DefinePK

Abstract

The major focus of the study is to explore the perceptions, practices of university tutors (UT), cooperative teachers (CT), and prospective teachers (PT) to establish the collaborative partnership between Universities and Schools for bridging the theory-practice gap in teaching practicum of preservice B.ED (Hons) 4 Years teacher education program. Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method Design with qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to answer the research questions. There were four case studies in the first phase, and the researcher collected data through semi-structured interviews from eight UT. In the second phase, based on the qualitative data, three questionnaires were developed to gather the views of UT, CT, and PT. Participants were selected through, purposive sampling technique. The findings of the study revealed several gaps in the process of a TEI-School collaborative partnership that includes weak and undocumented collaboration, training of PT is the sole responsibility of TEI. Moreover, pre-service teacher education is missing out on the value of including CP and school management perspectives and lack of professional and financial incentives for CP.||Key Words: School-University Partnership, Theory-Practice Gap, Teaching Practicum, Teacher Education Institutions.