Evaluation of an English Language Teacher Education Program from Student Teachers’ Perspectives: A Case from Turkey

Year 2018, , 83 - 96, 31.12.2018

Burcu Varol

https://doi.org/10.32570/ijofe.476191

Cited By: 2

Abstract

This
mixed-design study aims to explore student teachers’ views on their own
competency as prospective English language teachers and on how successful the
teacher education program they are enrolled is in terms of preparing them for
these competencies. Thirty-two senior students studying at the Foreign
Languages Education Department (FLED) of a state university in Turkey
participated in this study. A scale including Likert-type items measuring the
perceived competency of student teachers on three subsections and open-ended
items which seek to reach a deeper understanding of the choices participants
selected in the closed-ended part was used as the data collection instrument.
Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were employed in order to
analyze the questionnaire. The results obtained from descriptive and
inferential statistics showed that teacher candidates feel themselves competent
in a) language and subject area, b) planning, teaching, and classroom
management area, c) monitoring, assessment, and professional development areas
respectively. Using assessment methods relevant to the subject effectively and
knowing a variety of assessment methods were discovered to be competencies that
student teachers feel the least confident. These results were further discussed
in relation to the recent studies conducted in Turkey after the educational
reforms of 1997 and 2006 in the pre-service English teacher education
departments’ curriculums.

Keywords

Teacher competency, program evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation

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