English school” that is something everybody would expect, but comparing year 5 and year 7 students to students in Austria made me realize how big of a difference it really makes. Just like in any school today, there is a multicultural mix. Children have various backgrounds, not only swedish. Some might struggle with all the languages although parents try to speak swedish at home, which sometimes is not their mother tongue, thus creating a more fragmented language use. In addition to that they speak a lot of english at the school. Again, comparable to schools I have experienced in Austria, the goal is always to have children speak the target language, even outside regular classes, but they always will stick to their native language, which is in its essence not a bad thing.
The school itself is located in wealthier part on the outer parts of the city, but is a free school. They receive applications from all over the city. They might have immigrant parents who are scientists and want better for their children. The majority really cares about the education of their children. The parents are academically oriented and set high goals, which in turn creates a good school environment. It is a status to be a good student. Even with a “bad” background the children get the drive to succeed through school and classmates.
Since they start school with the age of 3 (it is a big school that provides pre-school through lower secondary classes) and stay until they are 16, there is a lot of time to from them. All of the students move on to upper secondary, but that is mostly because they don’t have that many options.
Comparing the school and class environment to the schools I’ve been to in Austria and the teachers I talked to, it feels like there is a world of difference. Everything about the school seems positive, not that its always negative in Austria, but the more time I spent there, the more it felt like how important learning is for everyone involved. It is comfortable to be in this school and teaching and attending there seems like a great time.

I’ve been part of a few different english lessons now, I took part in lessons with year 5, year 7 and year 9 classes. It was interesting to see the different age groups and hand in hand with that the different approaches and tasks they had to do.

The topic for year 7 was creative writing. In the beginning of the lesson they talked about what it actually means; vivid language, no actual description of the picture, not a story about it, they should use adverbs and adjectives, synonyms and attract all senses. The idea was not to freewrite about what they see, rather using a mind map, notes and brainstorm beforehand. The task was to pick a picture and write about what's happening. The downside was that still a lot of kids started writing the text immediately, without any notes. A few of them prepared and took notes and some even used a mind map. After seeing that the idea for the next lesson was to give everybody one picture and give them clear guidelines: they have three options, and they are not supposed to write a text, they can either pick a mind map, a list, or just brainstorm and take notes, but basically do the same exercise as the lesson before.
The next few lessons I saw were creative writing about spooky ghost stories in which they followed steps in their workbook and created a story. These steps included steps for them being more assertive in terms of preparing before writing. Another lessons was a reading lesson that had a fun little twist called “marathon reading”. The class was reading out loud and the reader had to read at least three sentences but could also read more. The twist was that anybody could jump in whenever they wanted and just continue to read, creating a fun and nice flow to everything.
The year 5 lessons had a different approach, there it was more based on project work and group work. They also worked on creative writing with Halloween poems, but other times just worked on group Newspaper, with everybody being responsible for a different segment and then working on a “deserted island” project.
For the year 9 class I experienced another interesting reading lesson. There was no specific “tool” for reading, they basically went around the class after reading a page or so out loud. The interesting part was the discussion in between (they were reading “Animal Farm”). There were some great insight and thoughts and the teacher connected it to various historical and social study topics.

The good thing is I will take part in one year 7 and one year 9 lesson every week until the end of the school term, hopefully learning more and more about swedish school as well as tools to use as a teacher.

Study visit - Hagaskolan

Busy times.
I've been occupied with studies and work the last few months. It is a little bit annoying not finding time to properly write down things that are happening and reflect on them. A lot of interesting experiences, which I will hopefully put to (digital) paper soon.
In the meantime, I posted this on my Mahara page and haven't published it here, but to not make it feel so empty, here it is:

As a part of the course "The School System in a Comparative Perspective" we had the opportunity to visit a school in Göteborg and spend a few hours there.
I would like to share some of the impressions:

Hagaskolan is a relatively small school, located in the old district Haga. The school was established in 1986, but the oldest part of the school-complex stems from 1828.

