Student Teachers' Perception of Teaching Competences' Development through Teaching Practice

Through teaching practice the student teacher should acquire several competences to be an effective and self-confident teacher. During teaching practice students should develop competences such as didactic competences, communication skills, leadership qualities. The aim of present study was to research student teachers' perception of teaching competences' development through teaching practice. The mentor role and duration of teaching training from students teacher view were also examined. The study was carried out by surveying 87 students from the 1st to the 4th grade. The sample consisted of student teachers without practical teaching experience (1st and 2nd grade) and student teachers with practical teaching experience (3th and 4th grade). The results revealed that the student teachers, who experienced practical teaching, on average evaluated their competence for different fields higher than students without teaching experience and that they more agreed that practical teaching training is more important for competence development, than theory. All student teacher also agreed that the practical teaching training is positively related of professional self-confidence. The results also revealed that student teachers want more practical teaching hours and that the student teachers with more practical teaching experience emphasised the role of the mentor more in terms of the qualitative analysis of their work than the student teacher without teaching experience.