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The purpose of this study was to explore the complex cognitive and affective challenges of teacher candidates in their development toward self-efficacy in their teaching. Twenty-two teacher candidates recorded their challenges and thinking process during the last six weeks of their practicum. Following their placement, they completed a summative reflection, in which they noted changes in themselves and described when or if they felt confident as classroom teachers. Four themes emerge as the challenge or condition for their self-efficacy: effective classroom management, successful curriculum planning and implementation, positive rapport with students, and supervising teacher approval. This research suggests that teacher preparation program educators can support teacher candidates’ self-efficacy by understanding the developmental stages of teachers, supporting critical reflection, and using motivational and descriptive feedback to improve practical skills.Keywords: teacher self-efficacy; reflection; concerns-based stages model; transformational learning theory; and supervising teacher

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The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the extent and nature of changes in personal and professional behaviors, values, and attitudes of 46 Canadian teacher candidates who participated in a three week teaching practicum in Kenya. All participants completed a pre and post practicum Global-Mindedness Survey (Hett, 1993), participated in interviews, and engaged in personal and public reflections. Our results suggest that the Kenyan practicum significantly increased the teacher candidates’ global-mindedness and intercultural competence. The teacher candidates’ teaching practice was positively affected as reflected in their increased commitment to build community, improved skills in teaching English language learners, their ability to globalize the curriculum, and their confidence in the realization that they were their own greatest teaching resource. We theorize planned transformative learning opportunities during the cultural immersion of international practicums can greatly enhance the intercultural competence of teachers in today’s diverse classrooms.

This essay explores and presents strategies we, as Canadian faculty facilitators of a teaching practicum in Kenya, used to foster the pre-service teachers’ knowledge and understanding of critical reflection and transformative learning processes by using arts-based activities. Participation in the arts-based activities while in Kenya encouraged the pre-service teachers to reflect upon and make sense of their cultural, social, and pedagogical experiences, and provided opportunities for them to gain insights that perhaps would not have been revealed using more traditional reflection formats. The transformational learning experienced by the pre-service teachers as they were immersed in arts-based pedagogical activities was evident on a personal and professional level.