Attitude and Level of Satisfaction of Student Teachers with the Teaching Practice Exercise in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Teaching practice is the backbone of training in teacher education. It provides the opportunity for would-be teachers to put into practice theoretical knowledge in real life teaching situations. The attitude of student teachers to teaching practice determines their behaviour and how teaching is considered as enjoyable or not. Likewise, their level of satisfaction with the teaching practice exercise serves as feedback for all stakeholders of the teaching practice committee and the teaching profession. This study investigated the attitude and level of satisfaction of student teachers with the teaching practice exercise in Nigerian Universities. This is a mixed-method research design, combining quantitative research of descriptive survey and qualitative research of thematic analysis. The population of the study consisted all final year education students in 2024/2025 session in three universities in Nigeria. Convenience sampling procedure was used to select a total sample of 348 respondents. Three research questions were answered, and three hypotheses were tested in this study. A researcher developed questionnaire administered through google forms was used in collection of data. The research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and simple percentages, while the hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics of chi-square and independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that most respondents have a positive attitude towards teaching practice. However, a majority of respondents have low level of satisfaction with respect to their level of preparedness, supervision expectation and institutional support during teaching practice. Also, there seems to be no gender difference in attitude and level of satisfaction of student teachers with the teaching practice exercise. The study recommended among others, that teaching practice exercise orientation should be organized for student teachers for at least one month before the exercise in order to have ample time for preparation.

Keywords: Attitude, Level of Satisfaction, Student Teachers, Teaching Practice.