University of Ilorin Final Year Students’ Experience in Practice Teaching Exercise

Abstract

Practice teaching is a vital aspect of the teacher preparatory program in teacher training institutions. This study examined the University of Ilorin final year students’ experience in a practice teaching exercise. It made use of descriptive survey research design. The population for this study were all students of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. The researchers’ self-developed questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.63 was used for data collection while the data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics of independent t-test. It was found that during the course of practice teaching exercises, student-teachers acquired skills which enabled them to use a variety of teaching methods, and instructional resources, improved their skills in tests construction, scoring and recording, built their teaching confidence and presentation, among others. However, student-teachers were faced with a number of challenges in the course of lesson presentation during practice teaching. It was, therefore, recommended among others, that student-teachers should not perceive their personality and logical presentation of instructional objectives as challenges but rather should embrace and exploit it to improve and widen their (cognitive) domains.