Practical teaching and professional practice in higher education

Abstract

Ideas about work-based learning and learning through practical experience have been represented in pedagogical theory and practice for a long time. Their importance is actualised in conditions of wider practical application of competency-based education. Practical teaching and professional practice should constitute an integral part of higher education programmes aimed at developing professional competencies. Practical teaching usually occurs as a part of different subject programmes, whereas professional practice occurs as a separate component of study programmes. The extent to which practical teaching and professional practice will be represented in the overall programme as well as the organisational form in which they will occur depend on professional (vocational) profiles implemented in education. Practical teaching and professional practice are highly important in implementing vocational (professional) profiles in the field of education, such as the professional profile of a pedagogue. This paper provides basic explanations of concepts of work-based learning and learning through practical experience that can be viewed as having theoretical origins in noticing the importance of practical teaching and professional practice as integral parts of educational programmes. In addition, the issue has been examined relating to the roles of practical teaching and professional practice in achieving the basic objectives and outcomes of higher education aimed at developing professional competencies. A separate section of the text provides an overview of the position and share of professional practice in the pedagogy study programme implemented at the Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. As part of this overview, a summary has been given of experience in delivery of compulsory professional practice in school for students of Year Four of bachelor academic studies of pedagogy in the 2019-2020 academic year under the emergency school work conditions caused by the pandemic.