Research findings
2. Findings from mentor teacher’s interviews
Table 2 presents an outline of the themes that derived from the interviews with mentor teachers regarding student‐teachers opportunities to teach les‐
sons, student‐teacher initiative for feedback ,and contribution of their feed‐
back to student‐teachers’ lesson planning skills and instructional strategies.
Table 2. Codes and themes derived from the thematic analysis of interview data with school mentors
Codes Themes
Lack of student‐teacher self‐confidence
Student‐teacher hesitation to be challenged in different situations
Insufficient initiative from student‐teacher to teach
Student‐teacher refuses to teach more than is required by the university
Student‐teacher prefers to teach without observation Lack of student‐teacher observation by university mentors
Lack of initiative to practice teaching
Student‐teacher hesitation to teach lessons Lack of student‐teacher initiative for feedback Lack of student‐teacher interest to learn
Lack of student‐teacher ambition to become a teacher Lack of time
Lack of student initiative to be observed
Inability to give feedback
Importance of knowing learners and content Designing measurable objectives
Respecting stage timing
Using techniques to achieve success Sharing online resources
Usage of appropriate activities for lesson
Selection of appropriate resources and equipment’s to implement the activity
Linking lessons with real life
Changing of routine to achieve student’s understanding of the lesson
Provide enough time to discuss new knowledge Use body language
Learning appropriate in‐
structional strategies for professional behaviour
Lack of initiative to practice teaching
According to school mentors, the student‐teachers were claiming that they did not have the obligation from the faculty to teach more than one lecture a week and most had a dilemma if they could manage the class, so they refused to teach a lesson in front of the teacher but preferred to observe the school mentor teaching, or to teach when they replaced the teacher on some occasions. According to the mentors, student‐teachers do not teach enough, and they should be encouraged to teach more. However, they agree that one of the reasons that student‐teacher do not teach enough is lack of observation from university.
I suggest that student-teachers should be engaged more in teaching during practice, not just to observe. I know they can’t give the maxi-mum, but they should try to teach (Mentor 3).
They hesitate to teach in front of us because they can be faced with dif-ferent situations (Mentor 2).
Inability to give feedback
Most of the school mentors emphasise that, because of the limited time, they preferred to give student’s advice and comments during school time, especially during breaks.
More commonly, we have discussed their lessons during daily school long break; it’s easier and takes less time (Mentor 3).
Because of limited time, they encouraged and requested students to ask whatever were they interested in knowing, but the initiative was lacking.
School mentors say that student‐teachers’ initiative for feedback depends significantly on the personal aspects, such as their interest, commitment, and career ambition to become a teacher in the future.
Learning student-teacher to write effective lesson plans
School mentor’s suggested that student‐teachers to know their learners and curriculum content well before lesson planning, but also they should under‐
stand the importance of teaching what students need to learn and choosing appropriate activities based the students’ learning levels.
Use the strategy that leads you to success. When you arrive at the re-flection stage during a lesson, it’s important to understand if you have achieved what you wanted. The purpose is to use the techniques that
help student-teachers achieve success, not just for saying 0I used this technique […] Using a concretisation tool during lesson makes pupils more interested in listening and in remembering more. At the beginning of lesson, it’s important to create a learning atmosphere (Mentor 4) School mentors noted that they advised student‐teachers to formulate measurable objectives that can be easily assessed to determine if they were reached. Children learn easily and remember more if student‐teachers use concretisation tools and link the lesson with real life.
Learning appropriate instructional strategies for professional behaviour The interviewed school mentors emphasise the importance of instructional strategies to ensure the success of the lesson plan. They spoke about the significance of acting kindly and professionally to achieve student’s respect and love.
Without appropriate presentation skills, it is difficult to achieve the interest and commitment of learners in the classroom. Most significantly, they men‐
tion the teacher’s voice, appearance, attitude, and empathy. School men‐
tors noted it happened that they had a problem to make pupils like student‐
teacher because of their voice or behavior.
I had a student-teacher that was not accepted by the children. I talked to them about this. They didn’t like her voice. It was hard to listen to her. Also, she shouted at the children […] My first advice for my student-teacher was to be close to children, to make them feel that you love them, tp listen to them, to help them. Create good rapport. It’s easier to teach if they like you. It can disrupt your lesson if just one child doesn’t like you (Mentor 4)
Conclusions
Planning is one of the crucial skills that pre‐service teachers should gain dur‐
ing their pedagogical practice; therefore, qualitative mentoring has a very important role in creating and developing student‐teachers’ self‐efficacy and teaching skills.
The participants of this study tend to agree that the teaching practicum has an immediate impact in terms of helping student‐teachers to develop their lesson planning skills, managing class activities, and developing instruction‐
al strategies through the observation of good practices, teaching lessons, support from school mentors, and developing their self‐efficacy. Based
on the findings of this research, the number of lessons taught by student‐
teachers during teaching practice is quite low, which prevents students from strengthening their confidence, self‐control, lesson preparation, and teach‐
ing skills development. Student‐teachers emphasise that the lack of self‐
confidence and classroom management skills prevented their initiative to teach more often under the supervision of school mentors. On the other side, school mentors criticise the Faculty of Education for not requesting more engagement of students in teaching and for not being able to monitor their work in school. Mentor teachers agree that student‐teacher initiatives for feedback depend greatly on the personal aspect, such as their interest, commitment, and career ambition to become a teacher. It is obvious that feedback is given very rarely because student‐teachers were not engaged substantially in teaching. They were more observing the mentors teaching and assessing student’s homework. Student‐teachers agree that they ben‐
efited from teaching practice in terms of organisational skills and lesson‐
planning skills.
Based on the findings, there is a need for more collaboration between schools and universities, especially in the definition of goals, supervision, and assessment. It is recommended that student‐teachers have more or‐
ganised opportunities to engage in lesson planning and teaching in all sub‐
jects. For this to happen, school mentors need to have regular meetings with university supervisors to identify how school placement can lead to the development of student‐teacher capacities and skills that are targeted.
As general measures, the student‐teacher school experience needs to focus on student presentation skills and to offer peer review opportunities for student‐teachers. To develop student‐teaching capacities for effective les‐
son planning and instructional strategies, it is necessary to offer more op‐
portunities to practice teaching, to encourage them to seek feedback, and to help them develop self‐confidence.
To conclude, the cooperation between universities and schools needs to be more structured in order to ensure student‐teachers’ experience in school is more meaningful and valuable to the development of their teaching poten‐
tial. It is critical that school placement provides student‐teachers with the environment and experience that is congruent with what the role of begin‐
ner teachers is nowadays. This demand for a new professionalism means the development of teaching potential that responds to teaching as a com‐
plex process that meets the needs of diverse learners in post‐modern soci‐
ety. The role of student‐teacher practice and the quality feedback students receive are a critical dimension of this vision to succeed.
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DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH – A MODEL TO CONNECT THEORY