Pre-service ELT Teachers’ Prospective Needs and Desires for their Pre-service Teacher Education

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the voices of pre-service ELT teachers on their prospective needs and desires for their pre-service teacher education curriculum. A qualitative research was conducted with freshman and sophomore students at an ELT Department in a Faculty of Education of a public university in Turkey. To reach an in-depth understanding of participants’ knowledge, qualitative data were collected through 10 focus group discussions which 66 pre-service ELT teachers attended. Inductive analysis revealed that participants’ prospective needs are categorized under two emerging themes: (a) instructional/practical and (b) attitudinal/behavioural development. In addition, the prospective desires of them are categorized under two emerging themes: (a) instructional/practical development and (b) content development. Finally, the participants emphasize reducing the number of theoretical courses from the program and increasing practical courses instead.

Keywords

• pre-service teachers’ needs and desires
• teacher competencies
• curriculum evaluation
• professional development