Vol. 4 Issue 13 – Research Paper: ‘Quality Improvement In Practice Teaching In Teacher Education Internship, Experimental Schools And Off – Campus: Issues And Remedies’ by Dr. Jagdish S. Joshi & Raxesh K.Dave

This paper is submitted by Dr. Jagdish S. Joshi, Associate Professor, UGC-ASC, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad and Raxesh k.Dave, Research Scholar, Kadi Sarva Vishwa Vidyalaya, Gandhinagar.

Abstract

The investigator has been inspired to present a paper in this seminar with the observations of internship at various schools of his district during the past three years when the trainees of different B. Ed. Colleges were welcomed for polishing the students and enriching themselves. For the last three years the internship programme has been observed minutely by the investigator and it has been found that the issues are critical in rural areas. All these years the trainees were from various places and the observations were followed by the feedback from the student teachers, teacher educators and the principal, teachers and the students of the experimental schools. The analyses of data indicated that quality of practice teaching varies from one person to the other. The key factor of trying to improve the cultural and moral values was the common criteria of all the groups. The researcher got a chance to observe the teaching style, use of technology for the rural students, group working, clarity of concept and content and so on. The group that has come for the internship in our school during 17^th January to 24^th January 2011, has been appreciated for their planning, conceptual knowledge, interest and other co curricular activities. One group among them failed to create enthusiasm and learning interest among the students because of lack of clarity and proper planning. Non cooperation of the experimental schools also affect the quality of practice teaching  Moreover oral discussion and individual interview of the student teachers, teacher educators and the principals, teachers and the students of the experimental schools projected certain issues regarding their role in practice teaching which are enlisted and suggestions are stated for remedy.

Key Words: Teacher Education, Teacher Educators, ELT, Teacher Training, Experimental Schools, Internship, Off Campus teaching

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Introduction                                                                                        

To have a professional degree in education can be a beneficial factor in a teacher’s effectiveness, but a degree alone does not guarantee teacher competence. The teacher constantly has to sharpen the edge of his knowledge through various methods and tools through practice teaching. And internship and off campus have been found effective tools for it. Both prepare the student teacher to be a better teacher

This paper aims to improve the understanding of the relationship between the quality of student development education programs in high schools and children’s development and learning. Investigator does this not by directly assessing this relationship but by exploring the contexts for quality improvement in these programmes as viewed through the eyes of faculty and other program leaders.

Before discussing the issues and remedies of the Internship and off campus, I would like to focus on the major factors and phases that perform their role in practise teaching. They are:

1. Teacher’s language                  :           Fluency, correctness, appropriateness, grammar
2. Learner’s involvement            :           Response of the learners – verbal and non-verbal, student’s

participation in the classroom activities, student-student     interaction.

1. Major learning points              :           Points discussed in detail in the class. The way of presenting                                                           and discussing the points.
2. Treatment of errors                 :           Errors noticed and corrected by the teacher. The way of                                                                   correcting the errors.
3. Materials, aids, references       :           What was used? Why? How? Was it appropriate? Up to what                                                         extent was it effective?
4. Communicative activities        :           Activities conducted, Students’ response, organization and                                                              management skill.
5. Teacher’s overall performance:           Teacher’s involvement in the class, confidence, personality,                                                             knowledge of the content, communication skills.
6. Blackboard work                    :           Correctness, appropriateness, diagrams, pictorial work, use of                                                          colour chalk, organization, handwritings.

Focus of the different phases of Practice Teaching 

Phase	Focus
Stage Teaching	Basic Teaching Skills and techniques Familiarity with the basic principles of teaching English language for classroom interaction, Follow-up of the feedback given by the supervisor.
Block Teaching	Use of stage teaching skills in real classrooms, Learning to devise and handle different activities in addition to  question-answer, Content analysis, Bring various references, Student-teacher relationship, Feedback.
Off Campus	Innovative activities, using appropriate teaching aids(at least one), Quality of the questions and BB work Reflective teaching Use of authentic material Organizing co-curricular activities and competitions.
Internship	Discipline regarding your school work Additional job of a teacher (Administrative and remedial) Collecting formal or informal students’ feedback and responding to it actively. Action research Case study

 

All the above factors provide ample niche to a student teacher under the observation of an experienced teacher or supervisor. Internship is well known remedy for the child development in education. When the students are supervised by their experienced teacher in a correct way the purpose of internship can be fulfilled.

Aim of the study: to try to overcome the obstacles and issues that the educators, students and the host school face during internship and off campus programme.

Objectives of the Study:

1.  To study various groups of different colleges including English medium during their internship programme.
2. To figure out the problems and differences between internship and off campus programme.
3. To find out the issues of internship and off campus related to intern students, supervisors, teacher educators and experimental schools.
4. To study the fulfilment of the programme in the benefit of the educational development of an adolescent.
5. To study the efficiency to conduct the educational programmes for practice teaching
6. To study the self confidence and internal abilities at a remote place

It is necessary to figure out the difference between an internship and off campus programme. Though both have been organised for the self efficiency in teaching learning process, both work differently and hit the targets of education independently. Off campus is a programme where the trainee teachers can be observed and evaluated directly by the supervisor or the teacher educator. Internship gives liberty to the trainee teacher to decide the school, and arrange the school activities given not only by the college but also by the principle of the experimental school.

