Attitudes of TEFL student teachers at QOU towards the implementation of practicum

Abstract AR

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of TEFL student teachers towards the implementation of the practicum course at Al- Quds Open University (QOU) in addition to exploring the most stressful obstacles faced by student teachers while trying the practicum experience.

To achieve this purpose, a 45-item questionnaire was administered on 21 student teachers after accomplishing the practicum.

Results revealed that the attitudes of TEFL student teachers towards the implementation of the practicum course at QOU were positive on all domains except the fourth one.

Moreover, results revealed no significant differences at α =0.05 between student teacher's attitudes towards the implementation of the practicum course at QOU due to age, marital status and accumulative average at university.

With regard to the obstacles faced by student teachers, the results indicated that the most stressful obstacles were students' inability to cope with practicum duties and studying for courses at university, the gap between what learned at university and what was being practiced at school, and the cooperative school didn't provide the necessary facilities for student teachers.