The school has around 250 pupils, with classes form pre-school to fifth grade classes. In total, they have nine classes. The school has three tracks (Green, Yellow, Blue). These tracks each contain two classes. Notably, they have integrated classes/tracks (= Mehrstufenklassen) in which the pre-school and 1st graders, and the 2nd and 3rd graders share a class. Since a lot of children move out of the city center when they get older, the 4th and 5th grade have separate classes, because the number of children declines. 

In each class, there are usually two teachers present. One main teacher and one leisure time pedagogue - both work full-time. The classroom teacher is in school for 35 hours per week, but as soon as classes end, between 13.00 and 14.00, the classroom teachers are not working in class anymore. They spend the rest of their time in the office preparing, which in turn means that the leisure time pedagogue takes over the responsibility and takes care of the children in the afternoon.

The teachers have a good relationship with the headmaster and have weekly staff meetings to discuss and communicate important issues. Every other staff member (pre-school, after-school teachers etc.) also meets every week.

The school has so-called project weeks every term. For a full month, each week, one day is about one special topic (this term the topic was History of Gothenburg). Either the teachers prepare activities or the school collaborates with the theater or museums, but the best part about these project weeks is that during these times, the classes are completely mixed, pre-schoolers will work with 5th graders and so on.

Hagaskolan also has a friendship-school in Zimbabwe, Africa. This collaboration contains Skype-session with the classes every two weeks, teacher exchange programs and a close relationship with Gothenburgs Salvation army.

All in all, it was a great experience to be in a very enjoyable school and even though it was a primary school, it was good opportunity to get a first hand look into the swedish school system. 

Language course - second or third foreign language

One of my goals for my exchange studies was (and still is) to do my best and try to master the native language, which is Swedish. Because of that I was really excited that I got in the EILC (Erasmus Intensive Language Course). This course took place a month and a half before the university term started. There was no placement test beforehand, so we basically just got split up into two groups, regardless of previous Swedish knowledge. The course lasted four weeks and our exam at the end was worth A1 level.
But at the end, not only I (as a language-teacher-to-be), but also everybody else who attended felt unsatisfied. When you take a four week long course, and you have lessons every day, you get homework and you generally hear a lot of Swedish, it felt like it would be impossible to not have some kind of understanding of the language. Then again, mostly the basic success depends on the teacher and their methods. I have to say that even though I expected to be in a better shape regarding my Swedish, I gained a lot of experience when it comes to teaching.
One thing I learned during my first years at the university as a student-teacher was that you should never stop reflecting. Whether it may be your own lesson-sequence or your own lesson, a presentation in a seminar or one of the courses you sit it, there always be opportunities to think about your professionalization and personal development.
So I would like to outline a few things I noticed. It has to be noted that I’m pretty sure that a few logistical problems could be an issue for the organizational staff of these courses, but nonetheless, as a teacher you have to make the best of what you have.

I believe the first issue at hand at many language courses is the level of the participants. Every language teacher knows that it is simply impossible to find any group (of random) students that have the same language proficiency. In our particular case it would have been way more effective for everybody if we would have split up our groups after the second week, or even the first week since you quickly get an impression how each individual deals with the language.
Obviously individualisation is always the issue when it comes to teaching. In this case it could have helped the better students to reach the level they wanted to reach. It was also clear that not everybody intended to really know about the language at the end, which is no big deal since the whole course structure offered many more benefits than just the language. But because of this, more advanced and motivated students could have progressed better. All in all, splitting up a group like this benefits both the good and not-so-good students. It offers more challenge for one group if the overall level can be higher but is also offers easier access for the weaker students, who may only want to learn really basic stuff.

The second issue is something that is thoroughly stressed throughout the teacher training program, namely the importance of lesson planning. This is the one thing that student-teachers cannot forget. A lesson plan has to be handed in an thought through before every lesson, even if you are only teaching the last ten minutes of a lesson. So with this in the back of my mind, it wasn’t pleasant to be part of lessons where the complete opposite was the case. The worst part about this was, that this problem was so obvious that even non-student-teachers immediately noticed and could point the finger at it. Especially when it comes to language teaching, it seems like a waste of time to teach a class without having a plan. It just won’t work if you are going to talk about whatever comes to your mind that morning.

