The Student-Teachers’ Perspectives on the Significance and Acquisition of Teaching

The authors present the results of continuous research of the influence of teaching methodology courses on the development of self-awareness and teaching competences of students of Primary Teacher Education with the English Language at the Faculty of Teacher Education, Zagreb, Croatia. The previous stages of the research focused primarily on the analysis of the aims and learning outcomes of the Teaching Practice Course: its impact on developing student self-awareness and the target competences of the Course, which would enable students to apply the acquired theory and successfully plan, prepare and teach English in primary schools. As the findings indicated that the student-teachers perceived the impact of the Course had been significant, the authors continued the research to establish the extent to which the Course had influenced the development of some generic and specific teaching competences, students ’ opinions regarding the significance of these competences and the theory acquired during their study. The comparative analysis of the questionnaires, which the fifth-year students in the two consecutive academic years, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, had complete