Practical teaching or practicum (as it is commonly referred to) is regarded as a crucial part of the training for students in the English Language teacher education programmes. According to Rozelle and Wilson (2012:1196) it is seen as a “beneficial, authentic and practical aspect of the teacher education.” To Ong’ondo and Borg (2011: 511), the practicum is essential in the learning and development of the pedagogical reasoning required by the student teachers to function effectively and efficiently as teachers in their chosen fields. Practical teaching can simply be referred to as the point or phase where theory essentially meets practice in the training of students in English Language teacher education programmes. In other words, the teacher education programmes are designed to allow students during their practical teaching exercise, to put into practice theories and concepts learnt from courses taught. Tuli and File (2009:110) describe the practical teaching exercise as a site where student teachers engage in active practice of pupils in real school contexts during a specific period of time. The practical teaching exercise is seen as an integral component of any teacher education programme as it seeks to provide the student teacher with school-based supervised real teaching experiences, boosting the student teachers’ understanding on the full scope of their roles as teachers (Tuli and File, 2009:107). Gile and Richard (19992:55) further expand on this view as in their opinion challenges faced by the student teachers during
the practical teaching exercise not only provides them with opportunities to engage in reflective activities but to also develop their expertise in the area of practice.
Their definition of the exercise is unique as they emphasize the fact that the student teachers are assigned to specific teachers and class within this given block of time. This is usually the case with most practical teaching exercises. In such cases, teachers invariably become mentors to the student teachers (who have been assigned to their respective classes). This study which evaluates the English Language teacher education programme at the NCE level in Nigeria, involves student teachers in the programme as part of the research participants. This will enable the researcher not only to identify the teaching needs of the student teachers but to also explore this mentor-mentee relationship between the student teachers and their class/subject teachers.
2.7. THE CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL IN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
According to Harmer (2007:30), it is important and essential for teachers to be knowledgeable in their subjects. This being the case, Eyers (2004:1) explains that the practicum or practical teaching exercise is designed to integrate theoretical knowledge and professional practice. Clift and Brady (2005:331), however, note emphatically that student teachers find it difficult to translate concepts learnt in methods courses into their teaching practice classrooms. To Tuli and File (2009:110), it is necessary for student teachers to build and develop their teaching expertise. To them this involves “...knowing what to teach
and how to teach it and what methods to use with particular topics, particular kinds of students and in particular settings”. In other words, it is one thing to know the subject, and another thing to be able to teach the subject effectively. It thus becomes necessary for the student teachers not just to have good knowledge of their subject but to also have the required skill to pass that knowledge on to the students/pupils that they teach. In effect, this emphasises the need to build not only the content knowledge but the pedagogical content knowledge of students in pre-service language teacher education programmes. In the view of Tuli and File (2009:109), this can be learnt and developed during the practicum as it becomes a frame of reference for student teachers.
The knowledge of how and what to teach does not necessarily come naturally. There are a number of views as to how student teachers learn to perform their teaching tasks. Nettle (1998:193) believes that “teachers teach as they were taught” as many teacher educators would undoubtedly take credits for having some form of positive influence on the teaching practices of some of their student teachers. This may be true as Zanting et al (2001:725) also hold a similar view as they outline the different domains from which information is gathered to build up the knowledge gained by the students during their training in a teacher education programme.
The first domain or source is the training institute, or in this case, College of Education where the students are taught about educational theories and other language courses including methods on how to teach the subject. The second is from the mentors or teachers to whom they are assigned during their practical
teaching exercise. Knowledge through this source is referred to as practical knowledge as it is mostly built on the knowledge acquired through years of experience and teaching practice. The third source is the students themselves, as they also learn from their own experience as learners/students in a classroom. Zanting et al (2001:726) acknowledge the existence of a gap among the three sources/domains of information for the student teachers as they rarely all correspond.
Nevertheless as highlighted by Rozelle and Wilson (2012:1196), student teachers fail to utilise the theories and concepts they have been taught in class. Instead, they tend to rely on the traditional styles of their mentors when they encounter difficulties in the course of practical teaching exercise. Mentors, as used by Rozelle and Wilson (2012), refer to the teachers in the placement schools. Their study shows the involvement of six science teachers in the practical teaching training of student teachers in a Science teacher education programme. The findings reveal that the student teachers, at the end of the one year practicum, became “carbon copies” of the participating science teachers in their teaching practices (Rozelle and Wilson, 2012: 1202).
In contrast, the findings from the research of Ong’ondo and Borg (2011:515- 516) show that this mentoring role in the English Language teacher education programme is officially the responsibility of the supervisors in teacher education programmes in the Kenyan University. Interestingly, the findings also reveal an indirect transfer of this responsibility to the teachers (in the placement schools) who, in comparison, spend more time with the student teachers than the
supervisors who only supervise the students four times out of the recommended six stipulated in the programme guidelines. Given that this study, as in the case of Ong’ondo and Borg (2011), involves student teachers on their practical teaching, it will shed light on this mentoring issue, examining how this occurs and exploring possible reasons as to why it happens.
With the role played by the mentors as valuable source of information on varied areas ranging from key skills such as curriculum planning, classroom management and key pedagogic skills, it becomes very necessary for such mentors to be effective teachers and role models. In fact, in the exact words of Yavuz (2011:44), the “mentors need to be subject specialists with successful teaching experience and pedagogical knowledge”. Given that this research examines the teaching needs of the student teachers in the programme under study, it would be interesting to observe and study how the student teachers blend theory and practice together in the classrooms of their placement schools, utilising the knowledge gained from their lecturers, classroom/subject teachers (who in this case act as their mentors) and from their own personal experiences as students.