School practicum is an area of interest for researchers, teacher educators and teachers (Lawson et al., 2015). Therefore, a large number of research studies have focused on the importance of the teaching practicum and its various aspects. Researchers state that the teaching practicum is one of the crucial elements of teacher education programs. Zeichner (2010; cited in Azkiyahi and Mukminin, 2017) pointed out that the teaching practicum is one of the most critical components of teacher education regarding the quality of teachers. In the teaching practicum context, new teachers can implement theoretical ideas learnt during their coursework in teaching practicums even though they may face difficulties when circumstances differ from their expectations (Gilliland, 2018). The teaching practicum is aimed to build student teachers’ pedagogical competence by providing opportunities for them to apply knowledge, skills, and values they have learntr in the classroom as Azkiyahi and Mukminin (2017) stated. Previous studies on teaching practice (i.e. Castañeda-Trujillo & Aguirre-Hernández, 2018; Busher, Gunduz, Cakmak & Lawson, 2015; Kroll, 2004; MacDonald, 1993) have examined the issue from different perspectives. However, it has been observed that there is not much focus on evaluating the teaching practice in a holistic way. Ferreira (2009) suggests, based on Duke & Stiggins (1997), that the evaluation of teachers in the teaching practicum should include a review of the following areas as most integral to the teaching profession: pedagogical, professional, organizational and personal. Even though it is difficult to see the whole picture of the practicum, this piece of research aimed to present a holistic evaluation of teaching practicum based on pre-service teachers’ viewpoints.

In qualitative research, it is extremely important for participants to value their own understanding of their experiences (Arshavskaya, 2016). In other words, ‘qualitative’ methods are used to answer questions about experience, meaning and perspective, most often from the standpoint of the participant, as emphasized by Hammarberg, Kirkman and Lacey (2016). The participants of this research were 4th year pre-service teachers (n=58) from the Education Faculty of a state university in Ankara, Turkey. Qualitatively designed research was carried out in two stages. In the first phase, participants were given open-ended questions reflecting their experiences and observations during the teaching process of the study. The participants were asked to answer the questions at a suitable time. The open-ended questions were as follows: 1.What are the aspects you find most useful in teaching? 2. What were your strongest and weakest sides in the teaching practice? 3. What were the most important benefits of observing teachers at the school during the teaching practice? 4. What were the most important benefits of monitoring the teaching practice process with other teacher candidates? 5. What were the most important contributions of students to you in the process of teaching practicum? What were the most important contributions of the university teacher to you in the process of teaching practicum? 6. What are your expectations from the teaching practice process? 6. What are your suggestions for the teaching practice process? After this stage, ten volunteers were interviewed. The aim of the interviews was to provide an insight into the views of the participants. Content analysis was utilized in this study since qualitative research contributes to an understanding of the human condition in different contexts and of a perceived situation as indicated by Bengtsson (2016). In the analysis process, data from open-ended questions and from the interviews were analyzed separately. In the text analysis for the questions, the coding was completed first, followed by the creation of categories. Coding is a way of mapping data as Elliott (2018) suggested. Each question was analyzed individually, and as a result of the analysis, a holistic assessment study was performed which reflected the views of the candidates on teaching practice.

The teacher candidates in the study stated that the most important dimension which improved them in the process of teaching was being in a real classroom environment. They also reported that it was beneficial for them to share their experiences with other teacher candidates. While the teacher candidates differed in the ways they perceived themselves to be strong and weak in their teaching practice, their expectations from this process pointed to some common points. The prospective teachers were more likely to be in a real classroom setting, and observing the classroom environment was beneficial for them. In addition, they stated different expectations regarding other stakeholders, the mentors, students and the university teachers. Based on the data obtained from the research, a model reflecting a holistic assessment of teaching practice based on the opinions of prospective teachers was developed. The study is expected to make important contributions to researchers working in the field by discussing the results in relation to teacher education, comparing the results with other research findings and evaluating them.

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