Student teachers’ perceptions on the effectiveness of practicum and practicum supervisors

Abstract EN

The practicum experience of each individual student teacher (ST) is influenced by a multitude of integrated and interrelated factors.

These include, but not limited to, the host school environment, the duration period of practicum, the university supervisors (USs), the cooperating teachers (CTs), and the nature of feedback STs receive.

To shed some light on the effectiveness of practicum and practicum supervision on STs’ practicum experience, researchers need to uncover the multi faceted nature of such factors and investigate their impact on the success or failure of STs’ practicum experiences.

To this end, the current study has investigated the perceptions of 158 female undergraduate STs majoring in teaching English as a foreign language on the effectiveness of practicum and practicum supervision on shaping STs' practicum experiences.

It also investigates whether or not there are any significant differences in the effectiveness of USs and CTs.

The results of the study have shown that STs had positive perceptions towards most of the factors in question.

At the same time, some significant differences in the STs’ perceptions have been found in relation to the effectiveness of USs and CTs.

The findings have further confirmed the importance of continuously evaluating the effectiveness of practicum factors for the improvement and development of practicum, practicum supervision, and teacher education programs.