Challenges Faced by Prospective Teachers during Teaching Practice - Connecting Theory to Practice

Oct 15, 2026

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The study investigated the challenges faced by prospective teachers during teaching practice, focusing on 34 B.Ed.(Hons.) students in the final semester at the University of the Punjab and the University of Gujrat. Participants were trained in student-centered pedagogies, and analysis showed a shift away from lecture-based methods. Key obstacles included poor physical infrastructure, limited and underused academic resources, inflexible classroom arrangements, non-professional school administration, and attempting innovation without questioning prevailing norms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Challenges in connecting expectations with classroom realities

Clinical focus in teacher education

Obstacles to interactive classroom practices

Conceptualizing practice-related challenges

Subject knowledge, pedagogy, and task organization

Challenges Faced by Prospective Teachers during Teaching Practice: Connecting Theory to Practice Nasir Mahmood * and Zafar Iqbal** Abstract The study investigated the challenges faced by the prospective teachers during teaching practice. The sample of the study comprised 34 prospective teachers enrolled in the final semester of B.Ed.(Hons.) program at University of the Punjab and University of Gujrat. The prospective teachers were trained in using student-centered pedagogies in teaching practice. Data analysis revealed that there was a noticeable transformation towards the use of teaching methods other than lecture method in their classroom. The major challenges included dealing with poor physical infrastructure, scarce and underused academic resources, inflexibility in classroom arrangement, non-professional attitude of school administration, and trying out innovation without challenging the prevailing school norms. Teaching practice has helped prospective teachers to strike a balance between their expectations and reality of schools and classrooms. A closer interaction among university, school, prospective teachers and students beyond teaching practice is essential to increase mutual familiarity addressing the surprise element of challenges faced by the prospective teachers. Keywords: Student centered pedagogies, classroom environment, teaching practice * Professor, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, [Pakistan. Email: mahsir1@yahoo.com](Pakistan. Email: mahsir1@yahoo.com) ** Assistant Professor, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Email: [zafarar72@yahoo.com](zafarar72@yahoo.com) Introduction Teaching practice is challenging for prospective teachers (Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009), however, greater attention on this aspect of teacher education is evident in recent literature (Grossman & McDonald, 2008; Reid, 2011) . The expectations of prospective teachers and classroom realities are different (Melnick & Meister, 2008; Yıldız, Geçikli, & Yeşilyurt, 2016) . The profession is far more complex than prospective teachers’ expectations. The level of freedom expected by the prospective teachers in the school environment does not match with the demonstrated level of school administration (Eptien, 1993; Normore, 2003) . The students do not behave the way prospective teachers expects them to behave (Saarnivaara & Sarja, 2007) . The material required for interactive methodologies is hardly available, tightly planned scheme of studies does not allow the flexibility expected by the prospective teachers to try out idealized teaching pedagogies (Kilgore, Ross, & Zbikowski, 1990) . Ball and Forzani (2009) highlighted teacher education should prioritize the clinical aspect of teaching, ‘To make practice the core of the curriculum of teacher education requires a shift from a focus on what teachers know and believe to a greater focus on what teachers do (p. 503)’. In this scenario, Grossman et al (2009) pointed out, empirical evidence is needed to fully understand how access to various aspects and types of practices both support and hamper the development of prospective teacher about their teaching skills. Teaching being a skill cannot be taught merely through training during teacher education courses. It only equips prospective teachers to build knowledge and sketch school classroom teaching environment theoretically (Gossert et al., 2001; Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000) . The comment of Trent (2012) regarding classroom practices is contrary because the schools are mostly traditional. They have concern mainly about teaching for students to dowell in exams so there is a lot of time spent on past (exam) papers, teaching to pass the test. Therefore, interactive methods of teaching are hardly used. In this case, there might be problems, some students and other teachers might complain if he/she fall behind the teaching schedule or don’t focus so much on exam preparation (Deal & Peterson, 19

FAQs

Who participated in the study and where were they enrolled?

The sample included 34 prospective teachers enrolled in the final semester of the B.Ed.(Hons.) program at the University of the Punjab and the University of Gujrat.

What teaching approach shift was observed in the classroom?

The analysis revealed a noticeable transformation toward using teaching methods other than the lecture method.

What major challenges did prospective teachers report during teaching practice?

Major challenges included poor physical infrastructure, scarce and underused academic resources, inflexible classroom arrangement, non-professional school administration, and trying innovations without challenging prevailing school norms.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fans