Journey into self: Facilitating reflection in student teachers’

Abstract

This paper explores the personal growth of student teachers in their practicum in primary schools. The practicum in the teacher training programmes of the National Institute of Education is a planned and purposeful series of supervised learning experiences aimed at equipping student teachers with beginning teaching competence, and promoting the development of their professional capacities for reflective learning and self-evaluation. During their practicum under the author's supervision, 16 student teachers answered a questionnaire on "Journey to Self' and wrote journal entries. Working on "Journey to Self' gave the student teachers an opportunity to analyze their own personal and professional growth and to understand and reflect on what they had been doing in the classroom. It allowed them to monitor and evaluate their own progress of learning and teaching. Generally, the teachers learned much about their own learning and teaching through their experiences in reflection.