saturs - rpiva

At the beginning of practice mentors discuss together with students their expectations
and aims of the practice programme. Time for meetings, practice schedule and calendar
details are settled together with a learner. During the stage of supervised learning, a mentor
observes a learner at the practice place and they discuss situations together. At this stage, a
learner’s attitude and situation assessment can be rather superficial. So it is important for a
mentor to observe this situation. This observation is noted both when interviewing clients, and
during the interview with a student. Advice given by a practice supervisor and consultations
help a learner at the stage of supervised learning.
At the stage of transition from teaching to learning, a mentor can be an expert who
helps a learner to test propriety of his/her actions at the practice place. Mentors can see
reflective learning when a learner makes changes at the practice place and highlights such
things that practice supervisors don’t even notice. Student’s activity at the practice place and
new things give positive results both to a learner and to an organisation itself.
To summarise, it can be stated that practice supervisors at university (tutors) and
supervisors at practice places (mentors) enumerate four basic stages of learning during
practice. They also emphasise importance of each stage in the process of learning. Tutors
discussed more theoretical aspects while mentors discussed more practical aspects of learning.
Tasks performed by a learner and diaries reflect all four stages. All these stages are important
for a student when trying to relate theory to practice, as well as trying to find out his/her own
model for activity at the practice place.
Being participants of the process of teaching/learning during practice, practice
supervisors use their actions (raised questions) to turn learners’ actions to a certain direction.
Practice supervisors shall not only be able to understand learners’ nature and determine an
educational aim but also make a learner believe in the significance of activities, i.e. to use
transitional aims and get a learner closer to the final target that matches the aim of practical
teaching/learning.
Both mentors and tutors use their actions to help a learner to find the right directions
for his/her activity; they see personality changes. When they get feedback information, which
is an important condition for successful teaching/learning during practice, they take a new
solution, new action and make a learner to search solutions while s/he can successfully start
learning, i. e. a learner moves from the process of teaching to the process of learning and
continues reflective learning.
In conclusion, it can be stated that during reflective practice, a learner is enabled to
act independently at the practice place. After the completion of all the stages of cyclic process
during practices, a student learns to solve problems that occur at the practice place. According
to Pollard (Pollard, 2002), a student goes through the following stages of development when
learning during practice: early idealism, survival, acknowledging difficulties, achieved
stability and moving forwards. The following stages of teaching/learning are important for a
learner and practice supervisor during the practice: the start of teaching, supervised teaching,
a stage from teaching to learning and reflective learning.
CONCLUSIONS
After the review of practice organisation principles at Vytautas Magnus University, it
was noted that the following types of practices are present in bachelor study programmes:
cognitive practice, qualification practice I, qualification practice II and pre-diploma practice.
The research has revealed that during practices learners are involved in the cyclic
process of learning. During this process learners together with practice supervisors (a tutor
and a mentor) go through the four main stages of practice.
The research helped to identify the following stages of reflective practice: the start of
teaching, supervised teaching, the stage from teaching to learning and reflective learning. The
analysis of the research data has revealed certain aspects of information collection,
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