University of Limpopo Student Teachers’ Experiences and Reflections During Teaching Practicum: An Experiential Learning Theory

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the English syllabus of Tamil Nadu Equitable Education system or Uniform System of School Education or Samacheer Kalvi Thittam with respect to the teachers' perspective. The method of this study was Descriptive Method. Stratified proportionate sampling method was followed by administering a close-ended questionnaire. Proportionately nine different schools, three government schools, three government aided schools and three self-financing schools in and around Trichy district, Tamil Nadu were selected for the study. Three English teachers from each school, tota lof twenty-seven teachers were sampled. The responses from the teachers were measured as Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. More favourable responses were received from the teachers' towards the syllabus. The conclusion of the study establishes that the English syllabus of the system is good when compared to the previous one. The study recommends that the syllabus may be framed in depth so that it enables the students to appear for competitive examinations.

Beginning Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences with Supported Teaching in Schools

“…The majority of noteworthy statements came from instructional experiences (36), followed by inclusiveness experiences (22), familiarization experiences (20), and community of practice experiences (16). Low numbers of meaningful codes were found for professionalism (14), classroom management experiences (4), and perception (2).…”

“…Student-teachers have the opportunity to express their educational ideas during teaching practice, which also enables them to experiment and put their teaching and learning knowledge to the test. However, throughout this professional practice, student-teachers go through varied experiences and difficulties [20]. During supported teaching, are pre-service teachers given the guidance and experiences they need to develop into effective professionals?…”

Undergraduate Student Teachers’ Reflections on Their Teaching Practice Experience: Challenges Encountered and Responsive Solutions Employed

“…Similarly, supervision and assessment by university lecturers has tended towards theory-informed prescriptive suggestions, thus overlooking contextual realities involving student teachers' experiences, reflections and responsiveness characterising experiential learning (Thaba-Nkadimene, 2017). While researchers have studied student teachers' experiences in terms of problems and proceeded to propose solutions as experts or scholars (Marais & Meier, 2004;Msangya, Mkoma & Yihuan, 2016;Thaba-Nkadimene, 2017), very few have viewed students as experiential learners who reflect on, and respond to challenges they experience, thus learning and building on their professional knowledge capital. Thus, our study sought to explore student teachers' reflections in terms of challenges they experienced and how they reflectively responded to, or solved, the same.…”