Peer Practual

This project is based on collaborative learning among students of the Autonomous University of Barcelona who are studying a subject called practicum in the teaching diploma on the spatiality of early childhood with students studying a psychopedagogy degree. This project pretends to improve the perceptions that both professionals have of one another, to know the function of each other’s profession more accurately and to learn the skills that enables cooperating and working together.

The project has three initial aims, to improve the mutual knowledge of the functions of psychopedagogues and teachers in professional situations, and to investigate the change in conceptions and attitudes that working together can create. Secondly, it promotes the learning of collaborative abilities among them, in a way that mutual understanding is achieved within the context of real practice. Finally, the creation of a virtual space, a Moodle platform to facilitate the interaction among students while encouraging participation and coordination of the different tutors involved in the project, and the creation of tools and materials useful to the work in situations of partial- presence teaching.

The project was initiated during the school year 2006-2007 after a grant was awarded, and continues today. The implementation started with the creation of pairs between teaching and psychopedagogy students. From there, the teacher student focused on the planning, implementation and assessment of a didactic unit, with the assistance of the psychopedagogue.

The project is structured in three parts, where each member of the pair collaborates with the other in accomplishing a series of tasks. In the first phase, the pre-active one, the teaching student starts planning a didactic unit and his partner assists him in the process, making suggestions to improve the planning. At the second stage, during the active phase, the teacher student implements the unit and the psychopedagogue videotapes the work in the classroom during the activity. The psychopedagogue uses examples taken from the video clips to show evidence of the work done, to encourage the student’s abilities and also to make suggestions in order to help to improve the weakest aspects that need working. The communication takes place through a virtual space that the pair has at the Moddle platform. In the last stage, the post active phase, both students analyze the didactic unit and its implementation and also its effects on the perceptions that each one has of the others professional role.

Research has been carried out throughout the project using a quantitative (through questionnaires) and qualitative methodology (analyzing the interactions) to support the viability and functionality of the project. The preliminary results obtained in the pilot phase have been valued as very satisfactory, so they encourage the research group to continue working towards the same direction. More information can be found in this document (Monereo, C. coord.) Peer-practual: una tutoria entre iguals interprofesionals als estudis de Magisteri i Psicopedagogia.