Teaching practicums are a pivotal component of initial teacher education giving preservice teachers (PSTS) hands-on experience in classrooms with real classroom experience to bridge theory and practice. In recent years, teacher educators and researchers have made significant advancements in how practicums are structured and supported – particularly in fostering reflective practice, rethinking mentoring roles, encouraging peer-group collaboration, and introducing approaches to reflection.

Teaching practicums are widely regarded as one of the most critical elements in teacher preparation, Globally, practicum experiences constitute roughly a quarter of teacher training curricula. The context of this research is in Finland, where the length of teacher training is 5 years and where three practicums of four take place in Teacher training schools which are specialized teacher training schools with educated mentor teachers.

For teacher development, reflection has long been considered the cornerstone. It refers to the process of critically thinking about and analyzing one’s teaching experiences to derive insights and improve future practice. In teacher education, PSTs are typically expected to reflect on both their own teaching and their peers’ teaching during practicums This process helps them deepen their understanding of effective teaching and student learning, turning classroom experiences into professional growth. Educational theorists define reflective practice as a cyclical, meaning-making process. PSTs have an experience, then systematically analyze and evaluate that experience, and finally derive conclusions to apply to future teaching. When PSTs carefully examine their practicum experiences, they begin to construct personal teaching knowledge. Research has found that teachers’ practical knowledge is largely built via reflection on practicum experiences.

Reflective practice is a core tool for PSTs to construct practical teaching knowledge from experience. In it, quality mentoring and reflection are fundamental to translating theory into practice. Innovations like peer-group dialogues have boosted the depth and quality of reflection, linking classroom experiences to continuous learning. Also, effective mentors are shifting from authoritative experts to facilitative co-learners. Research shows that when mentors step back and let PSTs lead reflective discussions, PSTs develop greater agency, a shared professional language, and deeper teaching insights.

This qualitative case study focused on mentoring practice of the mentor and her mentees in the peer-group mentoring context. During practicum, reflection was approached from the pre-service teachers practicum experiences and the pre-service teachers were the initiators of their reflection- their teacher thinking. Results showed that PST-driven discussions could address many issues effectively without the mentor having to steer every conversation. The mentor in this study did not need to provide a corrective comment for every topic; often the PSTs, through collective reasoning, arrived at sound conclusions or identified areas to adjust. The mentor could confirm or gently expand on their conclusions, rather than initiate them. Results also highlighted that the mentor’s role need not be directive; a mentor can remain a supportive co-reflector throughout, and the group still benefits greatly. The role of the peer-grpup and the mentor is discussed with an approach to reflection.

Keywords: Teaching practicum, reflective practice, mentoring.