Lastly, there is one thing that can really tip the scale for beginner students. When it’s the first time you hear a language, no matter how close it is to your native language, it can be confusing. Based on this thought, starting to talk in the new language in a lesson might not always be the best idea for beginners. Listening and speaking skills are usually the first ones to be taught to language learners, but that does not mean that it is good to confront beginners with a new language non-stop. The key thing is to find a balance where everybody is comfortable, but this is hard to achieve when students get more and more frustrated because everything is done so fast and without proper explanation in a language they actually understand. If the teacher goes to fast, the students become more and more frustrated and will soon close up and no progress can be made. It is tough to find the right balance between speaking and listening-to the new language and generally being understood, but to come back to a point I made earlier, it can help to split up students into groups according to their level.

All in all, it is tough to learn a new language, no matter how talented one might be or how common it is to one’s native language. The most important aspect is to be confronted with the language in everyday life, so learning a language in it’s native country is simply the best choice. And even though talking should be the focal point, there is so much vocabulary missing, that there is just nothing more that one could talk about. Students of a new language have to motivated to work on their own, picking up phrases and focusing on new vocabulary will help with everything else. As time goes by, the practical use becomes more and more natural.

Bachelorthesis - Mahara and teacher education

The last few points are getting finalized, and then starting with the next term, a colleague and me are going to start to work on our Bachelor thesis, which will include a heavy dose of Mahara, and it's role in our teacher education at the University of Education Vienna.

Our Mahara-research project is in it's second year now, and we are getting more and more involved with Mahara as an ePortfolio tool for our student-teachers.

The thesis will include the basics of ePortfolios, what kind of portfolio types are there and how are they used. But our biggest focus will be on Mahara, not only on the technical part of it, but also the possibilities of its use.

Some of the data that’s available from our research project will also be processed, and we will focus on our teacher education. We are both very much looking forward to digging in and involving ourselves more and more into Mahara, ePortfolios and teacher-education at our University.

One of our goals was to put out a Mahara-Tutorial for our student-teachers, which we accomplished last semester. It wasn’t the first time we worked together on a Mahara task, but it was equally challenging and fun. As the research project went on, and we’re getting closer to the end of our studies, it seemed more and more obvious that our Bachelor thesis will be about Mahara in combination with our teacher education. One of the benefits of the research project was that we were able to see both sides: the student-teacher side, which uses Mahara as a tool during their studies, and also from the reseacher side, where we got to work on questionnaires and evaluate the results, create a Manual and generally help students with Mahara.

So as one of our research team members suggested that we write a Bachelor thesis together it hit us as the most obvious idea. It sounded exciting right from the start even though we had a lot to do at the end of this semester and couldn’t focus that much on it, the start of the fall semester will also mark the start of our work!

finally...the Mahara Tutorial has been released

It was about time. After a roughly three week delay, we were able to launch our Mahara Tutorial. We hit a few bumps on the way, especially time-management and communication-wise, but at the end of the day my colleague and I were able to finish it off properly.
A specific practical-training Manual was already in the research plans for the second semester, but after our research regarding the acceptance of Mahara in the first semester, it became clear that a proper tutorial is really much needed.
The tasks for the students teachers evolved with Mahara (we had an older version of Mahara for our first year), including adding specific pages for practical training and personal development, in form of a ‘Gazette’ page, which includes reflections, tasks and also material to share with colleagues.
But since it was something for future student-teacher newcomers, we pretty much started from scratch.
The first chapter includes a basic outline about what it’s all about. Then the first few steps: registration, filling your profile and so on. But since we wanted to focus on the specific practical-training approach, the next chapter was already about how-to create a page and how-to upload files into it. One chapter gives a quick overview about the group-option, which is pretty basic, since most of the students are familiar with forums and how to communicate with their help.
The new part, even for us, was the Gazette page. This page defines the collaboration part of our e-Portfolios. Basically it includes three blogs: useful material, thought a day and link a day. For one, it is about sharing your thoughts about practical training, and also sharing useful links and material with your colleagues. The Gazette page also includes milestones, which are also new, where you can track your progress, either regarding your studies or practical training. The last part is reserved for the main tasks from practical training.

