Anxieties Faced by History Student-Teachers during Teaching Practice

Abstract

Teachers are important inputs in the educational enterprise. Their level of competence largely depends on the training they receive. Teaching practice is the grounds on which prospective teachers gather enough experiences to make them better and effective teachers in the future. However, due to the over-engaging and multi-tasking nature of the profession, student-teachers on teaching practice encounter a number of anxiety inducing factors that often wear them down. As such, they describe teaching practice as the most stressful component of their training. This paper attempts to discuss three of such anxiety-inducing areas to the History student-teacher which are heavy workload, classroom management, and lesson supervision. It also puts forward recommendations to ensure that such anxieties are overcome to enhance the successes of future teaching practices.

Keywords: teaching practice, anxiety, student-teachers, heavy workload, classroom management, supervision.