EVALUATION OF TEACHING PRACTICUM COURSE BASED ON THE MENTORS’ OPINIONS

Dr. Savas Basturk
Marmara University

Abstract

With the understanding of the important role of the theory/practice composition in teacher education, the value assigned to the School Experience and Teacher Practice Courses is augmented from day to day. In this context, the given responsibilities to mentors in schools also increased. In the literature, there are numerous studies that try to define and identify the role of the mentor. Mentoring plays an important role in this process and is considered to be an indispensable component of teacher education programs. In consequent, the efficiency of Teaching Practice Course depends on the nature of the relationship between the mentors and the teacher candidates and process experienced by teacher candidates. This study is aimed to investigate mentors’ views about the process and practices of Teaching Practice Course. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 mentors who work in different secondary schools in Istanbul. Data were analyzed and interpreted by qualitative methods. The results of the study have shown that the mentors’ practicum perception is closer to the perception of “traditional practicum” which involves only listening and lecturing for a few hours. The results indicated a limited, if not all, interaction between mentor and instructor (tutor), therefore it can be argued that the accommodation and permanency of this perception in mentors is encouraged by the passive role of instructors (tutors) in Teaching Practice Course. The most important problem for mentors is the absenteeism. The other problems emerged as appearance, respect and attitude against teacher profession, etc. In addition, interactions between mentor and teacher candidates regarding teaching/learning mathematics are not at an expected level, usually only focusing on subjects such as the decision on the subject to be taught, choice of exercises or examples, degree of difficulty of a subject for students, and etc.

Keywords

School experience, teacher practice, teacher candidates, mathematics education, teacher training.