Making the grade: describing inherent requirements for the Initial Teacher Education practicum

This study explores the development, description and illustration of inherent requirement statements (IR) to make explicit the requirements for performance on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) practicum. Through consultative group processes with stakeholders involved in ITE, seven inherent requirement domains were identified. From interviews with academics, first-person narratives (vignettes) were developed to illustrate pre-service teachers' performance in complex Professional Practice scenarios. The narratives were rated by university staff and pre-service teachers in relation to three of the IR domains: self-awareness, social awareness and sustained professional conduct. Narratives were placed along a continuum of performance using Rasch-model statistical analysis. The findings suggest that the IR domains and the narratives illustrating them could be valuable resources for making explicit required performance standards. The findings suggest that the development of explicit IR statements has the potential to improve all stakeholders' awareness of Professional Practice requirements and enhance course outcomes for all ITE students