A Critical Look at a Blended English Language Teacher Education Program with an Emphasis on the Practicum

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore what types of difficulties student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Language Teacher Education program offered in a blended format and their cooperating teachers encountered during the student teacher practicum. The participants were 21 fourth grade student teachers and 12 cooperating teachers. Semi-structured interview questions were used to collect data. The interviews were tape-recorded and then transcribed to be analyzed. According to the findings, the problems student teachers faced were grouped into four areas: assessment systems, computer-assisted communication, challenges with mentors, and psychological issues. Cooperating teachers' problems were categorized as problems associated with the program and problems associated with the student teachers. The results of this study contribute to an increased understanding of the problems that student teachers and their cooperating teachers face during field experience at an English language teacher education program offered in a distance format. This study provides suggestions for establishing more effective mentorship during the field experience.

Profiling of English language teachers as trainees in an online course and ensuing implications

“…Evidently, teachers' engagement with computers is essential, nevertheless, their ability and their confidence in actually using technology for efficient teaching need not be neglected (Lim, Tay, Lam-Chiang, & Hui, 2012). That is to say that confidence in the teachers' own use of digital media should not be mistaken for sufficient confidence to instruct otherspersonal and professional use of computers should be established (Koç, 2016).…”

Blended Learning as an Emerging Approach to Teacher Education in Higher Education in Sri Lanka: Lessons from a State-of-the-Art Review

“…Specialized teacher education programs offered through blended learning is increasing. The studies on which this review is based included specialized programs for physical education (Calderón et al, 2020); secondary education (Arnesen et al, 2019); elementary teacher education (Rachmadtullah et al, 2020); vocational education (Dharma & Rohendi, 2019); sustainability skills for teaching sustainability (Chin et al, 2019); English (Arifani et al, 2019;Farani, 2019;Islam et al, 2018;Koç, 2016;Yağcı et al, 2016); visual literacy (Huilcapi-Collantes et al, 2020); mathematics (Ihechukwu et al, 2017, Islam et al, 2018Nami et al, 2020;Ubah et al, 2020;Weinhandl et al, 2020;Yurniwati & Yarmi, 2020); physics (Krasnova & Shurygin, 2019); science education (Lee et al, 2016;Yılmaz & Malone, 2020); inclusive education (Vaishnav & Singh 2019); music education (Hietanen & Ruismäki, 2017;Tuisku & Ruokonen, 2017); literature (Eutsler, 2018), computer assisted language learning (Nami et al, 2020); accounting education (Suyatmini et al, 2020) and multiple specializations (Karimi & Ahmad, 2020).…”

“…A study on online mentoring within a blended teaching practicum had also yielded negative outcomes (Koç, 2016). The lack of opportunities for interaction with the faculty, when compared with a fully face-to-face teaching practicum, had posed difficulties to both trainee teachers and cooperating teachers who assist with practicum supervision.…”

The application of blended learning in higher vocational English teaching under the background of “Internet +”

“…A net, a mobile terminal, millions of students, school term you choose, the teacher selected by you, this is the 'Internet + education. [6,7,8] Micro class, class, flip class, mobile phones, these are the result of the" Internet + education." The higher vocational English course to cultivate students' vocational positions required English basic skills and basic quality.…”