Learning To Teach: Perspectives From Malaysian Student Teachers About Their Concerns During Their Practicum (45 - 57)

Abstract

The practicum has come to be known as one of the most important areas of a teacher education program. During the practicum, the student teachers are attached to a school and are assimilated into all aspects of the teaching profession. However, there is scarce data about what concerns and worries student teachers experienced prior to and during their practicum. This paper aims to address this gap. The paper explored what the concerns of student teachers were through their written self-reflection and to then analyze the data in relation to Fuller’s Model of Teacher Development. The data revealed that the student teachers wrote about different levels of ‘self”, “task” and “impact” concerns prior to and during their practicum experiences. This paper would like to draw attention to the underlying reasons given by student teachers about their concerns prior to and during the practicum in order to integrate these areas of concern into future development in teacher education.