DefinePK

Abstract

The study aimed at exploring the challenges and difficulties faced by pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum. The current study espoused Quantitative Research Methods and adopted a self-constructed questionnaire as the research instrument. 860 students were selected through convenient sampling as participants of the study and had recently completed their practicum tenure. The findings from the four areas of inquiry demonstrated that pre-service teachers only experienced a moderate or slight level of challenges which include the availability of instructional material from cooperating school, number of students in a class, teaching subject which is not related to the major area, availability of furniture, using methods for different abilities students, identifying, dealing with individual differences, demands from the cooperating school, teaching extra classes other than assigned ones, doing non-teaching duties in the cooperating school, paying transportation charges during teaching practice. The rest of the problems were identified as slight problems and are consistent with the level of classes being taught. Also, students enrolled in B.Ed. programs faced more problems in comparison to the students enrolled in other programs. The findings will be beneficial for pre-service, teachers’ training institutes, cooperating schools, and policymakers.