Relationships between Pre-service Student Teacher’s Teaching Practice Anxiety, Self-determined Personal Characteristic and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Teaching Practice (TP) is an essential and compulsory stage in teachers training, as it gives them a worthwhile opportunity to practice what they have learned during training. It involves real classroom teaching which leads to most students experience anxiety which interferes with their performance. This study was planned to examine the relationship between university student teachers’ anxiety levels towards TP with their self-determined learner’s personality and with academic performance in TP. The study involved two Kenyan universities; University of Kabianga and Laikipia University. Study population was 800 student teachers undertaking their TP exercise. A random sample of 105 students were involved. Research design was descriptive-correlational research design while research method was cross-sectional analytical survey. Three tools were used to correct data; The Student Teacher Anxiety Scale (STAS), Teaching Practice Assessment Score Sheet (TPASS) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Pearson correlation coefficient, r, was used to test the relationship between student teachers’ anxiety, personal characteristics, and academic achievement. Results indicate that; academic achievement in TP exercise and TP anxiety are high, there is a weak statistically significant negative relationship between TP anxiety and academic achievement and the negative relationship is statistically significant in evaluation and professional preparation anxieties only. Furthermore, there is a statistically insignificant relationship between learner personality and academic achievement in TP.