An Investigation Into Classroom Management Ability Of English M.Ed.Student Teachers During The Teaching Practicum

Teachers' classroom management ability refers to a comprehensive ability of classroom management that teachers establish and maintain classroom order and form a good classroom atmosphere in order to achieve teaching objectives.The level of teachers' classroom management ability directly affects the quality of teachers' teaching,and also has a positive or negative effect on students' learning.In the past 20 years,research on teachers' classroom management ability has received considerable attention from different perspectives both at home and abroad.However,numerous studies were merely conducted on in-service teachers,neglecting pre-service teachers like English M.Ed.students.Furthermore,as an important phase of pre-service teachers' professional development,teaching practicum provides a significant field for them to contact with teacher's work and manage classroom.In view of this,based on previous studies on classroom management ability,this study sets out to explore English M.Ed.student teachers' classroom management ability,aiming to confirm the significance of classroom management ability.This study is to answer the following three questions:(1)What is the overall level of English M.Ed.students' classroom management ability during the teaching practicum?(2)Are there any differences in English M.Ed.student teachers' classroom management ability?If so,in what aspects do the differences exist?(3)What are the possible factors influencing English M.Ed.students' classroom management ability during the teaching practicum?Subjects in this study are 55 English M.Ed.students from one university.Two research instruments including a questionnaire and semi-structured interview are adopted to collect data.All 55 M.Ed.students participated in the questionnaire,and then 10 of them were interviewed as the supplement data.The study shows that:first,English M.Ed.student teachers' classroom management ability during the teaching practicum is at an upper-middle level.However,when it comes to the five different dimensions,results vary significantly,with the teaching content management ability the highest and student management ability the lowest.Second,it is found that there is no significant difference among English M.Ed.student teachers'undergraduate major,undergraduate internship experience and internship phase.However,as for gender,the female pre-service teachers' classroom environment management ability is higher than the male;With regard to the number of classes,the self-management ability of M.Ed.candidates with more than 8 classes is significantly higher than that of M.Ed.candidates with 1-3 classes.Third,factors influencing M.Ed.candidates' classroom management ability can be divided into internal and external factors.Internal factors mainly include the following aspects:the inconsistent understanding of classroom management ability,lack of communication with students and effective classroom management skills,lack of professional knowledge and lack of detailed and reasonable planning of classroom time and teaching steps.The external factors mainly include four aspects:practicum supervisor,practicum team,the students and education program.According to the findings,several suggestions are put forward.Firstly,M.Ed.candidates are recommended to improve English proficiency and accumulate more knowledge of classroom management;actively participate in the teaching practicum and make them adjusted to the practicum schools.Secondly,more teaching practice opportunities and reasonable classroom management courses should be offered by M.Ed.program to improve their classroom management ability.Finally,qualified and responsible supervisors in the practicum schools should be arranged for M.Ed.candidates so as to offer more teaching practice chances and constructive guidance and suggestions for them.