The influence of teaching practice on student teachers

Abstract

The aim behind this study is to investigate the factors which influence student teachers during their Teaching Practicum. The study aims to explore the perceptions and experiences of student teachers and aims to gather data on areas such as school culture, classroom management, support, teaching practice organisation, tutors, the link between theory and practice, systems and procedures. The data collected provided us with feedback about Teaching Practice and enabled us to put forward recommendations as to how one can go about improving the system. This study was carried out within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta, and involved the Second Year (1998-2002) and Fourth Year (1996-2000) student teachers. The research was conducted through the distnbution of a questionnaire survey involving 321 students. In addition, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 5 student teachers who were randomly selected in order to explore in greater depth the findings from the literature and the survey. From the data analysis, it was concluded that the organisation and the setting up of the practicum is not entirely reflecting the students' needs in how they approach and perceive the teaching situation. Therefore, as the study revealed, the Teaching Practice programme should be revised in order to make sure that it would give the most adequate opportunity to preservice teachers to develop the necessary skills for their future teaching career.