What Is the Difference Between a Practicum and Student Teaching?

Aspiring educators spend years in universities studying theories, attending lectures, writing research papers, and reading textbooks to prepare themselves for a teaching career. While these studies provide a solid theoretical understanding of the field, there is a gap between academic preparation and the challenges of a real-world classroom. It is possible to bridge this gap by introducing the student to two supervised classroom learning experiences, commonly referred to as a practicum and student teaching.