The role of Practicum supervisors in behaviour management education

The role of college supervisors in imparting knowledge and training student teachers to cope with behaviour problems has been examined in the present research. The background of the study was the need of the educational system to equip teachers with tools to cope with behaviour management, and the complaints about lack of training in this field. The research included observations in student teachers’ classes and in feedback sessions with 15 college supervisors from secular colleges of education in Israel who participated in the research and in in-depth open interviews. Over 1000 comments regarding children's behaviour were counted in student teachers’ classes. Supervisors ignored problems of coping with behaviour management by the student teachers in the feedback sessions. An attempt has been made to examine the reasons for this disregard. It would appear that the problem stems mainly from the pedagogical belief system of the college supervisors.