Students’ Perception on Teaching Practice Assessment: Implications on Teacher Professional Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

Teaching practice is paramount in the training of student teachers as a form of exposure into the real world of Teaching. The study examined student teachers' perception on teaching practice assessment and its implications on professional practice. The population of the study was 1,393 university teacher trainees in 400 Level in a Nigerian university with a sample of 150 students using stratified random sampling technique. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used for data collection while data collected for this study were analyzed using percentage to answer research questions. he hypotheses were tested using t-test and ANOVA at 0.5 significance level. Findings of this study revealed that teaching practice exercise and Supervisors Assessment had a positive impact on student teachers. They differed in their perception on the impact of teaching practice based on the department but did not on the basis of gender. It was concluded from the findings that student teachers perceived teaching practice experience as being effective considering its positive impact on their professional training. It was therefore recommended among others that student teachers should be supervised by lecturers from departments other than their department in order to reduce familiarity during teaching practice assessment which sometimes affects their scores.