Research Information System
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION, vol.1, no.1, pp.1-17, 2024 (SSCI)
The practicum in teacher education programmes typically includes an observation of the mentors or peers, as well as an actual teach-ing phase. In most programmes, the focus is more on the direct experience of teaching. Turkey, moved by a general dissatisfaction with how teacher education programmes prepare student teachers for the realities of the classroom, has initiated a new field experi-ence programme that does not include observation. We aim to depict the realities of all participants including student teachers, mentors and supervisors on the disappearance of a once central component of the teaching experience- the observation, as well as its replacement with more practice time. A qualitative research design has been adopted and the data have been collected from surveys and interviews. The findings demonstrate that the partici-pants value both the potential of learning from observation and the opportunity to be involved in more practice during the practicum process.