Scrutinizing Practicum for a More Powerful Teacher Education: A Longitudinal Study with Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

This study aims to explore the role of school-based practicum in promoting pre-service English language teachers' professional development through the use of a longitudinal design in combination with qualitative methods. To achieve this aim, pre-service teachers were asked to successively reflect on video-recordings of their micro-lessons in their university-based methodology courses directly after delivering the micro-lessons and retrospectively after their practicum experience. The participants of this study were 13 pre-service English language teachers studying at a foundation university in Istanbul, Turkey. The same data collection methodology was adapted before and after the practicum to gain a deeper understanding of the learning stemming from school-based practicum. The data for the study came from pre-and post-self-evaluation reports as well as pre-and post-focus-group interviews that had been collected based on the pre-service teachers' video-recorded microteaching simulations. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers commented on the same pedagogical, psychological, and physical factors they had noticed regarding their micro-lesson before and after the practicum. However, some qualitative changes were detected in their views over time as they had become more learner-oriented and had developed a more reflective view of teaching following the practicum.These findings have implications for the impact of practicum for future teacher education programs.

First experiences in a school-based practicum: Pre-service teachers’ emotion and perceived benefits towards the program

“…The practicum ranges from an observation as an introductory program to teaching practicum as the end goal. The early exposure on school-based experiences the EDSU applies resonated the findings of Tülüce & Çeçen (2016) and Sulistiyo, Mukminin, Abdurrahman, & Haryanto (2017) which emphasized the needs of earlier and longer practicum program to prepare PSTs to become efficient teachers. Although the program seems promising for the PSETs' professional learning, empirical studies on it are necessary to conduct.…”

“…This idea can be put into realization by providing appropriate programs and courses in teacher training institutions which instil teacher competencies. One of the programs which is an imperative aspect of teacher education is practicum (Tülüce & Çeçen, 2016). Through practicum, preservice teachers' professional development can be gained as they can bring theoretical training into practice (Hascher & Hagenauer, 2016), and obtain real-life experiences as teachers.…”

“…Prior studies on school-based practicum have been conducted in various contexts, such as Vietnamese (Vo, Pang, & Lee, 2018), Turkish (Tülüce & Çeçen, 2016), Chinese (Teng, 2017;Zhang, Clarke & Lee, 2018), Austrian (Hascher & Hagenauer, 2016), and Indonesian (Sulistiyo, et. al., 2017;Kuswandono, 2017) context.…”

“…By involving different groups of participants, such as the fourth-year students (Vo, et. al., 2018;Tülüce & Çeçen, 2016;Teng, 2017;Zhang, et. al., 2018;Yangin Eksi & Gungor, 2018), novice teachers (Sulistiyo, et., al., 2017), and mentor teachers (Kuswandono, 2017), the prior studies have brought deep understanding on school-based practicum programs from different perspectives.…”

“…While other studies focused on the implementation of teaching practicum (Vo, et. al., 2018;Tülüce & Çeçen, 2016;Teng, 2017;Yangin Eksi & Gungor, 2018), explored the process of non-teaching practice, such as school observation PSTs have gone through is noteworthy. By examining the non-teaching practice, empirical studies on how non-teaching practices contribute to PSTs' professional learning can be gained and future actions can be taken.…”