University Within School: What Are the Pre-Service English Language Teachers and Their Mentors Perceptions?

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative case study is to understand how pre-service English language teachers and their mentors at coordinating schools perceive the University within School model. In this teacher education model, undergraduate students start school visits beginning in their first semester with a few school visits. The number of exposure hour and expected tasks increase by time. In the second year, students attend the schools one full day a week mostly focusing on observation and in the third year they spend two full days at schools as teacher assistants. Specifically, this study focused on to identify the perceived advantages and challenges encountered by the teacher candidates and the mentor teachers. The participants of this study were 4 mentor teachers and 34 pre-service ELT teachers studying at the English Language Department at a foundation university in İstanbul. Data sources included an online survey for the mentors and pre-service teachers and weekly written reflections of the pre-service teachers. Content analysis was implemented on reflections and open-ended survey questions. The data were coded and themes were reached by two raters. The overall results depict crucial benefits of this model for pre-service teacher students' in their journey to becoming effective language teachers. The mentor teachers also underlined the effectiveness of this model and emphasized that it would be better for them to receive a training on mentoring.