This presentation reports on an ongoing cross-national PhD research project. The research used an exploratory mixed methods survey design to explore the opportunities for practice available to student teachers in English language pre-service teacher education programmes in Algeria, Finland, Ireland and Scotland. To this end, the study draws on Grossman et al.’s (2009) framework of pedagogies of practice. More specifically, it focuses on Grossman et al.’s ‘approximations of practice’. It also aims to explore how the teaching practice component of pre-service teacher education programmes is organised in the four countries and to identify student teachers’ and teacher educators’ attitudes towards the practice compoent. The present research was guided by three research questions:

• What are students teachers' and teacher educators’ attitudes towards different approximations of practice, and authentic practice, to facilitate student teacher’s professional development?’
• In what ways are teacher education programmes in Ireland, Finland, Scotland and Algeria framing the practice component of language teacher education?
• What possible learnings/adaptations can be made from Irish, Finish and Scottish’s English language teacher education to the Algerian teaching practice design?

The study explores eight approximations of practice: examining English language learners’ work; examining state, national or local curriculum; examining videos of classroom teaching; micro-teaching; roleplays; coached rehearsals; one-to-one simulations of practice and virtual simulations of practice. Based on an extended review of the literature on approximations of practice, these were the most commonly cited approximations of practice used across different contexts.

Research findings suggest that teacher quality is considered one of the main salient determiners of student success (Rivkin et al., 2005, p.449; Darling-Hammond, 2000, p.33) and the success of any educational system (Barber and Mourshed 2007, p.15). As a result, the content and curriculum of pre-service teacher education programmes in many countries are constantly being scrutinised to deliver competent graduates who are well capable of facing the realities of the twenty-first century classrooms.

The importance of practice has been widely acknowledged in teacher education literature. Research highlights that it is seen as hugely significant by student teachers, teacher educators and teachers as well as by policy makers (Tabachnick, and Zeichner 1984; Hall et al, 2018). This growing recognition of the importance of teaching practice has inspired many teacher education providers to revise their teacher preparation policies through extending teaching practice opportunities and strengthening theory-practice links (Darling-Hammond et  al.,  2017,  p.  22). However, despite the wide agreement on the teaching practice effectiveness in developing classroom ready teachers (Batten et al. 1991), the teaching practice is not standardised, and the quality of student teachers’ experience during teaching practice can be effected by many factors (i.e. the length of the teaching practice, feedback, supervision …etc) (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Darling-Hammond et al. 2005). Some researchers also argue that not all student teachers’ experiences during school-based teaching practice are productive or positive (Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann 1985; and Turney et al. 1982).

The implementation of approximations of practice in teacher education programmes, or what Grossman et al. (2009) have defined as ‘opportunities for novices to engage in practices that are more or less proximal to the practice of a profession’ (p. 2058), has the potential of contributing to the development of student teachers (Grossman et al, 2009) hence advocating their incorporation in the teacher education curricula (Ghousseini & Herbst, 2016). However, there appears to be very scant literature on their implementation and benefits in English language teacher education and more specifically on student teachers’ and teacher educators’ attitudes towards them. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting on the results of a cross-national research as part of an ongoing PhD project.

This study was designed as an exploratory survey research that mixes both qualitative and quantitative data findings from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The research draws on data from student teachers, novice teachers and teacher educators in teacher education programmes in Algeria, Finland, Ireland and Scotland in order to obtain a more complete picture of prospective teachers' experience during English language teacher education programmes. Based on an extensive review of literature on the different ways practice is enacted in pre-service teacher education, the researcher designed two online questionnaires, one for student and novice teachers and another for teacher educators. The questionnaires used open-ended questions, close-ended questions and especially designed attitudinal scales to best address the research questions. Participants were recruited following a non-probability sampling method due to its suitability for the research. Questionnaire participants who agreed to participate in the second phase of the research were interviewed following a semi-structured interview design. The interviews were conducted on Microsoft Teams and lasted from 30-60 minute. The sample consists of 80 student teachers and teacher educators from the four countries. The study data was collected through questionnaires and 8 interviews. To address the research questions, the questionnaires included 3 main sections: background data, approximations of practice and teaching practice. The approximations of practice section was further divided into 8 sub-sections. In each sub-section, participants answered questions about how an approximation was used in their programme, when it was used and the frequency of its use. In addition, participants also responded to a 5-point Likert scale about their attitudes towards each of the approximations of practice. In the last section, different aspects of the teaching practice experience were explored to understand how the teaching practice aspect is framed in the four countries including the existence of teaching practice, the duration of the teaching practice, students’ preparedness before the teaching practice and feedback. Each of these were further explored in the interviews.

The analysis of the data gathered from questionnaires and interviews allow for an exploration of the research participants’ experiences of the practice component of their English language teacher education programmes including the approximations of practice and the attitudes that both student teachers and teacher educators hold towards these. The preliminary analysis of the research findings highlight that the participants hold positive attitudes towards the different ways practice is enacted that are explored in this study, which coincides with prior research on the approximations of practice. It also highlights that the teaching practice is framed differently in the different pre-service teacher education programmes in the four countries. After presenting the results of the analysis of the questionnaires and the interviews, I will discuss the differences and common elements in the four countries. The analysis focuses on the emergent themes in the research data including value, identity, teaching skills, feedback and affective factors. Although the researchers’ sample is small, the study contributes to a better understanding of the opportunities for practice available for prospective teachers in the four countries. Doing so, the research expects to draw from the research data from the three European countries (Finland, Scotland, and Ireland) to recommend the policies that could be adopted to the Algerian practice component of the curriculum design. As this PhD research’s analysis is underway, I cannot describe in detail what the results will be in terms of possible learnings/adaptations from the European context to the Algerian English language teacher education system.

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