Abstract
Teaching practicum is a vital and challenging phase of English Language Teaching (ELT) teacher education in which student teachers experience their first teaching practices In line with the global pandemic status quo, official regulations that leaded educational activities at state primary schools and universities to be carried out online, have also changed the modes and means in the practices and experiences of in-service and pre-service ELT teachers. Therefore, in respect of three participant groups of the practicum process as student teachers, cooperating teachers and university supervisors, it is essential to examine the impact of this new coercive teaching practice system on them. This study attempts to gain insight into the teaching practicum period that ELT student teachers, cooperative teachers and university supervisors cooperatively carried out fully online through English lessons administered by state primary schools. The results elicited by the participants’ views on online practicum revealed that pupilrelated issues like their low attendance and participation in online English lessons and technological problems such as internet access or computer-related malfunctions were compelling factors for student teachers and cooperative teachers. Regarding practicum performances, cooperative teachers confirmed student teachers’ technological skills and the use of a variety of web 2 tools in their practices was found as an opportunity for student teachers to develop their teaching skills.
Highlights
Practicum, as an important phase in the teacher education process, might have an effect on current belief systems (e.g., Gan, 2013; Yuan & Lee, 2014) and future decisions or feelings of student teachers (Mau, 1997; Merç, 2015; Yan & He, 2010) and it is “the longest and most intensive exposure to the teaching profession” for teacher candidates (Cohen, Hoz, & Kaplan, 2013, p. 345)
The findings of the study first present the components of the teacher education programme that are in need of improvement and the components that constitute the strengths of the practicum programme
The findings point to room for improvement for diversity and technology components of the teacher education programme as well as improvement ideas for the practicum experience with respect to (1) the curriculum and policy-dependent procedures applied for the realization of this experience and (2) individual and (3) institutional factors that manifest themselves within the complete system of the practicum experience, which is a network of many individuals, institutions, and expectations
Summary
As an important phase in the teacher education process, might have an effect on current belief systems (e.g., Gan, 2013; Yuan & Lee, 2014) and future decisions or feelings of student teachers (Mau, 1997; Merç, 2015; Yan & He, 2010) and it is “the longest and most intensive exposure to the teaching profession” for teacher candidates (Cohen, Hoz, & Kaplan, 2013, p. 345). Canh (2014) contends that “no deep learning took place during the practicum” in his study and points to the necessity of socioconstructivist approaches in order to reform the English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education practicum. Any programme that is not updated based on feedback from its stakeholders might be running the risk of maintaining the status quo. While such a state is not always a negative one, evidencebased performance evaluation offers several benefits, no matter what the current state of affairs is
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