Keeping the Practicum of Chinese Preservice Teacher Education in World's Perspective

The paper analyses the practicum programme offered in Chinese Teacher Education institutions (TEI) as compared with that of the other countries of the world. Researchers explored the ways to improve Chinese practicum programme comparing it with that of some developed and developing countries of the world. Practicum experiences of ten universities of the world from different countries were analyzed with objective to compare Chinese practicum. There emerged three basic issues from the study; the duration, timing, and mode of practicum. The researchers identified that the time allocated to practicum experiences in China was too short; the timing for sending student teachers (STs) to the field (schools) was inappropriate, and the mode of practicum adopted was outdated. The time should be expanded for practicum experiences and the practicum should be integrated throughout the programme. The STs should be sent to schools as early as possible. The other countries integrate practicum into the whole (teacher education programme) TEP ramifying it into different stages, which is also recommended for the Chinese TEI.