TITLE:
The Course of Pre-Service Teachers’ Expectations in School Practices and the Factors Affecting Their Expectations
AUTHORS:
Ramazan Sağ
KEYWORDS:
Teacher Education; School Practices; Expectations; Formative Evaluation
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.5 No.5,
April
23,
2014
ABSTRACT:
It is known that
expectations of pre-service teachers will change during the process of the
school practice especially depending on the interactions they establish with
practice teachers and supervisors. The study was conducted at a faculty of
education in a big city with pre-service teachers in senior science class using
split-plot design. Data were obtained through three measurement levels
including initial, intermediate, and final stages in the study which was carried
out with 44 preservice teachers 27 of whom were female. Qualitative data were
obtained through focus group interviews made with 6 pre-service teachers, 3
of whom were females following measurement levels. Descriptive statistics
were used for analyzing the quantitative data while the ANOVA statistic of
Friedman which is a nonparametric test was used for analyzing the point
differences. Descriptive analysis was used for analyzing the qualitative data
and the data were interpreted together with the findings obtained from the
quantitative data. It was detected that the initial expectations of the
pre-service teachers were higher in the collegiality and leadership categories
compared to guidance but their expectations tended to drop dramatically over
time. Among the factors that are considered to be the potential factors of the
decrease, whether the practice school, which is a new structure, was introduced
to the pre-service teachers at the beginning of the academic year and whether
they were welcomed in a positive or negative manner at the practice school
constituted the most critical turning points.