Suggesting a Pre-service English Teacher Practicum Course to Improve Teacher Efficacy

Abstract

Teacher efficacy improves when the teachers understand theory and practice and at the same timeknow how to integrate the two and apply the theoretical frameworks in practice with confidenceand effectiveness. This article seeks to provide an example of one teacher educator’s attempt toachieve these goals within a single practicum course for pre-service English teachers. Thepracticum course in this study integrates observation, peer feedback, lesson planning,microteaching, and reflective essay. This paper explains the details of the course design to sharethe expertise. In addition, to investigate if the course affects the teacher efficacy, a survey wasadministered to those who had taken the course from 2005 to 2018 as a pre-service teacher, andone hundred thirty people participated in the survey. The data were analyzed using SPSS and theresult shows that microteaching had the greatest effect on teacher efficacy and observation thesecond, lesson planning the third and reflective essay analyzed to be the fourth important factorrespectively. Peer feedback was not a statistically significant factor to influence teacher efficacy.