MANAGING TEACHING PRACTICE EXERCISE IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study focused on managing teaching practice in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Two research questions and one hypothesis were answered and tested respectively in the study. The design of the study was descriptive survey design while the population of the study consisted four tertiary institutions offering teacher education programmes in the state. The population of respondents comprised 5,978 students and 802 supervisors thus, giving a total of 6,780 respondents. The sample size of 475 respondents, comprising 385 students and 90 supervisors was drawn from the population of the study through Taro Yamane sample determination technique using disproportionate sampling technique. The instruments used for data collection was the questionnaire title “Questionnaire for Managing Teaching Practice in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State” (QMTPTIRS). The questionnaire items were responded to on a four point modified Likert scale. The face and content validity were determined by experts while the reliability of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach Alpha with reliability index of 0.72. The research questions were answered using mean while the hypotheses were tested using z-test statistic. The findings of the study revealed that duration of teaching practice is not adequate and that student-teachers were hardly provided with any incentives to enable them carry out the exercise successfully. The study therefore concluded that teaching practice exercise was not well carried out in the state. It was recommended among others that duration of teaching practice should be extended to one year and incentives provided to students on teaching practice.