Teaching Practice among Undergraduates of Faculty of Education in Public Universities in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined teaching practice among undergraduates of faculty of education in public universities in Rivers State. The study was guided by three objectives and three research questions. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 6,680 students from the Faculty of Education of the three public universities in Rivers State. 1,336 students, representing 20% of the total population were drawn as sample size, using the stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled: Teaching Practice among Undergraduates of Faculty of Education in Public Universities Scale (TPUFEPUS). The instrument was validated and Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability index of the instrument which yielded 0.87. Mean and Standard Deviation statistics were used to answer the three research questions. The findings of the study revealed that there are many challenges facing students during teaching practice exercises which have made the exercise ineffective as regards achieving the goals for which it was designed. Also, it was revealed that undergraduates have a positive attitude toward teaching practice except that they don’t possess the 21st-century skills needed to make teaching interesting. Based on this, it was recommended among others that universities should have a micro-teaching laboratory where student teachers will be exposed to the rudiments of teaching; this will enable them to gain enough confidence during the real exercise. Also, universities through their faculties should support the student teachers with some stipend, this will help to ease their transportation fares and reduce the rate the students abscond from the schools they are posted to.