Clark states that ―if the literature and folklore of teacher education agree on one point, it is that the student teaching experience or practicum is important‖ (Clark, 1988, p. 1 cited by Farrell, 2001, p. 49). This quotation indicates the absolute significance of this stage for beginner teachers regardless of the subject of specialty and the contexts. It provides student teachers with the core support to commence teaching from different perspectives. Student-teachers themselves, according to Beck & Kosnik (2000), seek professional assistance. Emotional support will facilitate practice teaching and eliminates future challenges by creating intimate experiences. At the outset, the TP socializes student teachers into a teaching atmosphere and helps them grow as teachers in their own way (Farrell, 2001)
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Furthermore, through their qualitative research and by conducting interviews and a survey with student-teachers, Beck & Kosnik (2000) have found that90
student-teachers need to be respected and treated as appointed teachers by their supervisors and peers. This led some educators to use the term ‗pre-service teacher‘ or teacher candidate‘ to avoid the lower status associated with student-teacher. The views of interviewees indicated the desire of the student-teachers to create flexible, cooperative relationships with their supervisors or associate teachers in terms of lesson planning, searching for resources and designing activities and exams. By such collaboration, those teachers find the comfort and support that can help them to develop strategies for effective learning as well as teaching. Student-teachers expressed their strong desire to get feedback that will help them improve their knowledge and practice. What was motivating the teachers‘ replies was their interest in having supervisors that are knowledgeable in how to approach teaching effectively and who would therefore offer the constructive feedback that those teachers seek (ibid).
The TP experience may provide propositional knowledge that initial teacher education cannot offer and which beginner teachers apparently need. Zeichner regarded TP as a vital period for student-teachers to develop themselves rather than to demonstrate what they have learnt during college or institutes courses (1996). During TP experience, student-teachers go through a stage of reshaping and modifying their existing knowledge, beliefs, and practices rather than simply learning new theories (Johnson & Golombek, 2002 ; Johnson, 1994). Researchers have found overall that during and after TP experience student-teachers‘ teaching skills improved and increased (Hascher et al., 2004).
The TP stage might however, represent terrifying experiences to some student-teachers. A large number of teachers may expect failure, a lack of acceptance by their mentors or supervisors, misunderstanding by their students and problems with classroom management and discipline (Hascher et al., 2004). Sometimes student-teachers are supervised by ―classroom teachers [who] are generally not prepared for the responsibility of supervising a student teacher‖ (Richards & Crookes, 1988, p. 23). This situation might
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cause problems between the teacher and student-teachers. Moreover, student teachers might pick up ideas that are inappropriate for their teaching and that might have an impact not only on them, but also on their students and their teaching, especially if no kind of subsequent training is available. For an EFL student-teacher, the TP experiences provide them with opportunities to ―observe, and work with real students, teachers, and curriculum in natural settings‖ (Huling, 1998, p.1). They get involved in direct, supervised teaching experiences and indirect ones that include observing teachers (Farrell, 2001) or colleagues teaching. However, such experiences provide ―limited exposure to the real world of TESOL‖ (Richards & Crookes, 1988, p. 22). Richards & Crookes conducted a survey of the MA programme in America in which student-teachers learn classroom management skills, lesson planning, awareness of teaching style and student-teacher interaction. Although the TP experiences may be short in duration, they are still remarkably critical to EFL teachers no matter how they are designed, and the best way to gain professional knowledge and expertise as teachers in their early stage (Hascher et al., 2004). The impact of TP in terms of changes in attitudes among student- teachers and their adoption of more beneficial stances towards students and curricula has been demonstrated by research (ibid). Hascher et al. collected their data from a questionnaire distributed to 150 student teachers in Bern University in Switzerland. In addition, they analyzed feedback from the mentor and the trainer, the TP report and a daily diary for student-teachers.
In another context, Johnson claims that the TP offers opportunities for student- teachers to refine their prior beliefs about second language teaching, learning and themselves as teachers (Johnson, 1994). Moreover, she elaborates that TP experience provides EFL teachers with alternative instructional practices and images of a teacher that help them to achieve shifts in their beliefs. Consequently, risk taking can occur during the TP experience if they have taken courses that support this. It seems now that Johnson suggests that a second language education course ―must begin to put forth a view of second language teaching that recognizes the realities of classroom life and adequately
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prepares the pre-service teacher to not only contend with but, eventually empower them to alter those realities‖ (1994, p. 451). Furthermore, she recommends that EFL TP experience should facilitate the encountering of alternative instructional practices that assist student teachers in constructing new conceptualizations of themselves as teachers (1994). She has formed such views upon the findings from her study of four EFL teachers by means of a written journal, open-ended interviews, videotaped lessons and observation carried out during the placement period.
There is limited research about TP experience in the field of EFL in other contexts where English is taught as a foreign language like the context of this study. Therefore, this study aims to explore the teachers‘ experiences of the TP stage as part of teacher education programmes in different institutions that qualify their students to be EFL teachers if there was any. Listening to NGTs‘ views and perception is another issue to be fully explored later on 6.17.2.1, 6.17.2.2.
3.14 Chapter Summary
To sum up, this part has discussed the main issues in relation to teacher early experiences, socialization and induction with reference to EFL teacher. In the second part, teacher education was introduced. It covered the types of knowledge teachers are supposed to be equipped with and TP experiences within the domain of EFL teaching. This review enabled me to spot the situation of the NGTs in the context of this study. It also pinpoints the gap in the teacher preparation programme in my context.
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