Student Active-Learning Approaches in Teacher Education

This chapter argues a greater stress to student-centered, active learning, approaches in teacher educationa beginnning already in lectures by the subjects of the DCEM1 methodology module.

Engaging students actively in the teaching and learning process has been proved to be an effective method in classroom. Our strategy for encouraging student participation in lectures is to make them co-lecturers with the teacher.

We employ student-co-lecturer and student-listener feedback, which is regularly conducted at the conclusion of a programme of specific curricular units, to track the effectiveness and quality improvement of their outcomes-teacher's activities. Students self – reflections are confronted with techer's trainer noticings. Some significant findings are interpreted in compliance with teacher competences. Performing a lecturer’s role during academic curricular lectures provides a number of teachers’ competences by Bologna process. In this role the students participate in the following groupings: as teacher trainer - student pair or teacher trainer - student & student team. In order to monitor the efficiency and quality improvement of lectures’ activities we make use of the students’- participants feedback or self-reflections, communicated to teacher-trainer who ensures the collection of continuous feedback, which takes place at the end of the program of specific curricular units. Analysis of applied checklist included six methodological parameters, namely: Organisation, Aims/Professional knowledge/skills, Didactic principles, Communication, Performance conditions, Quality of the teacher-trainer’s work and his/her personal characteristics and Others.

The ongoing evaluation of the student-co-lecturer model (obtained on the basis of students’ feedback) confirms greater student interaction in the adoption of both compulsory curricular contents, as well as the acquisition of convincing student experience (competence) in the adoption of didactic principles, in particular the implementation of the principle of activity and the enforcement of the principle of democratic relations between specimens of each didactic situation. CO- lecture's activities are valued regarding to optional AADIDG2 didactic pinciples. Student's criticisms dwelt on the small portion of colloquium problems/tasks that could be correlated with subject-specific competence, defined as the understanding of content and methodology of chemistry education.