The Role Of Student Teacher Internship

In the internship there are a number of key persons involved out of which the role of supervisors/mentors and student teachers are the prime ones. According to McIntyre (1997) the mentor is the subject teacher who takes primary responsibility for the professional education in classroom teaching. The mentor teacher is the one who takes the student teacher into his or her classroom as a student-teacher intern. The mentor teacher guides and evaluates the lessons that the student-teacher intern presents. Anderson and Shannon (1988) refers mentoring as a nurturing process in which a skilled or more experienced person, serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less skilled or less experienced person for the

curriculum states that “Having gained some experience with the child, the community and schools in Year 1, the second year would offer intensive engagement with the school in the form of School Internship. During the Internship, a student-teacher shall work as a regular teacher and participate in all the school activities, including planning, teaching and assessment, interacting with school teachers, community members and children. Before teaching in a classroom, the student-teachers will observe the school and its classrooms for a week, to understand the school in totality, its philosophy and aims, organisation and management; the life of a teacher; needs of the physical, mental, emotional development of children; aspects of curriculum and its transaction; quality, transaction, and assessment of

It’s an upheaval task lies ahead. Work Based Learning that is the Internship has to be implemented but there are certain points which have to be tackled.

a) Obtaining permission from the Inspector of Schools for conduct of Intern in schools

b) Respective schools willingness in such type of arrangement

c) Adjustment of Student Teachers in respective schools

These are some points to be pondered upon for successful implementation of internship. The first point may not be a problem. With respect to second point, the matter is quite challenging according to my personal experience. Whether the schools will willingly accept or have to be persuasive implementation. Government or semi government schools may willingly accept but in case of private schools (if not all at least some) there is every likelihood for persuasive implementation. Because certain private schools are reluctant to offer the requisite number of classes during one/one and half month period during practice teaching session (general feeling one comes across is that school discipline, normal classes, school test, timely completion of syllabus gets hampered. So the student teachers have to be satisfied with the allotted number