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Assessing the Performance of Student Teachers in a Bachelor of Education Programmes at the University of Technology, Jamaica

Teaching practice is an integral part of teacher education programmes around the world. All student teachers at the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica are required to do a series of teaching practice courses, namely, one week of school observation, two weeks of team teaching, and 12 weeks of individual teaching. The main purpose of this study was to assess the performance of the student teachers in the Bachelor of Education Programmes at UTech, Jamaica. To answer the three research questions that guided the study, the ex-post facto research design was used. The scores from the theory lesson of 88 student teachers who participated in the 2011/12 teaching practice exercise were used. The results showed that some student teachers from the Business and Computing Studies programme got one to five visits during the teaching practice when compared to those in the Family and Consumer Studies, and the Industrial Technology groups who had three to five visits, respectively. The results showed that for Lesson Preparation, there was a statistically significant difference between the student teachers in the Business and Computing Studies and the Family and Consumer Studies. For Lesson Delivery, there was a statistically significant difference between the Business and Computing Studies and the Industrial Studies student teachers. There were no differences in the other two domains (Professionalism & Classroom Management, & Communication Skills). The results also showed that there was a weak positive relationship between the scores awarded by the programme and education specialists to the student teachers in the Business and Computing Studies only. There were no significant relationships for the scores awarded to the student teachers in the Industrial Technology, and Family and Consumer Studies programmes. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made on how to improve the teacher preparation programmes, including the teaching practice exercise.