Pre-Service Teachers’ Teaching Anxiety, Teaching Self-Efficacy, and Problems Encountered During the Practice Teaching Course

Abstract

Practice teaching represents authentic experiential learning and culminating experience to better prepare the prospective teachers for actual teaching experience. However, pre-service teachers who go through the practicum have a number of worries and anxieties which could lower their teaching self-efficacy and consequently their performance. This study aimed to determine the relationship between the pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety and teaching self-efficacy, the possible reasons for such teaching anxiety, and pre-service teachers’ suggestions to lessen, if not totally eliminate it. For this purpose, student-teacher anxiety and self-efficacy scales have been used for data collection as well as interviews among the pre-service teachers. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety significantly relates to their teaching self-efficacy and among the factors of teaching anxiety, classroom management best predicts pre-service teachers’ teaching self-efficacy. It was also found that there is a significant difference between the levels of teaching anxiety of the pre-service teachers depending on their grade level placement. As perceived by the pre-service teachers, the main cause of their teaching anxiety is high expectations from cooperating teachers and students; hence they recommend better planning and preparation for internship.