Placement-based learning – ITE 

Placement-based learning (PBL) is the structured, school-based element of professional learning where trainee teachers refine their expertise through direct classroom experience.  

At its core, PBL is practical, relational, and developmental. It tests theory in action, strengthens pedagogical understanding, and shapes professional identity through sustained contact with pupils in schools. It can also act as a bridge between university-based preparation and classroom enactment, since without applied opportunities, trainee teachers’ theoretical understanding of learning strategies may not translate into their teaching practice.  

In initial teacher education (ITE), PBL gives trainee teachers structured, progressive classroom experience. This normally involves observation, rehearsing or teaching alongside a mentor, leading to assuming full responsibility for lessons or classes . 

Mentors in school and university supervisors work together to support this, helping participants develop technical skills, professional identity, and adaptive judgement. This progression is supported by cycles of observation, practice, feedback, and reflection, coordinated by mentors and university supervisors. Frameworks such as the ONION model suggest that reflection can move from surface-level behaviours through competencies, beliefs, and identity towards deeper professional values, positioning PBL as a reflective as well as experiential process. The research suggests this support may need to include clear guidelines and digital training for mentors, since communication and feedback processes can become more challenging online. 

PBL is grounded in the view that teaching is a craft best developed through enactment in the classroom, supported by structured feedback and reflection. 

Impact on trainee teachers

Across reviews, PBL is linked with varied outcomes for trainee teachers, particularly in competence and professional identity. It enables teachers to strengthen classroom skills through supported, real-time practice. However, research focuses largely on changes to preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes over documented improvements in their actual teaching practice, with many studies not reporting key study design information, such as participant demographics and context (e.g. race, gender, disability), and more rigorous primary research needed using multiple methods that go beyond self-reported data.

Research highlights: 

• Development of teaching skills: planning, classroom management, and assessment often develop through direct work with pupils. Evidence suggests that working in real classrooms helps trainee teachers refine practical routines and begin applying theoretical ideas in context. 

• Growth in adaptive expertise: the ability to make in-the-moment pedagogical decisions, especially when practices are explicitly modelled and rehearsed. 

• Strengthening of professional identity: where teachers build confidence, self-efficacy, and reflective depth. PBL design appears to be most effective when it extends beyond practising strategies to also build teachers’ awareness of how they think, reflect, and regulate their own learning (metacognition). Without explicit scaffolding, many trainees struggle to move beyond surface levels of reflection or find it difficult to translate training or university ideals into classroom practice.  

• The value of mentoring relationships: structured and collaborative supervision can enhance resilience and support clearer pedagogical judgement. Crucially, the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship is highly dependent on the mentor receiving clear training and guidelines on how to offer support effectively in a range of circumstances. 

The evidence suggests that PBL’s impact varies and is shaped by factors such as coherent expectations between settings, the quality of mentoring, and opportunities for guided reflection. 

The effectiveness of PBL is generally rated as mixed for ITE, reflecting highly variable outcomes that are strongly dependent on the quality of implementation, the coherence of the training programme, and other contextual factors.  

Some reviews highlight improvements in instructional skill, including planning, classroom management, assessment, and subject pedagogy through classroom placement. 

Confidence and an increased reflective capacity appear to be a result of PBL, marked by growing self-efficacy, metacognitive awareness, and depth of reflection. 

Professional identity may also be shaped through PBL, helping trainee teachers develop values, purpose, and a sense of themselves as professionals. 

Although PBL is valued in teacher education, the evidence base is uneven, with many studies focusing more on changes in pre-service teachers’ beliefs and attitudes than on measurable improvements in their actual teaching skills or student learning outcomes. In other words, while PBL has many benefits, we still need more rigorous research that shows how it directly improves classroom practice and benefits pupils. 

Reviews suggest that effectiveness can be maximised when the ITE programme ensures a coherent structure, where practice periods are an integrated part of the overall curriculum, and when mentors receive clear guidance and training. 

Behaviours

Placement-based learning (PBL) appears to work best when mentors, participants, and colleagues deliberately enact certain behaviours that support the development of daily routines. Reviews suggest five broad behaviours, with important nuances: 

• Model practice and make it visible: Effective mentors do more than demonstrate. They explain the reasoning behind their actions, highlight deliberate choices, and encourage purposeful observation. Modelling is most effective when it includes both successful strategies and real challenges, supporting reflective dialogue. Some reviews add that mentors should also make explicit the link between learning goals and pedagogy.  

