Evolution of the Social Education practicum at the University of Barcelona: from a two-year to a one-year model

Abstract

During the 2019-2020 academic year, the practicum program for the Social Education degree at the University of Barcelona switched from a two-year (biennial) model to a single annual course, maintaining the model of reciprocity and co-responsibility. The demands of the different agents involved (supervisors, tutors and students), who had requested that the training sequence of the internship should be carried out in a single course, were the driving force of the change. The transition to the new model has been marked in its first year of implementation by the Covid-19 pandemic. This article presents the preliminary results of the implementation and evaluation of the annual practicum model. The results show the suitability of the change of model and the satisfaction with it as expressed by most of the centers and supervising teachers. For their part, some students express their disagreement about doing all the practicum hours in a single year. With respect to the management and coordination of the practicums, the change of model allows the definition and maintenance of quality indicators. The reduction in the number of placements to be occupied has made it possible to review the current offer and to keep only those placements that are supervised by a social education professional.

Keywords: Internship, social education, reciprocity, co-responsibility, two-year model, one-year model.