Pre-service primary school teachers reflecting within and on their mathematics teaching practicum

Abstract

This paper describes a mathematics teaching practicum we provide at our university as part of the five-year initial teacher education program for primary school teachers, and the way in which teacher trainees reflect on it. The practicum itself is reflective, and its content and organisation differ from the form usual in our country, so that we composed an open questionnaire for trainees that had already completed the practicum and let them reflect on the aspects that distinguish this practicum from the usual ones. The results, illustrated by data excerpts, show what particular aspects of the practicum the trainees did or did not appreciate and why.