So we held the whole thing pretty basic, and as of right now, more and more students are updating their e-Portfolio with the help of our Tutorial.
But the key thing is that the next generations of student-teachers at the Univerity of Education Vienna will be able to get up-to-date smoothly with this Tutorial, right from the start.

practice makes perfect

Being a student teacher is not easy. You have to teach from the first semester on. You’re in class almost immediately after enrolling. Within the first month, you get to sit in on classes for a whole week, while trying to figure out, if you are made to be surrounded by kids all the time without losing your cool. No later than the second semester, you begin to teach classes, at first you only have to teach half a lesson, but two weeks in, you're supposed to prepare and teach a full lesson.
From the third semester on, you teach with one of your colleagues, and you’re the ones who have to prepare lessons each and every week. In your last year at teacher training, you get the full dose of living the teacher-life. Each semester, you’re in school for two weeks straight. By this time, you should be able to deal with the stress that comes with it - preparing for classes every day, being in school four to five hours and teaching up to four consecutive lessons.
At the same time, teaching is still the smallest part of your week. You have classes to attend yourself and if you think about it, the whole 'teaching-thing' takes up, only about six to eight hours a week (including two lessons, the reflecting-sessions and the preparation).
Now with this little time focusing on the actual teaching experience, you finish teacher training after six semesters. After you are done, you go straight into teaching full time.
In previous posts, I already mentioned the problems with the framework and the logistical issues of practical training. It’s basically impossible to provide student teachers with more opportunities for practical training, maybe it’s different in other countries, but unfortunately, I have no experience with other teacher training courses around the world. 

But being a student teacher is easy. You get to be in class and teach right from the start. For six semesters, you experience what it takes to be teacher full-on. You get to teach with one of your colleagues and prepare and teach each and every week. It is one of best opportunities you can get!
Since I’ve been working as a coach for a few years, before I started teacher training, I couldn’t wait for practical training to begin. I enjoy every minute of lesson preparation and being in class teaching. But somehow I feel it's not enough.
There is no denying that didactics, methodological approach and reflection is a key and a major part of teacher development, but in my experience, actual practical training is simply invaluable.
So last week, I started my new job as an English trainer for a project called “Bildungswege 2012”. This project runs from march to the end of july and I get to teach young migrants between the ages 18 and 22 for five to ten hours a week.
At first I didn’t really know how to start with everything, I’m used to preparing for one lesson at a time, now I have to prepare for two four-hour courses.
But the great thing is, as soon as I step into a classroom, I instantly get into a zone. No matter how excited and nervous I was before and how the preparation went, a flip get’s switched and I’m in teaching mode. Teaching those two days was amazing. Somehow I feel that I've learned more during the four day preparing-and-teaching-stretch, than I've learned during my first year at teacher training. And this kind of makes sense actually; during my first year, I prepared and taught four and half lessons in school, and in my first week with this project, I basically prepared and taught twice as much. And the circumstances were different too, in practical training my teacher suggested what I need to teach, but for these English courses, I was on my own the whole way.

It’s interesting to note that one of the benefits that practical training offers, namely the ‘safety net’ of a teacher you always have in the classroom, is also a restrictions for personal development. Without this ‘safety net’, you get to experience hands-on how the class reacts to different methods and you can adjust your lesson on the fly, which requires a lot of skill. But this ‘learning by doing’, only works if you are on your own, without someone, who swoops in if you stumble during one of the exercises (not that every teacher does that, but you just know there is someone who will help you out, if it doesn't go smoothly).
What I’m trying to say is that it is vital for student teachers to get as much practical experience they can get. 

One one hand, don’t discount the practical training at the University! You get constant feedback, you can share your experience with colleagues and you get to see different teacher-types.
But on the other hand, if you like teaching, and you want to be good at it, try to get out and jump right in: no ‘safety net’ and all by yourself.
If you combine both, you get the maximum potential of your personal development.