Preparedness of Teacher Candidates and Problems Faced by Teachers in the Beginning Years of Teaching

Abstract

This paper reports the preparedness and skills of teacher-candidates as instructors, managers, and supervisors. Framework of twenty-first skills by (Corpuz & Salandanan, 2012) was the founding principle to interpret the respondents’ beliefs towards their preparation to teach. All 256 respondents are expected to graduate in 2018 and their courses are coded as teacher candidate or TC1(51), TC2 (13), TC3 (29), TC4 (27), TC5 (26), TC6 (57), and TC7 (24). Categories of their skills and preparedness reported in the teacher-made questionnaire and open-ended questions underscore the “uncertainty” of respondents and “very strong agreement”. Answers of respondents towards their reported skills were matched with their knowledge and instructional practice. The paper ends with recommendations to address “uncertain” instructional practice and ultimately improve teacher education curriculum. In addition, the paper includes a report on problems faced by practicing teachers, graduates of Pampanga State Agricultural University- College of Education in the interest to match their problems and current anticipations of teacher candidates.

Keywords: Teacher Education Curriculum, Preparedness, Problems in their First Year of Teaching, 21st Century Skills