1st ELT Pre-Service Teachers Meeting!
Tarih: Date
TED University Faculty of Education English Language Teaching Program held the 1st ELT Student Meeting on Friday, June 21, 2019. 45 prospective teachers from 14 different universities participated in the meeting which aimed to evaluate language teacher training process as a whole, including the selection and placement of teacher candidates to the programs, the curriculum followed in the program, university-school cooperation, teacher trainer competencies, and in-service training. According to prospective teachers, rather than placing students at the ELT programs with the current examination held by OSYM, candidates should be selected and placed with an exam that evaluates language skills as whole and adopts a holistic approach. They also stated that their education mainly consists of theoretical courses and they feel the need for more practice in the real classroom. In their opinion, participating in real applications starting from the first year of their education would be much more effective to be better prepared for the demands of teaching. According to prospective teachers, having a process-oriented approach in their evaluation supported with projects rather than classical theory-based evaluations would be more efficient. The teacher candidates who stated that due to the lack of academic staff in the departments, academicians might be giving courses beyond the scope of their expertise and both the students and the academicians are negatively affected by this experience. For them, some academicians’ not having the necessary field- experience might cause them problems in integrating theory and practice. The candidates, who underlined the necessity for more effective cooperation between universities and the Ministry of National Education schools, stated that academicians might take a more active role in contributing to the professional development of in-service teachers. According to the prospective teachers, for the academic promotion of academicians who are working at the Faculty of Education should be required to integrate theory and practice in their academic studies. Candidates also focused on the lack of motivation of in-service teachers in participating in in-training programs and suggested some possible solutions.
The meeting outcomes will be reported and sent to the authorities combined with the outcomes of the meeting that will be held with the academics from 32 different universities on June 28th.
