Abstract:

Today, teacher trainingmodels are reformed in line with the rapid growth of science and technology. Some alternative teacher training programs were practiced throughout the years in order to overcome the expanding demand of qualified teachers in the education system. For instance, a “teacher certificate program”, similar to those of other countries, was put into practice for teacher training with the aim of employing graduates who studied science and humanities at universities along with graduates who studied education. The teacher certification program, which has been remodeled since 2007, in Turkey, takes its place among the teacher education policies which have been in place in other countries for many years, under the name of “teacher certificate programs”. However, though the teacher certificate programs in Turkey last for 2 semesters (roughly 30 weeks) in total, the time spared for “teaching practice” is only 10 weeks during the last semester of the program and is generally not longer than 6 hours per week. What is more, teaching practice is usually based on observing other cooperating teachers at work. The teaching practice should be an experimental process in a real classroom environment in which teacher candidates practice their theoretical knowledge acquired during their undergraduate education; receive feedback from their cooperating teachers, supervisors, and peers about the process; and improve themselves as needed according to their experience and the feedback they receive. The primary aim of this process is to create an environment where teacher candidates can display their theoretical acquirements and provide them with opportunities to practice in a real classroom environment. For this reason, teaching practice is considered a bridge between theory and practice in the process of preparation for teaching profession. Many resources argue that the positive or negative experiences of teacher candidates during the teaching practice process affect both their education and their professional lives. In this sense, courses for teaching practice taken before starting to teach professionally take a significant place in the pre-service teacher education process. The experience acquired during teaching practice also enables teacher candidates to acknowledge the teaching skills they have, improve them, and internalize roles and behaviors they display in teaching practices. Studies in the field, as well as the feedback received from teacher candidates, supports the idea that teaching practice is the most important part of teacher education programs. The present study intends to examine the views of the teacher candidates in the teacher certificate program on “Teaching Practice Course”. In Turkey, teacher certificate programs are practiced as a second alternative to training and are in place in several different institutions. There are quite extensive studies on teaching practice courses and their functions in the process of teacher training in Turkish education and other contexts. However, the importance of the present study is that the opinions of teacher certificate program students have not been sufficiently considered in other studies on teaching practice courses in the teacher training process of Turkey.

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