Development and Validation of the Extended Practicum Learning Environment Inventory

The practicum is regarded as an important component of teacher education programs. There are many variables inherent in the learning environment of the practicum. The study focussed on the learning environment of an extended practicum of a teacher education course at a Catholic university. The paper outlines the development of an instrument designed to explore the perceptions of different members of the extended practicum learning environment. Recognising that there are a number of dimensions to the learning environment of the extended practicum, the perceptions of student teachers, supervising teachers, school principals and other members of school administration teams were collected. Following a trial of an instrument, a 72-item questionnaire was developed with 12 underlying scales (viz, Supervising Teacher Support, Administration Support, Fellow Teacher Support, Fellow Student Teacher Support, Student Teacher Involvement, Peer Cohesion, Task Orientation, Autonomy, Work Pressure, Clarity, Control and Physical Comfort) All items employ a 5point Likert response format with anchors of 1 (Strongly Agree) and 5 (Strongly Disagree) AFFILIATION: The Australian Catholic University