Problems Faced by Pre-Service Teachers’ During Teaching Practice

Pre-service teacher’s entry into the teaching profession may seem to appear very exciting at the beginning as they will use this platform to showcase and share the knowledge they have obtained to transfer theories into practice to educate the learners in the school context. Ironically, all this excitement would be transformed into anxiety due to the problems and conflicts they faced during their practicum. The main objective of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers’ problems faced during their teaching practice. A qualitative case study research design was employed in this study. Four pre-service ESL teachers volunteered to participate in the study. All the four pre-service teachers were interviewed. The pre-service teachers were observed twice to look into their pedagogical practices employed in the classroom. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers struggle to continue the lesson from the planning stage right to the implementation and final stage. The pre-service teachers were unable to adhere to the mentor teachers’ instruction to implement activities for differentiated learning meant for the weak, average and upper intermediate learners. Lack of understanding and knowledge in applying the pedagogical strategies for teaching purposes was the main problem uncovered.