Review Journal article 7

A REVIEW JOURNAL ENTITLED HOW ENGLISH STUDENT TEACHERS DEAL WITH TEACHINGDIFFICULTIES IN THEIR TEACHING PRACTICUM

Riesky

Indonesia University of Education

email: riesky81@yahoo.com

Student teachers will gain with the teaching practicum as one of the requirement for fulfilling all the learning process in undergraduate study. It is the essential stages which they have the opportunity to apply the teaching theory, methodologies, and strategies which they have learned in the previous semesters.  According to Richard & Crookes (1988, as cited in Gebhard, 2009), they will have a chance to experience many valuable things, such as getting practical classroom experience, putting theories into practices, gaining insight from observing experienced teachers, improving lesson planning ability, improving ability in designing and developing materials, sharpening their teaching ability, strengthening their understanding of teaching in terms of theory and practice, and improving decision-making ability in teaching by looking and exploring  into themselves and other’s teaching practices.

Being student teachers are not as simple as receiving materials in the classroom. Applying theories into practice is one of the complex areas which are faced by many educators especially in the context of second language teacher education. Some of the difficulties which are gained by the student teachers are student-related difficulties, self-related difficulties, and supervising-teacher-related difficulties. Dealing with those problems, student teachers find several efforts to overcome the difficulties. For the student-related difficulties; they apply specific strategies, make an interpersonal approach, consult to the supervising teacher and fellow student teachers, remind student about the final mark, and give rewards. In the other hand, they try to improve knowledge on methodology and make some modification in the practice of teaching, and also consult to the supervising teacher to overcome self-related difficulties. In order to deal with the supervising-teacher-related difficulties, they consult with the other available teacher at school and become more independent in making certain decision.

As its conclusion, student teachers have to establish a great preparation before practicum teaching. They have to apply various kinds of teaching strategies and methodologies. One of the innovative solutions in evaluating the teaching process is doing a reflection. It can be done by discussions, journal writing, and analyzing critical incidents. The supervising teachers also play an important role in developing the students teachers’ teaching skill. They have to be more active in discussing and sharing knowledge, methodologies, strategies, and also experiences with the student teachers, so that they can enrich their knowledge and teaching skills.