Abstract:

As well as the theoretical courses that teacher candidates take in their pre-service training, the courses aimed at gaining professional experience are also important. In programs that train Turkish teachers for secondary schools, these courses are based on school experience and teaching practices. The aim of this study is to compare the school experience and teaching practice courses applied in higher education programs that train mother tongue teachers in Finland, which is one of the leading countries in the field of education in the world, with those in Turkish education programs. From this point of view, concrete proposals can be made that can be utilized while making arrangements in the curriculum of mother tongue training programs in Turkey. This study was planned as a qualitative case study. Since the data source of the study is mother tongue teacher training programs in Turkey and Finland, document analysis method was used. Based on the sub-problems of the study, the data were arranged comparatively. Then the similarities and differences of the data were determined. Percentage calculations were used as statistical operations. The most striking result of the study is that internship courses in the process of training Finnish teachers are more predominantly included in the curriculum than those in the program that trains Turkish teachers. Accordingly, it is suggested that the pre-service training period of Turkish teacher candidates should be extended in order to increase the share of the courses that provide professional experience in the curriculum. On the other hand, in order to overcome the difficulties in finding a practice school in Turkey, founding practice schools that serve under education faculties will provide significant benefits.

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