ELT Teacher Trainees’ Reflective Feedback to Their Cooperating Teachers

The current study aims at exploring what teacher trainees expect from their cooperating teachers and what they really experience with cooperating teachers (CTs) in practice schools. A pre-practicum questionnaire (expectation) and post-practicum questionnaire (experience) were utilized in order to find the differences in teacher trainees’ expectations and experiences in practicum,. The data were gathered from 86 teacher trainees, who were in the practicum period in the last year of their education in ELT Department in a public university in Turkey. In order to triangulate the data collection, different instruments such as questionnaires, interviews and field notes were used. Both the qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed in this study. For quantitative analysis, the frequencies and mean scores for each item were taken; in addition, the T-test was utilized. For qualitative data, categories and sub-categories were formed. The areas in which help is desired and considered important by teacher trainees were analyzed under three main categories: Readiness for practicum, planning and reflection, and mentoring. The results showed that teacher trainees have considerable expectations from the CTs. On the other hand, the findings revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between teacher trainees’ expectations and experiences. The level of help provided by CTs was below the level of teacher trainees’ expectations. Implications and suggestions for further research were also highlighted for the stakeholders of the practicum process. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p23