COOPERATING TEACHERS’ AWARENESS ABOUT THEIR ROLE DURING THE TEACHING PRACTICE COURSE: THE TURKISH CONTEXT

Esim GURSOY ¹ , Ebru A. DAMAR ¹

The present study aims at investigating awareness of cooperating teachers (CTs) about their role during the practicum, which is carried out in the fourth year of teacher education programs in Turkey. The process has three dimensions: the trainees, the teacher trainers at the university, and the cooperating teachers at the practice school. In addition to their awareness about their roles, the current study investigates cooperating teachers’ ideas about their involvement in the training process, and their cooperation with the teacher trainer. Data for the research was collected by a questionnaire and gathered from 72 cooperating teachers, in 38 practice schools. The results suggest that CTs have limited awareness on their roles during practicum. In addition, there is a considerable mismatch between how CT’s view their contribution to the process and how much they actually contribute and also, there is disparity between their ideas about cooperation with the trainers and how much they actually cooperate with them.

Keywords
Teacher education, Cooperating teacher, Teaching practice, Practicum, Teacher trainer,