Student Teachers' Perceptions of Successful and Unsuccessful Events during Practice Teaching

This study investigated the practice teaching experiences of Bachelor of Education (Design and Technology) students at the University of Newcastle (Australia) to determine what they saw as successful and unsuccessful events. Eleven second-year students at the University of Newcastle were asked to write about one successful and one unsuccessful experience on each day of their 4-week practicum, and were asked to reflect on their experiences weekly. Major categories of successful events included pupil behavior, pupil learning, personal feelings of the student teacher, interactions with other teachers, and praise from supervising teachers. Over 60 percent of successful events related to what the student teachers saw as appropriate student behavior; only 20 percent mentioned student learning. Student teachers saw themselves predominantly as being responsible for the successful events. Over half of the comments student teachers made about unsuccessful events were related to inappropriate student behavior, and about 14 percent of comments about unsuccessful events made reference to student learning. Student teachers seemed reluctant to accept blame for unsuccessful events. Few students described successful events in terms of the components of effective teaching commonly mentioned in the literature (e.g., clarity, enthusiasm, structure, and task orientation). (Contains 15 references.) (JDD)