Innovating Practicum in Social Education: a co-operative work experience

This article describes an experience of educational innovation, aimed at improving the practical training of future Social Education professionals. It was carried out by a group of people responsible for tutoring at Universidad del Pais Vasco (Spain) and other sister institutions, and by students in that same university. The main goal was to review and update the current Practicum curriculum, re-defining its methodology. This was carried out at Escuela Universitaria de Magisterio, Bilbao (Spain) [Primary Teacher Training College], where a Social Education Degree has existed since 1998, with yearly courses of up to 150 students. Following the new ESHE framework, the curriculum has been organized according to a modular, interdisciplinary structure. The second part of our paper focuses on the description of the qualitative methodology used, bringing together a model of co-operative action- research and reflective thought by means of narrative techniques. We describe both the techniques and the strategies used for collecting and analyzing information. Other information gathering strategies have also been applied: discussion groups, automatic writing and audio recordings. Thirdly, we explain the most relevant results reached in two areas: methodology, highlighting the scope of co-operative work and automatic writing, and innovation, re-formulating and expanding various pre-existing competencies. In order to define a more precise profile of the Social Education professional, a specific competency, namely learning TO BE, has also been defined. Finally, and as a result of the needs identified, various proposals for improvement have been suggested to provide continuity to the work carried out so far. These have been collected in an action-plan based on the competencies defined and in the subsequent task specifications. Likewise, it contemplates continuous and formative assessment in Practicum the continuity of its modular structure and the promotion of co-operative networks.