Evaluation of Teacher Certification Programme by Student Teachers at the Bachelor of Arts at the Englisg Language Language and Literature Programme

Teacher Certification Programme (TCP) enables students or graduates from faculties/colleges other than education faculties to acquire the basic knowledge and skills needed for the teaching profession. The aim of this study was to learn the views of students in an English language and literature department about the Teacher Certification Programme, and to reveal the positive and negative experiences that they had in this process. The participants were 37 final year students in the undergraduate English Language and Literature department of a Faculty of Science and Letters who were registered on the teacher certification programme. An interview form consisting of two parts was prepared as the data collection tool. The first part included variables such as the participants’ genders, ages and education levels, while in the second part, three open-ended interview questions aimed at learning the students’ views about the programme were included.: 1)What are your positive views regarding the Teacher Certification Programme?,2) What are your negative views regarding the Teacher Certification Programme? and 3) What are your recommendations for making the Teacher Certification Programme more effective?. The form was administered to the students at the end of the first academic term. Thematic analysis was used in the data analysis of written data. The findings of the study reveal that the students had both positive and negative perceptions about TCP. The students mostly expressed positive opinions regarding the course contents and learning outcomes included in the programme. They considered that the courses on the programme not only taught them new information, but also developed their general knowledge. On the other hand, the students generally held negative views related to both the education process of the programme and its structure and functioning. The students stressed the need for the number of subject area courses related to English teaching to be increased.

Keywords

teacher certification programme, pre-service teachers, higher education