Attitudes of TEFL Student Teachers at QOU towards the Implementation of Practicum

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of TEFL

student teachers towards the implementation of the practicum course at Al-

Quds Open University (QOU) in addition to exploring the most stressful

obstacles faced by student teachers while trying the practicum experience. To

achieve this purpose, a 45-item questionnaire was administered on 21 student

teachers after accomplishing the practicum. Results revealed that the attitudes

of TEFL student teachers towards the implementation of the practicum course

at QOU were positive on all domains except the fourth one. Moreover, results

revealed no significant differences at α =0.05 between student teacher's

attitudes towards the implementation of the practicum course at QOU due

to age, marital status and accumulative average at university. With regard to

the obstacles faced by student teachers, the results indicated that the most

stressful obstacles were students' inability to cope with practicum duties and

studying for courses at university, the gap between what learned at university

and what was being practiced at school, and the cooperative school didn't

provide the necessary facilities for student teachers.