Enhancing Pre-service Teachers’ Preparedness for Professional Experience Placement and Employment: Authentic School-University Partnership Opportunities

The transition from university learning to classroom application presents a challenge in initial teacher education. This transition results in ‘praxis shock’; a term coined to describe the confronting exposure to the gritty realities of the classroom. This case study investigated a school-university partnership that drew on authentic learning activities using a team-teaching model to address the praxis shock challenge. Data were gathered over five years from pre-service teacher subject experience surveys, journal reflections, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that this authentic approach significantly enhanced pre-service teachers’ understanding of the Australian Professional Standards for teachers, their classroom readiness, confidence, and professional identity: all measures of teacher preparedness for professional experience placement and employability. This research reveals the value of school-university collaborations that use authentic learning experiences to enhance pre-service graduate teachers’ job readiness.