• Rehearse and reflect: Implementation explicitly moves trainees beyond surface-level reflection to a deeper, metacognitive awareness (e.g., how they regulate their own learning). This is achieved by pairing structured rehearsal methods (like microteaching, and walkthroughs) with targeted feedback, ensuring practice extends beyond simple routines to cover authentic decision-making (e.g., transitions or SEN scaffolds). Reflection can be strengthened when mentors explicitly prompt metacognitive awareness, encourage written records, and use established frameworks (e.g., Gibbs’ cycle). Without this explicit scaffolding, many trainees struggle to translate training ideals into classroom practice. 

• Give specific, timely, developmental feedback: Effective feedback is two-way, concrete, and delivered promptly. It should provide clear next steps and be sustained over time. Some studies note that feedback is most developmental when combined with evidence artefacts (lesson video, pupil work etc.) and linked to observed pupil responses. Feedback that helps teachers theorise from practice, not just adjust technique, appears to support longer-term growth.  

• Engage in joint problem-solving: Instead of offering ready-made solutions, mentors and participants analyse challenges together. This collaboration fosters adaptive expertise and shared ownership of improvement. Cooperative methods (such as small communities of practice) may help broaden perspectives and support collaborative inquiry. Reviews also highlight that mentors may need to bridge between university ideals and school constraints, using pupil evidence to justify choices and helping trainees resolve any tensions. The implication is that mentor training should go beyond the basics of modelling and feedback. Reviews suggest it should also equip mentors to scaffold metacognitive awareness, use reflection frameworks, and foster cooperative, inquiry-driven dialogue.  

Contextual factors 

PBL outcomes appear to depend heavily on the wider environment. Success is shaped not only by what happens in individual lessons, but also by how schools, mentors, and systems create the conditions for professional learning to take root. Reviews highlight several recurring factors: 

• Integration and coherence: The success of PBL is highly dependent on the ITE institution ensuring a coherent structure and organisation of the curriculum. The practice period must be an integrated part of the overall training programme to foster consistent competency development. 

• Partnership alignment: Reviews suggest PBL may work better when schools and training providers share expectations, language, and principles, reducing mixed messages for trainees. 

• Sustained communication and resourcing: Studies indicate that partnerships might be strengthened when supervisors maintain ongoing communication and when schools protect time for mentoring, for example through coordinator roles or release time. 

• Keep pupils central: PBL has greatest impact when teachers engage in extended, meaningful interactions with pupils. This includes building relationships, responding to learning needs, and seeing impact over time. 

• Clarify roles and expectations: Clearly defined responsibilities for mentors, supervisors, and trainees help reduce confusion and ensure consistent support. Where roles are blurred, trainees may struggle with conflicting messages (e.g. between university ideals and school norms). Leaders seem to play an important part in helping mentors act as facilitators, reconciling different authorities and guiding trainees to use pupil evidence to justify pedagogical choices. 

• Integrate with curriculum and assessment systems: PBL appears to be most effective when directly connected to programme objectives and assessment frameworks, not treated as a stand-alone or add-on activity. Reviews suggest that reflection and feedback should be embedded explicitly within programme expectations, rather than left optional. 

Structured but flexible 

Placement-based learning appears most effective when it follows a clear predictable structure, but it should retain flexibility to respond to individual trainee needs, diverse school contexts, and goals. Reviews highlight five key features: 

• Use a clear developmental trajectory: Progression from guided observation to independent practice, with scaffolds that adapt to individual needs and settings, supports steady growth. 

• Ensure programme coherence: Practice periods should be an integrated part of the ITE programme, supported by a coherent structure and organisation of the curriculum to ensure quality and consistent competency development.  

• Focus on core practices: High-leverage strategies such as modelling, questioning, and checking for understanding should be repeated and refined over time. 

• Adapt to context: Structures seem to work best when responsive. Mentors and facilitators may need to tailor experiences to phase, subject, or classroom conditions. 

• Rehearsal with feedback: Repeated opportunities to try a strategy, receive feedback, and try again may help trainees refine practice.   

• Structured reflection: Frameworks such as the ONION model may support movement from surface-level description towards deeper analysis of beliefs and identity. 

• Gradually release responsibility: Moving from high guidance to lighter oversight builds teacher independence while protecting pupil learning. 

Leaders of professional development may consider how PBL design should balance structure and responsiveness. The evidence suggests that without clear scaffolds, reflection risks staying shallow, and without flexibility, strategies may remain unused in practice.  

