The Teacher Candidates’s Views on Essential Teaching Skills of Practicum Teachers


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Hotaman D.

International Online Journal of Educational Sciences(iojes), vol.9, no.1, pp.91-100, 2017 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

All education systems need qualified teachers who have high knowledge and skills to gain them operability and character traits that are compatible with the profession. The aim of “Teaching and School Practicum” in Turkey is to employ this opportunity. While the professional compatibility of the teacher candidate students are being constituted with the Teaching and School Practicum classes, their professional development is endeavoured to be ensured. In this study, what classroom management skills and teaching strategies are, the attitudes of practicum teachers towards teacher candidates, and the contribution of school practicum to the development of teacher candidates in terms of teacher qualifications are elaborately discussed. Mixed methods have been used in the study. Although the main research question has been investigated in a quantitative fashion, phenomenology from qualitative paradigm has been used for other sub research questions. For this purpose, convenience sampling, which is a type of purposive sampling, has been used and 41 teacher candidate students, who attend to Teaching and School Practicum internship in two different high schools in European part of İstanbul, have been determined as the participants. In data collection process, first literature reviewed and expert opinion was taken to determine the classroom management skills and teaching strategies for teachers, then data related to the third and fourth sub questions has been gathered via open ended questions. When the findings were analysed, it was understood that the classroom management skills, the used teaching strategies of teacher candidate students and the practicum teachers resembled each other, but the practicum teachers have a lack of knowledge in both classroom management skills and teaching strategies. The attitudes of school administration and practicum teachers towards candidate students have been found as positive. Therefore the opinion that Teaching and School Practicum courses have contributed to their professional development has been supported