“FLYING SCHOOL OF TEACHING INTERNSHIPS” – IN SEARCH OF AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHER INTERNSHIP

The purpose of the speech is to present a two-year (2024)(2025)(2026) project: Flying school of teaching internship, implemented at Maria Grzegorzewska University in Poland, within the framework of the ministerial program Science for Society.Its main idea is to build cooperation between academia and the community of practice -school-university partnership (Day, 2008) through the creation of the so-called learning community (Smith, MacGregor, 2009) and learning through reflective practice (Schon, 1984).The project was created in response to, on the one hand, the questionable quality of professional practice in teaching courses, and, on the other hand, the common allegation of a growing gap between pedagogical theory and school practice.The theoretical assumptions learned by students in their studies in school practice are usually not implemented, thus perpetuating the traditional constantly reproduced model of school teaching (Gevorgyan, Sargsyan, Aramyan, 2012, Sisyan, Babayan, 2024).Research component: The project involves teaching internships in selected public and non-public elementary schools by students -future early childhood education teachers -and accompanying academic teachers.The project has a research and application character.The subject of the study is the experience of students carrying out internships.The chosen method is participatory action research (Kemmis, McTaggart, 2005, Heck, 2024), while the means of collecting research material are focused interviews conducted with the students carrying out internships after each visit to the school, as well as reflective observation diaries kept by the students.Implementation component: Promoting good practices at conferences and in academic journals, introducing recommendations for the organization of student internships in Poland, and attempting to permanently implement the alternative model of teaching internships in elementary schools developed in the project.