The University of Limerick (UL) hosted a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) day for tutors involved in in School Placement, on September 3. The session, which was attended by 80 tutors, was organized by Ann-Marie Young.
As part of the day, tutors were introduced to the DigitalTA project, the platform was shared and tutors were invited to participate. As part of the local event, information and activities were provided on the role and characteristics of effective tutoring, benefits and challenges, and best practice models.
What does the UL School Placement consist of?
School Placement is a core part of all teacher education programmes at the University of Limerick. It involves a collaborative partnership between the University and participating schools. The stakeholders in this partnership are student teachers, cooperating/mentor teachers, school students, school principals, deputy principals and university tutors. University of Limerick tutors work closely with student teachers throughout their placement experience to ensure high quality support and guidance. The tutors are knowledgeable about the complexity of teaching are willing to give a listening, compassionate and critical ear to help the student teacher become a reflective practitioner and lifelong learner.
The next steps
The IT team is working on adjusting the platform’s design to align with educational needs in order to enhance the platform’s functionality and user experience. The partners are preparing a pilot which will be run with pre-service teachers in the winter semester of 2024/2025. This will provide an opportunity to evaluate the platform’s effectiveness in a real-world educational setting.
The next meeting will be held at Jan Kochanowski University (UJK) in Kielce, Poland, in May 2025. It will be accompanied by an international conference with the aim of promoting transnational dialogue and collaboration. The conference will also serve to disseminate the results of the project and the internet platform designed to connect and support European teachers.
