UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

THE PRACTICAL COMPONENT OF TEACHING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA

Students: Fjolla MORINA Flutra SADIKU Fjolla KELMENDI

Ylli BEKA

Instructor: Mphil. Blerta MUSTAFA

May 30th 2013

TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT I. INTRODUCTION II. METHODOLOGY 2.1. Piloting 2.1.1. Participants 2.1.2. Procedure 2.2. MAIN STUDY 2.2.1. Participants 2.2.2. Structure 2.2.3. Procedure III. RESULTS IV. DISCUSSION V.CONCLUSION APPENDIX A APPENDIX B

Abstract

The findings suggests to show how much practical teaching is held and how it is developed in some of the departments of the University of Prishtina (UP). The findings of the study revealed that all of the students experienced practical teaching as being mainly a positive experience. Practical teaching played an important part in their development by providing a context wherein they could merge theory and practice. The characteristics that students value about practical teaching are:having positive skills, being well prepared for the future, possessing creativity and developing yourself in the field you are interested in. Through the informations that have been collected with the questionnaire will have a realistic and factual situation of practical teaching in University of Prishtina (UP).The data was collected by a questionnaire that was distributed to different faculties of third academic year.100 students of six different departments of the Uniersity of Prishtina (UP) participated in this research. According to some of the responds that we have seen, most of the students want to do practice, but for some departments appear a lot of difficulties because is a lack of the appropriate conditions. This means that many professors consider that it is not necessary to do practice and they value more the theoretical teaching. This study hopes to make a contribution towards the understanding of student experiences of practical teaching in University of Prishtina (UP). It is also hoped that through this study, further research in this field will be encouraged.

I.

Introduction

Practical experience also is an important component of all undergraduate and postgraduate teaching courses.Teaching is a professional discipline and student teachers need the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective practitioners. Practical experience involves teaching in schools and other educational environments. It may also include other duties associated with the teaching profession.Field work can also form part of teaching education courses. Field work is experience gained in a particular education setting, which is not assessed by the University.( Copyright 2013 La Trobe University. All rights reserved.CRICOS Provider Code: VIC 00115M, NSW 02218K). This research project attempted to explore and articulate an understanding of some of the experiences of students following their final practical teaching session at a school before graduating. Their transcripts were individually analyzed in order to extract themes. Research conducted by M.Wagenaar (students teachers experiences pg.1) found the quality of student practical teaching experiences in the field seems to be a major concern. Converting theoretical knowledge into practice will always remain a challenge - learning to teach is a complex process (Solomon, Worthy & Carter as cited in Farrell, 2002), concluded that practical teaching is a phrase referring to the difficulty of shifting from theoretical training and academic knowledge to the actual work. Different students have different perceptions on how important is practical teaching, and how much it will affect them in the near future ,and how much it will be helpful and needed . However, there are also a quite number of students that does not prefer practical teaching . They claim that in theoritical lessons are more effective, they have learned quite enough which helped them in their personal development. For instance, they can see every day

their teacher giving lessons , they see closely how a teacher should be able to direct students attention to the lesson and how a teacher should be patient , careful , caring ,since she or he is an example for the students. There are other traditional theories- the theory of practical, the theory that learning is a process of assimilation, but the reward and punishment theory is one of the most basic, and it is this theory that I shall refer to as symbolizing the traditional point of view on learning. ( Copyright 1959 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. ) It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the proper relationship of theory and practice without a preliminary discussion, respectively, the aim of theory and of practice. I shall assume without argument that adequate professional instruction of teachers is not exclusively theoretical, but involves a certain amount of practical work. The primary question as to the latter is the aim with which it shall be conducted. Two controlling purposes may be entertained so different from each other as radically to alter the amount,conditions, and method of practice work.( THE RELATION OF THEORY TO PRACTICE IN EDUCATION1 by John Dewey).Concluded that practice work thus considered is administered primarily with reference to the intellectual reactions it incites, giving the student a better hold upon the educational significance of the subject-matter he is acquiring,and of the science, philosophy, and history of education. Of course, the results are not exclusive. It would be very strange if practice work in doing what the laboratory does for a student of physics or chemistry in way of securing a more vital understanding of its principles, should not at the same time insure some skill in the instruction and management of a class. The theory of learning and teaching multiplication shows what might be called signs of an evolution namely the growth of a collection of simple rules and beliefs into a sophisticated system of concepts, suggestions and guidelines. Each theory, to a certain point, arises from a practice situation and maintains a reciprocal (reflexive) relationship

with that practice. Theory makes it simpler and more efficient to perform in practice, while practice in its turn, as an application in reality, clarifies thought about the theory. Production and use of theory (Fenstermacher, 1986) are not as strongly interwoven with each other in every theory as they are in the (development of) theory of learning and teaching multiplication, where the professional practice of teaching provides the source for the development of theory and where in reverse theory provides direction to practice. We see here a parallel between the development of curricula in primary education and for training teachers in primary education (Goffree, 1979). An important factor that determines differences in the relationship between theory and practice is the way in which theory is used. Theory can be used for instance to test practice (and the other way around) or to anticipate on practice; in the latter case, it is a matter of theory in action or theory on action (Theory and practice in teacher education by Schn, 1983). Practical component of teaching is a rite of passage to all students have to undergo before entering the work life and beginning their career.

