Practicum in Preservice Teacher Education in Myanmar

Abstract

The study aims to explore how the practicum is implemented in pre-service teacher education in Myanmar, with the goal of improving the quality of the practicum and the university program. Exploratory sequential mixed method design is used to answer the main research questions of (1) What are the main characteristics of practicum in initial teacher education in Myanmar? (2) How do the different actors perceive the practicum in teacher education in Myanmar? The study employs snowball sampling, cluster sampling, and purposive random sampling methods to select participants, and data is collected through documents, focus group interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, participatory interviews, and questionnaires. The study gathered data from various sources, including practicum-related documents (n=19), student teachers (n=340), novice teachers (n=54), and teacher educators (n=4). The findings reveal that practicum within initial teacher education aims to equip student teachers with pedagogical skills in a real environment. The practicum structure is administered by the host university/college. However, the practicum period is shorter than international standards. Despite this, student teachers, novice teachers, and teacher educators have positive perceptions of the practicum period. Student teachers and novice teachers encountered challenges in their early teaching period such as insufficient teaching aids, using student-centered approaches, large class size and student misbehavior problems. Student teachers used six common coping strategies: problem-solving by self, avoidance, giving punishment, adaptation to the situation, seeking professional support, and getting emotional support to solve teaching-learning related problems during the practicum period. They perceive the curriculum content of the university/college as being more theoretical and ineffective in actual classroom situations, highlighting the disparity between theory and practice.Novice teachers also express a need for support or mentoring during their early teaching period. Teacher educators acknowledge the problems of student teachers in practicum but have limited time to support or evaluate their live performance. They also mention the need for more infrastructure and better-defined roles for cooperating teachers and principals to effectively support and evaluate student teachers. Despite the implementation of practicum being well-established in the Myanmar context, challenges arise in areas such as the support system, evaluation, and inadequate practical application of curriculum contents of teacher education programs. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the challenges in practicum implementation in iii Myanmar and provide insights for policymakers, teacher education institutions, and practitioners to improve the quality of teacher education programs in the country.