A study of student teacher experiences and expectations of teaching practice

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the differences in student teachers’ experiences and expectations in teaching practice. For this purpose four questions were formulated to examine student teachers’ experiences and expectations in general and according to gender, type of partner school they attend for teaching practice, and number of sessions they teach during teaching practice. A total of 230 fourth year (senior) prospective teachers from English Language Teaching departments of different Faculties of Education participated in the study. A bipolar 33 item (five-point Likert-type) questionnaire with an attached short information sheet was used for data collection. One-way ANOVA and t-test were the main statistical procedures utilized for data analysis. Findings of the study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between student teachers’ experiences and expectations, that there was a difference between male and female student teachers’ experiences, but that there were no statistically significant differences according to the number of sessions they teach at practice school they attended.