PURPOSES OF TEACHING PRACTICE

                                                           

   To the ill-informed,teaching practice is the only requirement to be fulfilled in a teacher training institution. As a matter of fact, some school administrators who work with student teachers do not conceptualize the main purpose of teaching practice.It has also been observed that some student teachers in spite of the courses they have had, fail to gasp the central purposes of pre service teaching experience. Below are some of the purposes of teaching practice:

-It develops in the student teacher the understanding,the attitudes, and the skills in teaching. He or she benefits by gaining an insight into the whole teaching situation.

-It enables them to gain useful experiences as a result of interacting with children and school teachers for a longer period of time.This will contribute immensely to the development of higher teaching competencies

-The student teachers are able to interact with officials of the school management board thus exposing them to know more about the total school program.

-Teaching practice offer the opportunity for prospective teachers to increase their professional competence as they assume gradually fuller responsibilities of a teacher .

-The student teacher is given the opportunity relate his studies to his future career.

-In some institutions where some form of micro-teaching is carried out to preparatory to student teaching practice,such an experience aids students to become efficient. It should be noted that micro-teaching in the institution does not fulfill all the needs of the student teacher , especially as this experience is very limited in scope.

-Student teaching practice is the testing ground for both the individual student teacher and the program of teacher education.

-It enables theory to be seen in action and evaluates the entire program of teachers education.

-It enables the entire program of teacher education to be fully scrutinized when student teachers engage in classroom experiences.

-Student teacher practice reflects the competence of the institution that prepared him or her.

-It reveals the student’s personality.The exercise appraises the student who is forced to play varied and, at time, difficult roles.Under this situation, a  sensible student takes a careful look at himself.From this experience the student teacher may examine himself in relation to the following selected traits or sensitivities:

                             *Personal appearance        *Creativity                    *Respect for opinions 

                             *Poise and confidence      *Adaptability                 *Respect for the rights

                             *Enthusiasm                    *Tolerance of stress       *Persistence

                             *Sense of humor              *Empathy for students   * Ability to evaluate self

                             *Dependability                 *Attitude towards criticism

                            *Imagination

                            *Absence of dogmatism

-Student teaching practice is the testing ground for demonstrating competency in the subject matter areas assigned to the teacher. Students expect commendable scholarship from their teacher.In order to prove his worth,the student teacher should prepare his subject matter area very well

-The student teaching practice provides the young teacher with many activities of learning such as classroom management,planning, preparation of materials, presentation of information, problem-solving, discussion,evaluation, among others.In this process, the student teacher extends his textbook knowledge on child development into the real world situation as he studies the youth.

  The points above are a few of some of the purposes of student teaching practice.

                                                            
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