Attitudes of Prospective French Teachers Towards School Experience and Teaching Practice Courses

Abstract

Education is an important concept that prepares society for change and pushes development. The teacher, who is one of the basic elements of the education phenomenon, has important duties. Accordingly, the teacher has a very important place in the life of the students. The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of the prospective French teachers towards School Experience and Teaching Practice courses and to reveal whether their attitudes differ according to the gender factor. The research has been conducted by means of a descriptive survey model and was carried out with the participation of 18 volunteer students (10 females, 8 males) studying at the department of French Language Teaching of the Faculty of Education at Anadolu University. The quantitative data of the study has been collected with a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 30 items. Moreover, in addition to the scale, the opinions of the students on the School experience and Teaching Practice courses have been collected by means of 5 open-ended questions drawn up by the researcher. The qualitative data acquired in this study has been reviewed through the document analysis method. According to the obtained data, it has been determined that the students had positive opinions about these courses. In addition, their attitudes towards ‘School Experience’ and ‘Teaching Practice’ courses have a very high average. This research shows that, these courses make significant contributions to the professional development of students. However, no significant difference was observed in terms of the gender factor based on the opinions of the participants with respect to the aforementioned courses.