An Investigation of Peer-Teaching Technique in Student Teacher Development

OpenAlex · İngilizce

Abstract: Pre-service TEFL programs are designed to prepare candidate teachers of English language for their future careers. To this end they provide students with a wide variety of techniques and strategies for enabling them to acculturate into their profession. An effective way of creating a professional learning community is to use a process of peer-teaching. The present study attempts to examine the impact of peer-teaching application on pre-service EFL teachers ’ understandings of methodology course content and its effect on their learning and teaching experiences. The main goals of this study are to find out how teacher candidates view peer-teaching and how they think their understanding of course content is affected when peer-teaching technique is implemented. The study cohorts 38 pre-service teachers enrolled in a 14 week methodology course at a large, public university in Istanbul. Data were collected qualitatively via observations, interviews, peer-evaluation papers and self-analysis reports. All interview transcripts and written samples were inductively analyzed. Findings suggest that peer-teaching exercise is found valuable by teacher candidates in that it helps them to increase learning and to be reflective and at the same time provides the students the opportunity of self-reflection which later might lead to development of their teaching and evaluation skills.