| Instructional design competence(IDC)is an important component of teachers’professional competence(Konig et al.,2017),it is also an important basis and prerequisite for the implementation of daily teaching.The quality of teacher’s instructional design competence is directly related to the quality of teaching,which will further influence students’ development.As an important way of teacher training,educational practicum can provide pre-service teachers a precious opportunity to experience and observe real teaching,thereby promoting the development of pre-service teachers’ professional competence.However,in spite of the fact that instructional design competence has always been a trending topic of educational research,most of the studies are discussions about the framework of IDC or the current situation of pre-service teachers’ IDC.Few researchers explored the influence of practicum on pre-service teachers’ IDC development through empirical studies.Based on previous studies,this research aims to explore the influence of practicum on pre-service English teacher’s IDC.First of all,the author investigated the changes of pre-service teachers’ IDC during practicum,and further analyzed reasons for the change.After that,factors influencing pre-service English teachers’ IDC development during practicum were discussed in depth.Finally,the author gave suggestions on the perfection of practicum program and on the improvement of pre-service English teachers’ IDC.This study investigated 49 M.Ed.students in a famous Chinese normal university by pretest-posttest questionnaire and semi-structured interview.It tried to discover the impact of educational practicum on pre-service English teachers.Firstly,the author issued the same questionnaire to the M.Ed.students before and after the two-month educational practicum.Then,the author randomly selected 5 M.Ed.students from different practicum school and conducted a semi-structured interview as the supplementation data of questionnaire.This research aims to answer the following questions:1)Does teaching practicum influence pre-service English teachers’ instructional design competence?If yes,what aspects of IDC was influenced?And why it was influenced?2)What are the factors that influence pre-service English teachers’ instructional design competence during the teaching practicum?Generally,the result indicates that educational practicum facilitates pre-service English teachers’ IDC development,but the degree of influence varies.Specifically,teaching practicum has the most significant impact on student teacher’s content analysis competence,student analysis competence,and flexible design competence.Then followed by the development of teaching process design competence and evaluation and reflection competence.Comparatively,teaching objective design competence and strategy design competence are not obviously improved after the practicum.In this research,factors that affect pre-service English teachers’ IDC are divided into facilitating factors and hindering factors.Facilitating factors during practicum include interaction with teachers and students,constant self-reflection,and classroom observation and conduction.Classroom observation and conduction is the most significant factor for the improvement of pre-service teachers’ IDC.Besides,interaction with teachers and students is also of great value.Surprisingly,the facilitative function of constant self-reflection during practicum is far from expectation.There are also factors that hinder the development of pre-service English teachers’ IDC including limited time duration of practicum,few opportunities for classroom teaching,and the lack of communication between university and the practicum schools. |