The present study has been prepared on the basis of the feed back of the trainee students of various colleges of Gujarat in which two were from Sardar Patel University and three colleges were from Gujarat University. Approximately sixty students had been centred and feed back from them also had been taken. From the observations, the investigator could coin that the style of teaching, presentation, use of tools and audio visual aids, board work, interests were differ from person to person. During off campus teaching, the student teachers have the chance to get the guidance of teacher educators constantly but at the same time the the student does not find liberty to decide the school according to his own contingency. Internship gives the opportunity to the students of the experimental school also to grasp innovative techniques where the stereo type of teaching and methods are used.

The issues in off campus and internship programmes for the student teachers of the experimental school:

1. The college decides the school
2. The students deliver the lesson under the serve lance of the teacher educator
3. 15 days or 2 weeks are planned for the programme
4. The problem of language becomes bar and barrier
5. They are suggested to follow the process of reflective teaching like teacher’s diary, peer observation, recording the lessons and students feed back.
6. Teacher trainees are expected to organise co curricular activities and competitions
7. Learners do not give responses
8. Difficult to give justice to every aspect of practice teaching if strength of the students is large
9. Sometimes they are not guided properly and concepts remained unsolved
10. Sometimes they do not take the study programme seriously
11. In rural areas they may not get the facilities of electricity, infrastructure and technology
12. The lack of interest among the students create misunderstanding for student teacher
13. Sometimes the students are misguided and mislead
14. Inexperienced and unqualified teacher fail to sustain the quench of the students
15. Student teachers sometimes take the advantage of the loopholes of the programme

16. Sometimes lessons are not fully observed so teacher trainees do not gain proper feedback for improvement.

The issues in off campus and internship programmes for the teacher educators:

1. Sometimes it becomes difficult to evaluate the teaching aptitude of students

2. Teacher educator sometimes feels it difficult to guide more number of students in one method.
3. Difficult to manage observation of more number of students at one particular place
4. Due to less experience or fresh teacher educator fail to handle the programme
5. Sometimes the staff of the experimental school does not adjust fully
6. Difficult to manage supervision, guidance and organization of co curricular activities simultaneously.
7. During internship programme the teacher educator has to trust on the work of the trainee
8. In the absence of the supervisor they may not take the programme seriously
9. Teacher educator can not fully observe and justify all the lessons of all the methods at a time

The issues in off campus and internship programmes for the experimental school:

1. The schools have to adjust the time table and routine
2. The teachers have to provide individual periods to the trainee teachers
3. Difficult to provide the facilities of modern equipments
4. Difficult to provide sitting arrangements for the competitions and other curricular activities
5. Difficult to provide library resources and other remedial materials
6. Difficult to create co operation from the non teaching staff to provide details
7. The teachers of the school do not teach the lessons if they have not been thoroughly taught
8. The students of the school do not co operate the trainee teachers
9. The trainee teacher can not control and handle the discipline problems
10. Sometimes the trainee teachers make other students do their work
11. Students can not be evaluated fully as the trainee teacher is considered as an outsiders by the learners

 Suggestions for improvement:

1. The trainees must plan the lessons seriously and with the help of their supervisor if necessary
2. The trainees should try to maintain the chronology, sequence and connections in their plans
3. The teacher educators make them learn to develop the co relation between the theory and practical

4. More emphasis should be laid on observation skill.
5. Issues of lesson planning should be explicit to the teacher educators and student teachers.
6. There should be uniform criterion of evaluating practice teaching.
7. Instead of limited teaching skills, all the required teaching skills should be taught.
8. To provide the extensive and variety of teaching experiences different types of lessons should be planned using different type of methods of teaching.
9. Concept of terminology used in lesson planning should be explained properly. e.g. difference between teaching method and teaching technique and teaching activity, difference between teaching points and teacher’s activity.
10. Experimental schools should be oriented about the importance and nature of practice teaching.
11. Teacher educators should provide a lot of motivation and encouragement to the student teachers.
12.  There should not be rigidity for the format of lesson plans as planning should differ according to the teaching method.

Conclusion:

From the study of the data analysis and feed backs of the students and the teacher educator, the result can be drawn out that the programme of internship and off campus prove to be prominent factors in the practice teaching and the development of the students of the experimental schools. The goal of the true education can be achieved only with the through implementation of the sound planning of orientation, guidance, supervision, evaluation, feedback and improvement programmes. Sound relationship between teacher educator and student teacher and  between teacher education college and experimental schools is imperative for the quality improvement in practice teaching.

References:

Borg. J.W.& Kahn. J. V. (1998). Research in Education (8^th ed.). Needham Heights. MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Borg. W. (1981). Applying educational research; A practical guide for teachers, New York: Longman.

Feldman,K.A. and Pauisen, M.B.(1999). Faculty Motivation: the Role of a Supportive  Teaching Culture Motivation for within: Approaches for Encouraging Faculty and Students to Excel. Sanfranscisco: Jossey-Bass

Alexandria. VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.