A practicum solution through reflection: an iterative approach

Abstract

The practicum phase of a teacher education program is planned to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Previously, lesson deliverance and classroom management were the core focus of training and practice, but with the recent multidimensional role of teachers, the practicum has also been extended to the circle of other institutional activities. Prospective teachers at the Government College for Elementary Teachers for Women faced difficulty extracting the required benefits of this multifaceted practice. An action research was conducted to enable the students to remove their deficiencies through an iterative approach repeated analysis of previous experience. An intact group of 92 prospective teachers was trained by the researcher for one month to write reflections and maintain journals before the practicum commenced. They had to record daily reflections about their teaching experiences. For each reflection, the participants had to compare their previous script with the present reflection. At the end of the practicum of 45 days the researcher analyzed the reflections and concluded most of the participants perceived that the host institution’s faculty was indifferent and reluctant towards their practice, while they received occasional support from supervisors and mentors. All participants controlled most of their problems independently by reviewing their own practice repeatedly.

Keywords:

• action research
• practicum
• reflective practice
• iterative approach
• instructional strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.