Theory with practice binding instructional group activity gains in the eyes of teacher candidates
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
There is no doubt that one of the most targets of teacher education is that teacher candidates gain experience by implementing their theoretical knowledge they gained related to their fields and thus prepare themselves for the teacher’s profession. It is important for the professional equipment of teacher candidates that they conduct instructional implementation activities in courses suitable for developing this purpose. In this context is Instructional Group Activities Design (IGAD) developed regarding the professional development of teacher candidates is applied and their opinions with regards to the gains of these applications are obtained at the study. The Instructional Group Activities (IGA), conducted within the scope of the study, is performed during the implementation hours of the course ‘Special Teaching Methods I’. With these attributes, it can be said that the research is a qualitative study conducted with 56 teacher candidates. The opinions of the teacher candidates related to the gains of instructional group activities are obtained by a questionnaire form with open and closed end questions and face-to-face interviews. The teacher candidates have stated that they had more gains in the implementation part of the course compared with its theoretical part and noted that the application activities they performed during the course was beneficial with regards to the professional qualification and development. The participants to the study have expressed that they enjoyed the Instructional Group Activity applications and assessed their instructional experiences related to the applications in question as ‘quite good’. In addition, the candidates, who stated that these activities indicated that they gained diverse skills like using the research stages, cooperative learning, creativity, undertaking responsibility and expressing oneself, lead by critical, thinking through the Instructional Group Activities Design. Setting off from these results, the usability of instructional group activities design for teacher’s education is discussed and some suggestions are made. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.