Examination of prospective primary school teachers opinions towards evaluating teaching practice process

The aim of this study is to opine views of the teacher studying in the classroom teaching program with regard to teaching practice course and to try to identify the problems that the teachers encounter during the implementation of the teaching. For that purpose, prospective primary school teachers are interviewed both before and after the application, and the problems that teachers encounter during the practice have been tried to identify by examining in depth for all aspects of the process of teaching practice. This research is an example of case study from qualitative research patterns. The research has been carried out with nine prospective teachers studying at the grade 4 during 2010-2011 academic years. The data collection tool has been used more than one so as to obtain the data of study. Research data collection tools include the focus interviews with prospective teachers both before and after of implementation at two different times, implementation documents that the teacher has gathered together lesson plans and materials they used during implementation, to comprise individual diaries of the pre-service teachers through the practice and evaluation reports that they assess the process of implementation at the end of the practice. The data obtained from the focus group interviews made for the purpose of determining the prospective teachers? views on the pre-implementation and post-implementation is presented by examining continuously with comparative method and tabulating into themes. Lesson plans, individual reflective journals and implementation evaluation reports have been examined with the commentary analysis, the content analysis and the analysis of documents and outcomes obtained have been tabulated. Through the study, it is seen that prospective teachers? thoughts have differed between before and after the implementation of teaching practice. It has been observed that pre-implementation and post implementation teaching techniques and methods related to teaching practice, ability to apply the constructivist approach, the adequacy views and expectations about the use of materials and classroom management of the prospective teachers changed significantly after a period of teaching practice. However, it is concluded that prospective teachers? level of meeting their expectations which they expressed about the teaching practice in pre-implementation is low. In the study, it is also concluded that prospective teachers encountered problems arising from practice school, the trainer teacher and teaching practice staff during practice process. The various proposals have been offered to overcome these problems. Key Words: Teacher Implementation, Views of Prospective Primary School Teachers, Qualitative Approach, Reflective Diary