A Study On The Influence Of Teaching Practice On Teaching Views Among M.Ed Students Of English Teaching

Teaching view which is formed during practice is the conception about teaching activities.It can directly influence teaching activities and products.The formation of teaching view undergoes the continuous interaction between theory and practice.M.Ed candidates,a part of per-service teachers,is a special group.On one hand,they have built strong foundation of teaching theories after years’ of teacher education programs.On another hand,without any teaching practice,student teachers will face the reality shock in teaching practice.Considering the gap between the two stages,M.Ed students are sure to reshape their thinking and conceptions.With the study in field of teaching views going deeper,increasing researches were conducted to explore the relationship between teaching views and behaviors.But existing research fruits are mainly single-track,which means researchers emphasize how teaching views impact teachers’ behaviors.Against recent research background,this research probe into teaching views from an another perspective,the influence of teaching practice on the teaching views held by M.Ed students of English teaching.Then factors contributing to the change are explored.Finally,this paper puts forward certain suggestions for how postgraduates develop effective teaching views during the pre-service period.Centering on this subject,three specific research questions are proposed:1.Did pre-service teachers’ teaching views change after teaching practice?2.What kind of changes did M.Ed students have after teaching practice?3.What are the factors contributing to their changes?To answer these three questions,this research chose 44 M.Ed candidates of cohort 2015 in a key normal university in Wuhan.Two research instruments were adopted to conduct this study:questionnaire and interview.Besides these,students’ practice journals were used to facilitate data collection and analysis.44 postgraduates who participated in two-month teaching practice were invited to do the questionnaire survey before and after the internship.Then 5 student teachers from different practice schools were interviewed.After the preliminary data analysis,the interview together with the collection of postgraduates’ practice journals were used for further research.It was found that student teachers’ teaching took a compromised change after teaching practice on the whole.To be more specific,the aim of cultivating students’communicative competence can’t be realized thoroughly for the reason that the pressure of college entrance exam can’t be ignored in our country at present.In view of the deep-rooted exam-oriented teaching,grammar-translation approach can be applied to facilitate communicative approach and audio-lingual approach.As for the class center,it is indicated that there is still a long way to realize student-centered model in all classes.Teachers’ dominant role is needed sometimes especially in a large class and among students of low levels.And one thing worth attention is that M.Ed students firmly believe that the aim of emotion cultivation has been an indispensable factor both before and after teaching practice.As for the factors contributing to the changes,they can be summarized into four aspects:practice schools,students in practice schools,tutors in practice schools and the teaching education program,Based on the findings,some suggestions are advocated in the last part.First,teaching practice should be stressed,in that it can offer student teachers a clear picture of teaching reality before becoming an real teacher in the future.Secondly,postgraduates should be encouraged to experience teaching in different schools.Thirdly,the learning of recent curriculum reform should be added to their study.That is beneficial to narrow the gap between postgraduates’ theoretical learning and authentic education trend.Fourthly,self-reflection is also important when student teachers confront conflicts of their thoughts.