Am I Born or Made Teacher?: Student teachers’ Perspectives

 

 

Frances L. Sinanu

Neny Isharyanti

 

 

Although substantial evidence of various studies in teacher education have indicated the benefits and advantages of teacher training (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Gallego, 2001; Hogan, et al., 2003), thus confirming that good teachers are made/trained, the myth that good teachers are born remains popular even among teachers themselves (as indicated in the results of a study by Bullough & Kauchak, 1997). The debate whether good teachers are trained or born leads to a question whether a field experience program in teaching will influence their opinion regarding the necessity of a teacher training program and whether such a program adequately prepares them to be qualified etachers.

In this paper, we will pose the debatable question, contrasting teaching as a talent with teaching as a skill that needs to bea learned, to 75 student teachers before and after they attend a field experience program of teaching English in six schools in Salatiga, Indonesia. We specially will explore whether the field experience program, which focuses more on providing opportunities for the student etachers to get firsthand experiences in a real classroom situation, affects their perspectives on the importance or the non-importance of having such training to become good teachers. We will also investigate which specific teachin skills/strategies are considered to be useful for teaching from the student etachers’ perspectives. The results of this study may benefit the process of designing a field experience program that is more student teacher-oriented, ensuring that they receive training that they consider to be useful for their teaching.

 

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Sinanu, F. L., & Isharyanti, N. (2006, April). Am I born or made teacher?: Student teachers’ perspectives. Paper presented at the 41^st RELC International Seminar, Singapore.

 

 

 

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