Student Teachers Practicum Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic has brought different levels of anxiety to students and teachers alike. This paper looks into the levels of anxiety experienced by the Partido State University’s (ParSU) Practice Teachers (PT’s) during their practice teaching for the academic year 2021-2022 along the various practice teaching activities as well as analyze how the students are able to overcome those anxieties. Using the researcher-modified five-point Likert Student Anxiety Scale (STAS) to identify the levels of anxiety experienced by the PT’s, two sample T-Test to compare the anxiety experienced by the PT’s by gender, grade placement and course, and logistic regression analysis to see the effects of the PT’s gender, grade placement, age and course on their anxiety, the researchers found that the PT’s experience high levels of anxiety in lesson preparation, technology, cooperating teacher and subject/subject matter. The researchers also found that while there is no significant differences in the levels of anxiety experienced by the PT’s, but their grade placement affects their anxiety in demonstration teaching and technology while their age affects their anxieties in demonstration teaching, managing virtual classroom and subject/subject matter. In overcoming those anxieties, the themes which emerged include time management to study the subject matter and prepare for demonstration teaching, exploring the features of the LMS for timely returning and checking of student outputs as well as communicating their concerns to their cooperating teacher. To reduce the anxiety of the practice teachers, especially that practice teaching is done virtually in the new normal, the researchers developed a mental health program for practice teachers experiencing practice teaching anxiety.