1.3 The Objectives of this investigation
Nowadays, there are a great number of the researches and thesis about the student teachers’ practicum. However, most of those researches are just too general and abstract. Besides, different universities and different colleges provide the student teachers with various practicums and field experiences. So the problems referred in those researches may not exist in our own college and university. Therefore, the research is designed to investigate the effectiveness of student teachers’ practicum and field experiences in Jing Hengyi Honors College (JHY Honors College) by doing questionnaire study among students, face-to-face interviews with both students and professors and collecting the student teachers’ reflections during the practicum.
And the “effectiveness” here is measured mainly in two parts, the practicum backgrounds and the practicum results. The practicum backgrounds consist of three key participial parts such as the universities, the student teachers and the schools, including major components like the evaluation, the allowance, the instruction, the time arrangement, etc. In the meanwhile, the effectiveness of the educational practicum also can be measured from various perspectives of different groups, like the student teachers, the instructor teachers, the schools providing the practicum and the students in those schools. However, different groups may possess different understandings about the effectiveness of the practicum. In consideration of the limited time and space, this research will mainly focus on some important features of the student teachers’ practicum and observe the factors contributing to the effectiveness of the practicum from the student teachers’ own perspective. And here are more reasons for this choice. First, the student teachers in this time have already been mature enough to form and shape their own ideas. As a result, they can consider their demands and needs of the practicum in a rational and objective way. And compared with other groups, the student teachers will be clearer about the authentic results of the practicum. Second, the student teachers are the principal part in the practicum. Thus, by measuring the effectiveness of practicum from the student teachers’ own perspective, the problems affecting the effectiveness of the practicum will be exposed to the public more directly. What’s more, the results will become more convincing and persuasive.
In a nutshell, the research and thesis attempts to answer the following questions:
First, is the student teacher’s practicum effective in JHY Honors College?
Second, what problems are discovered in the student teachers’ practicum?
Third, what are the primary factors contributing to the ineffectiveness of the student teachers’ practicum?
So based on the questionnaires, interviews, statistics analysis and reflections collected from JHY Honors College, the research is aimed at discovering some extraordinary problems existing in the practicum, and also tries to offer some suggestive advice to the JHY Honors College, and some practical proposals for professors who direct the student teachers to solve the problems together and finally improve effectiveness of their practicum and field experiences in perse approaches.
2. Literature review
As is widely known to the public, the educational practicum and field experiences are vital components in student teachers’ education in many normal universities. They are always regarded as the most important step for the student teachers to become the real qualified teachers. However, when the educational practicum eventually is being carried out into practice, they do not meet their primary intentions or gain the results as expected. At the meantime, the student teachers, the professors and the schools make plenty of complaints about the practicum and field experiences, wondering whether they are effective or just a waste of time. Nowadays this unsatisfying situation has already aroused the public and the scholars’ attention and concerns. And many scholars and educationists have already done a series of relevant researches to investigate the situations. So this passage will have a brief review and conclusion of those researches and studies. 师范生教育实习有效性的研究(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_50896.html