A. Design

The planning and organization of the Second Phase of the Students’ Practicum in Language, in the Department of Primary Education at the University of Western Macedonia for the academic year 2020-2021 is necessarily differentiated due to the prohibition of students’ presence at the University as well as the prohibition of teaching through physical presence in the collaborating schools. These protective measures against Covid-19 disease are imposed by a relevant decision of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.

Therefore, the design is organized as follows:

The introductory part of the course is presented by the professor of the course in six teaching weeks and then students are divided into pairs, in order to make a distance presentation of their teaching.

Each week 4 pairs of students teach a different teaching unit, so that by the end of the semester the practicum has been completed by all of them.

Each pair is assigned the curriculum by the professor and a preparatory meeting is held at the zoom link of the course, at the day and time specified by the Secretariat of the department. In the meeting, which is attended by the professor of the course, the mentor and the 4 pairs of students, the students discuss their propositions about the teaching plan with the professor and the mentor.

On the day and time of the lesson determined according to the program of the section, the practicum is carried out in the zoom link of the lesson.

Each teaching is designed/ organized so that it lasts 30΄.

When planning the teaching, students take into account what has been taught in the theoretical part. Each teaching begins with a brief presentation of its design and objectives and then all its phases from the lesson hook to the evaluation are presented in details. During the teaching, the pair of teaching students may involve the rest of students who attend it by asking them questions and transforming specific parts of the lesson into microteaching.

Each teaching is finally evaluated by the plenary, which is asked to answer specific questions promoting their critical thinking, such as “what could be done differently and why”. At the same time corrections and improvements are suggested by the professor and the mentor. Students who carry out the teaching write down these remarks, in order to improve their final deliverable plan. All the students fill in evaluation sheets for 3 of all the teachings that take place during the semester.

B. Obligations and evaluation

All students’ participation and presence are mandatory during the theoretical and practicum sessions.

At the end of the semester, all the pairs of students deposit their final lesson plans, while each student deposits evaluation sheets of 3 teachings that took place in the online classroom.

Also, all students participate in oral exams at the end of the semester.