Overview of the challenges of Practicum Practices in English Language Teaching in Turkey: A Meta Synthesis Study on Literature between 2004 and 2019

Abstract

Öz During the journey to becoming teachers, practice teaching process is considered to be of great importance. During the practicum, the prospective teachers are required to complete certain classroom procedures and establish a link between the theoretical and the practical component of the undergraduate program. Although the research shows that this process is immensely helpful for pre-service teachers to become professionals, it is not without problems. In this context, by identifying the commonly experienced problems, the pre-service teacher education can be improved. This study was carried out to collate the common challenges of practicum practices in ELT departments in Turkey. The study identified 40 studies in the literature and then analyzed and categorized the challenges mentioned by the literature thorough coding procedures. Five main categories and 36 sub-categories have been identified. The analysis showed that the challenges have been identified by (1) student teachers, (2) classroom teachers, (3) supervisors, (4) pupils, and (5) school administrators. The recurring problems discovered were to receive feedback from supervisors and classroom teachers, classroom management of student teachers, lack of collaboration between schools and faculties of Education, the gap between theory and practice, and target language problems. Through exploring the recurring problems of practicum processes in undergraduate teacher education, suggestions for overcoming these challenges and implications for improving teacher education practices have been stated upon analyzing the literature.