Challenges Facing Students while Studying the Practical Education Course at QOU’s Beit Sahour Branch

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the degree of problems which

students of practical education encounter at Al-Quds Open University

study center in Beit Sahour in their demonstration of practical education.

A five-aspect questionnaire was designed for this purpose. The first aspect

comprising 10 paragraphs focused on problems related to the University

administration ; the second aspect comprising 18 paragraphs focused

on problems related to school principals; the third aspect comprising 20

paragraphs focused on problems related to cooperating school teachers;

the fourth aspect comprising 22 paragraphs focused on problems related

to the university faculty member supervising the students, and finally, the

fifth aspect comprising 12 paragraphs focused on problems related to the

practical education trainees. The questionnaire which adopted five scales

(very big, big, medium, little, very little) was distributed amongst 57 male

and female students, 54 questionnaires were returned and statistically

analyzed. The results revealed that there were no differences in the

means of the degree of problems encountered by the students of practical

education at Al-Quds Open University study center in Beit Sahour while

demonstrating teaching, pertaining to the variables of gender, social status,

specialization and cumulative average. The researcher recommended that

the University conduct intensive workshops for the students to clarify the

roles of the parties participating in practical education before the students

embark on demonstrating practical education. Also it is recommended that

the University hold meetings every semester with principals of schools and

University supervisors to discuss how practical education is run at schools

and to overcome problems faced by student-teachers while demonstrating

teaching at schools.