3.Methodology

The research process was conducted through a questionnaire survey method. The survey process was developed by directly contacting students in selected faculties. The questionnaire was prepared to enable the realization of the goals targeted in advance. The questionnaire should answer by the topic Practical teaching at the University of Pristine.

3.1.Piloting

Firstly, we conducted a questionnaire with 10 questions and brought it in the classroom and got feedback from the students and the teacher. After that we revise the questionnaire and corrected them from the feedback that we got. Finally, we distributed the questionnaires to 10 different students to see if the questions are understandable and to measure the time that was needed to fulfill the questionnaire. Students found the topic very interesting and they were ready to answer the questions.

3.1.1.Participants

The piloting questionnaire was conducted to third academic year students which have done the practical teaching. The participants were contacted privately in their faculties. There were 10 students that participated in the piloting and they did not have any difficulties answering the questions. The piloting took place only one day to get the responds from the students.

3.1.2.Procedure

The piloting questionnaire was distributed only in faculty of Medicine and Economy. The average time of fulfilling the questionnaire was 10 minutes. The question were understandable and the participants didnt found any difficulties.

3.2.Main study

3.2.1.Participants

This survey research was made in order to find out if the University of Pristine(UP) fulfill the conditions of practical teaching and how much students are satisfied with those conditions and how much they hold practical teaching. The questionnaire was distributed to 100 students of third academic year in 6 different faculties. The students were 00 females and 00 males. The study was set up to explore the question: Which are the advantages of practical teaching. The third academic year students were chosen because practical teaching is mostly held in the third year and they are considered that have more experience in practice and have more clear perception for the future.

3.2.2. Structure

The data for this research was conducted through a questionnaire which consists of 12 questions and that three of them are sub questions, open and close ended questions. Ten questions were multiple choices, one of them were point liker scale question and four open-ended questions. In the question 11 and 11.1 most of the students even though they answer was YES they respond NO, because the only reason why they didnt respond was that they were too lazy to write down the answer. (see Appendix A).

3.2.3.Procedure

The questionnaire was distributed to students who held the practice at least once. It was distributed in the corridors of faculties during the break between the lectures. The questionnaire also were distributed together with our team. Students also responded to a background information regarding their gender, age , faculty and department. The appropriate instructions were given orally and the responds sheet took 10 minutes to be completed by the students. The data were collected according of answers that students had responds and it was analyzed individually .The questionnaires were divided in to 25 copies per person.

4. Results

After we collected the data through the questionnaire it was found out, that the majority of the students said that they are very interested to hold practical teaching but 60% of them think that teachers does not give much importance to it and 40% of the students thinks that the teachers gives importance to the practical teaching. On the other hand 80% of the students think that partical teaching is more advanced than theory and only 20% of them think the opposite. A very important question was which are the advantages of the practical teaching, the results on this question were the majority of the students have given their opinions by writing. Based on the students answers most of the responds wrote that it will be helpful and needed in the future career. In the question regarding how much practical teaching affects in your future the majority of the participants said that it helps them a lot, for example if you apply for a job you are one step further .Almost most of the participants said that there are not the appropriate conditions to develop practical teaching. 24% of them they were in a school to see closely that how teaching is practiced whereas most of the participants said the opposite of. Regarded to how satisfied are students with practical teaching methods in their department only 4% answered that they are very satisfied and more than half of the students had different problems to held practical teaching. Have you faced any problem during the practical teaching, majority of the respondents said yes and this question also have to write down the answer and most of them write that have many problems which their departments do not take responsibilities. On the last question which was about the success that they had in holding practical teaching more than half said that they had sufficient success whereas only 20% of the participants have not noticed any difference. For the rest see (Appendix B).

Are the students interested to hold practice

12% 17% Yes 71% No Not at all

Fig.1. Graphic results of the first question

5. Discussion

The participants in this particular research were the students of the faculties, asked to provide selected information about their individual experiences. This research shows the phenomenon of practical teaching . The finding was that the participants in this study experienced practice teaching as mainly a positive learning experience that played an enormous role in their development as teachers by providing a context wherein they could merge theory and practice. Regarding to determine the positive aspects of practical teaching with respect to the respondents, the finding was that all of them had experienced the benefits of practical teaching. This solid base had then impacted positively on the whole experience.To ascertain the negative aspects of practice teaching with respect to the respondents, the finding was that there are not the appropriate conditions to hold the practice and for some this influenced negatively. The most challenging aspect of practical teaching is that even with the lack of conditions for some of students who held it, it was very helpful and useful for the future. This study has implications for future of the universities to enhance the practical teaching experience and students should prepare themselves for its challenges and demands.

Appendix A - Practical teaching in the University of Pristine

The reason why participants even though they responds was YES they responded NO because they were too lazy to write it down.

11. Have you ever had any problems during the practical teaching? ( Please circle one of the options). a) Yes b) No

11.1 If your answer is Yes, which are those problems? (Please write down your answer). _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

Appendix B

Regarding to the question that have you ever held practical teaching in your department the majority of participants said yes whereas a few of them responded the opposite. In the question that how much practical teaching helped you in the theoretical teaching more than half of the participants responded that it was very helpful and only 10% of them said that they are not very satisfied.

REFERENCES: (Solomon, Worthy & Carter as cited in Farrell, 2002) Tang (2003) .( Copyright 2013 La Trobe University. All rights reserved.CRICOS Provider Code: VIC00115M, NSW 02218K).