ASSUMPTION COLLEGE OF NABUNTURAN
P-1 Poblacion Nabunturan, Compostela Valley 8800
Email:
[email protected] Mobile Number: (+63) 907-223-8085
COGNITION TO ACTION:
LIVED EXPERIENCES OF MonCAST PRACTICE TEACHERS
Chapter 1
The Problem and Its Background
Student teaching is designed to help the prospective teacher an opportunity for
directed and guided participation in the major activities in the classroom. Through
participation, the student teacher is expected to develop essential competencies and
skills which are helpful to classroom work. It provides the first intimate contact to the
real world of teaching. Teaching practice creates a mixture of anticipation, anxiety,
excitement and apprehension in the student teachers as they commerce their teaching
practices (Mani-on et al 2003).
Practice teaching provided the student-teachers with variety of factors that
affected their teaching behavior or overall teaching performance during the actual
classroom sessions. These factors could be categorized into remarkable and
challenges. The remarkable factors are those eliciting positive influence including small
class size, effective visuals, competent mentors, subject familiarity, cooperative learning
and motivation, while challenges are those producing negative impact such as large
class size, retention power, absence of laboratory room, and learner’s readiness
(Bumatay, et al 2009).
In related research, practice teaching is of paramount importance in the
vocational training of student teachers. It is the immersion into the real world of school
that prepares the student in making the transition from trainee to professional
(Wagenaar, 2005).
Practical teaching forms an integral part of teacher training. Teacher education
programs at the University of South Africa (Unisa) are no exception. However, there are
two sides to this coin. On one side, research studies led to the conclusion that teaching
practice is a valued and a very necessary part of teaching education for students to
become competent teachers. On the other side, it was also concluded that teaching
practice was less than satisfactory because of deficiencies in the quality of supervisor
teachers and in the application of theory in practice (Marais and Meier, 2008).
In the Philippine Normal University in North Luzon campus, their study focused
on the investigation and analysis of problem prospective students encountered in the
practice teaching program with regards to personal problems, preparation, class
management, instructional materials, emotional problems and problems on evaluation,
and also their problem regarding the location of cooperating schools, residence while
doing off-campus work and especially the curricular program (Andaya, 2015). Same as
in the Philippine Normal University in Isabela Campus, their student teachers had
difficulties in their emotional problems, preparation, class management, instructional
materials, problems on evaluation and adjusting to pupils/students (Ganal, et al 2015),
which is related to the problems of the student teachers of Monkayo College of Arts,
Sciences and Technology (MonCAST).
The motivation for this study arose from the experience of practice teaching as
well as protracted contact with student teachers in professional capacity. This research
project attempts to explore and articulate an understanding of some of the experiences
of student teachers following their final practice teaching session at a school before
graduating. However, in the municipality of Monkayo particularly in MonCAST, we
deals to research and explore the experiences of the fourth year education students in
MonCAST to compare their experiences not only in Philippines but also in other
countries. We have not come across any study that looked into the experiences and
problems of intern teachers that arise during their internship.
Conceptual Framework
Experiences
Practice
Teachers Challenges
Insights
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework
Research Questions
This study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. What are the experiences of MonCAST fourth year as interns?
2. How do they cope with the challenges they encountered during practice
teaching?
3. What are the insights of the practice teachers that can share to other education
students?
