Evaluation of ELT Practicum Courses: Exploring the Perspectives of Student-teachers and Graduated Student Teachers

Abstract

Practicum as a component of English language teacher education program has been welcomed by pre-service teacher education institutes. Despite the great emphasis laid on practicum by Farhangiyan University, it has not been evaluated comprehensively from the student teachers and graduated student teachers up to now. The main objective of the study was to explore the benefits and problems of the practicum program. To do so, a qualitative case study was employed. 25 informants were recruited using purposive sampling procedure. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with student teachers and graduated student teachers. The interpretational and reflective analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data. The findings were content analyzed in terms of benefits/advantages and challenges of the practicum. They indicate that practicum courses make the student teachers ready for real teaching , help them learn about the realities of real teaching and overcome the negative attitudes and feelings about teaching profession. It was also found that practicum program needs revision in terms of evaluation, quality of placement schools, and cooperation between mentors, university educators and student teachers. Findings can be used by teacher training institutes, practicum mentors, schools, and EFL student teachers.