Even well-designed Placement-based learning (PBL) can lose impact if key conditions are missing. Reviews highlight recurring challenges that limit its effectiveness: 

• Passive or unfocused observation: When observation lacks clear purpose or follow-up practice, trainee teachers miss chances to turn what they see into improved teaching. Without an active involvement (rehearsal, feedback, and application), its impact is minimal. 

• Early challenges in application: Many trainee teachers may find it hard to manage classrooms, pace lessons, scaffold tasks, or put theoretical knowledge into practice. They may also experience tensions between school-based expectations and the pedagogical ideals emphasised in training. 

• Inconsistent mentor preparation: Mentors who lack proper training or support may unintentionally provide vague praise, overly critical feedback, or take a hands-off approach to supervision. This can weaken trust and reduce the effectiveness of feedback. 

• Fragmentation between settings: Misaligned priorities or language between universities and schools in ITE can confuse participants. Conflicting expectations about authority and practice between settings can leave trainees uncertain whose guidance to follow. 

• Limited time and resource capacity: Without protected time for planning, feedback, and reflection, PBL risks becoming a procedural task rather than genuine development. Competing workload demands on mentors often limit the intensity and quality of the practice cycle. 

• Superficial or fragmented reflection: Many participants remain at surface levels (environment, behaviour) and rarely reach reflection on beliefs, identity, or mission without structured support. Reflection processes are often fragmented between school and university, which can leave trainees receiving mixed messages. 

• Technical and digital barriers: Insufficient technical skills among participants or mentors, combined with poor digital infrastructure (e.g., unreliable internet access or hardware) can get in the way of effective observation, and communication. 

• Overemphasis on performance evaluation: When PBL is framed mainly as pass–fail, participants may prioritise compliance and safety over experimenting, reflecting, and improving. Assessment-driven risk aversion can limit professional growth. 

• Uneven equity and placement opportunities: Access to diverse learners and contexts is inconsistent across programmes. Some trainees may only experience narrow school cultures, missing opportunities to develop inclusive practice. 

Beyond core design and delivery, reviews suggest several further factors that influence how Placement-based learning is experienced and sustained in schools and trusts: 

• Professional identity: PBL is closely tied to how trainee teachers see themselves, influencing confidence, self-efficacy, and agency. This identity work is both emotional and instructional, shaped through relationships, feedback, and authentic teaching opportunities. Some reviews caution that without explicit reflection structures, identity may become overly narrow.  

• Shared language: A consistent pedagogical vocabulary (for example modelling, scaffolding, and core practices) strengthens dialogue between mentors, supervisors, and programme leaders. Shared terms make feedback more precise and sustain learning across settings. Tools such as reflection frameworks (e.g., ONION) or structured models may help here, though their use requires training and strong structural alignment across school and university contexts, ensuring programme coherence. 

• Remote teaching: PBL, particularly during remote learning, may result in teachers gaining mastery and becoming technologically literate educators. This often includes learning various technological platforms to integrate instructional technology into pedagogy.  Effective practice requires mentors to overcome challenges in maintaining effective communication and feedback loops when supervision occurs entirely online or remotely. The use of digital evidence is crucial for making feedback specific and developmental in these contexts. 

• Use of virtual tools: Digital approaches such as video-based feedback, online coaching, and remote observation can extend access and flexibility. They appear most effective when paired with active methodologies or structured tasks, enhancing reflection, autonomy, and motivation. However, their effectiveness can be severely limited by technical barriers (e.g., poor infrastructure or lack of hardware) and challenges in maintaining effective communication and feedback loops when moving practice online. They should be seen as complements to, not replacements for, in-person practice, which continues to provide an effective form of professional learning. 

• Assessment practices: How PBL is assessed strongly shapes its meaning. Overly standardised or checklist-led approaches may restrict experimentation. By contrast, formative, dialogic assessment, with opportunities for self-evaluation and professional discussion, supports deeper growth and reduces risk aversion. 

• Mentor selection: The choice of mentor is critical. Effective mentors combine recent classroom experience, subject expertise, and interpersonal skill. These qualities help them model relevant practice, build trust, and provide constructive challenge. 

• Becoming part of the team: Evidence indicates that trainees develop more confidence when they have chances to contribute to everyday school work, not only observe it. This participation may help them understand expectations, build relationships, and feel more connected to the profession.