A STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY WOULD BE SCIENCE TEACHERS DURING TEACHING PRACTICE AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to find out difficulties encountered by Would be Science Teachers during Teaching Practice and Possible Solutions. To guide this research six (6) research questions were formulated by would be Science Teachers. The instrument used in the data collection was questionnaire. The researchers used simple survey type in carrying out the research. A simple size of 150 students were used from the population of the study. Percentage and table were used to analyze the data collected from our respondents Consequently, the researchers recommended that more work need to be done as to improve and remove the predicament facing would be science teachers during teaching practice.

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education is a good instrument for the comprehensive development of the human beings where the whole body is effectively utilized to achieve a pre-determined set of objectives, (A.E. Ejili and N.O. Anyanwu, 2006). It is a complex process which starts to improve our lives as soon as we are born, and continues to do so until we die. According to F.H. Aguba (2006:58) “the aim of education is the production of good men, that is for one to be educated, one must be prepared to use the knowledge in the service of God and humanity. We can say that, education is a process of acquiring ideas, skills and values that facilities the development of the learner and the society. The nation recognizes the importance of teacher education when they continue to give a major emphasis in all out educational planning.

This is basically because no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers, that is to say that the quality of the teachers in any country determines the quality of her education and the level of National development. The National policy on Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1998) outlined the purpose of teacher education as follow: to produce highly motivated, conscientious effective classroom teacher for all learning in our educational system; b. to encourage further the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers; c. to help teachers to fit into the society of the community and the society at large and to enhance their commitment to national objectives; d. to provide teachers with intellectual professional background adequate for assignment and to make them adaptable to any changing situation not only in the life of their country but to the wider world; e. to enhance teacher commitment to the teaching profession.

Teaching practice is a very important aspect of any teacher training programme. It is to student-teacher and prospective regular teacher what housemanship is to young medical doctor. Questions may be asked-why does a young lawyer on being called to the bar choose first to understudy on older and more experienced lawyer? Why do young medical doctors go for housemanship under the more experienced ones? Why do vocational education students go on Industrial Training? Likewise, why do student-teachers or prospective teachers go on teaching practice? These questions and their answers are very similar. No human being anywhere would have to face some dangers that could be avoided. There is a popular adage which says “that prevention is always better than cure” or “stitching in time, saves nine”. Most of the student-teachers do not seem to be fully aware of this fact, may be because of the small proportion of the entire time allocated to teaching, he needs to go through adequate and appropriate teaching practice experience. Akilaiya (2001) defined teaching practiced as an integral part of teacher education programme which provides opportunity for student teachers to put all theoretical knowledge into practice in real school situation. It is a compulsory practical exercise for every student teacher. This is the first opportunity for a student-teacher to participate in activities involved in teaching in actual situations. It affords the prospective teacher the opportunity to test, prove the lecture-room theoretical assertions and at the same time provide a forum for him to try out teaching and see whether he can really be a good teacher. So it is very essential that student-teacher should take teaching practice very seriously. The objectives of teaching practice for assessing student-teachers are ass follow: i. to provide opportunities for the student to acquire and prove teaching skills; ii. to enable the student effectively plan and prepare lessons; iii. to help the student develop traits, attitudes and abilities; iv. to enable the students to acquire the characteristic of a teacher and to display appropriate behaviour; and v. to enable the student to bring about learning in children. The seven principles for good practice on good teaching and learning in schools are: i. It Encourages Good Contact Between Students And Lecturers, ii. It Develops Reciprocity Co-Operation Among Students; iii. It Gives Prompt Feedback, iv. It Emphasizes Time On Task, v. It communicates high expectations, and vi. It respects diverse talents and ways of learning.