If you as a teacher supplement your teaching activities by teaching conducted by student teachers, it is essential that you begin by setting up a framework together with your student teachers for their teaching. This concrete procedure and advice may contribute to well-functioning collaboration between you and your student teachers.
By following the steps and advice below you create equal and well-functioning collaboration between yourself as a teacher and your student teachers. Such equal and well-functioning collaboration with your student teachers increases the outcome of the student teacher sessions for you as a teacher, for the student teachers, and for the students.
You as a teacher must find a number of student teachers matching the size of the class to be taught by them.
If you need to hire more than one student teacher, it may be helpful to hire student teachers both with and without teaching experience. This will enable them to complement one another.
Once you have hired the student teachers, it is important that you set up a clear framework for what you expect of them and their teaching. This will help avoid misunderstandings and disagreements.
Point out to the student teachers that they are not trained teachers and therefore do not need to know everything. They can always approach you as the teacher regarding questions in general and questions that come up in their teaching sessions.
It may be important to also allow the student teachers some freedom of planning during the course. It may be motivating for them to be responsible for and free to plan their own teaching sessions.
Then it is important that you build a relationship of collaboration, and that your student teachers experience that you are actually collaborating.
You should therefore use the term ‘we’ about yourself and the student teachers to emphasise this collaboration.
Collaborate closely about the student teaching, to ensure that you are all aligned as to the purpose of the teaching and how to achieve this.
You should always admit mistakes and deficiencies and not undermine the status of the student teachers.
Make sure to organise regular follow-up meetings where you discuss how the student teacher sessions are proceeding, and how the student teachers and students are coping. This will enable you to quickly detect and address potential problems.
At the beginning of your collaboration, you may organise a brief reflection exercise in which the student teachers reflect on their role as student teacher and on the teaching methods and objectives of the course. This will provide you with concrete information that may be helpful when you set the framework for the course, and will enable you to balance your expectations with those of the student teachers.
