Abstract:
This study examined student teacher’ perceptions related to the student teaching experience. Using a focus group process, the student teachers were asked to reflect on their expectations of the experience, how they applied previous learning from university coursework to the experience, and what could be could be done to improve the preparation of students for the experience. Because of the importance of instruction, FFA, and Supervised Agricultural Experience in teaching agricultural education, the three components of a complete agricultural education program were used as the context for the reflective session. A semistructured set of questions were used in the focus group to gather participant responses. The session was audiotaped and transcribed. The transcription served as the primary data source. Secondary data consisted of field notes written by one member of the research team.
Content analysis was used to interpret the data. The results indicated that the student teaching experience was not what the participants thought it would be in many ways, especially the time commitment involved in preparing for the teaching and learning process. The participants provided insights for improving the preparation of future student teachers and recommendations are included.
Keywords:
reflection, student teaching, focus groups
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