Vocational education faculty students' impressions of practice teaching schools and teachers

This study aims at determining teacher candidates' positive and negative impressions of the schools where they do teaching practice as required by the course of School Experience II and of teaching practice teachers. The research group is composed of 82 final year students taking the course of School Experience II in the Vocational Education Faculty of Gazi University in the 2008- 20099 academic year. Open-ended questions prepared by the researcher were used so as to determine the prospective teachers' impressions. The quantitative research techniques were employed in the analysis of the data. The research findings revealed that in addition to positive impressions concerning the schools of practice teaching and practice teaching teachers, the prospective teachers also held some negative impressions. Based on the research findings, it might be recommended that the properties of schools should be considered in determining schools of practice teaching. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved