Effects of practice teaching on practice teachers' ability to observe classes: Correlation of their image of teaching, teachers, and children with their observational skills

The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of practice teaching on the development of practice teachers' observational skills that are linked with images of teaching, teachers, and children. Practice teachers (JV = 53) recorded their impressions of a videotaped math class in an elementary school before and after they did practice teaching. The following aspects of the practice teachers' observational skills, as revealed in those reports, were analyzed : (a) the number of descriptions that identified problems in the class, (b) the number of descriptions that proposed alternative plans for the class, and (c) their evaluation skills. The major findings were : (a) both the number of problems identified and the number of alternative proposals generally increased after practice teaching, (b) the increase in the number of alternative proposals was correlated with a positive image of teaching and teachers, and (c) the experienced teachers had better class evaluation skills than the practice teachers did. Discussion of these findings referred to effects of practice teaching on the observational skills of practice teachers, and presented some pedagogical implications.