Teaching Practice at Yemeni Universities as Perceived by Educators: A Call for Change

Abstract

This paper aims at identifying the obstacles of implementing effective Teaching Practice (TP) at the Yemeni Universities to find suitable solutions for placement of student teachers in the TP, weighing individual and multi-supervision, training supervisors, funding of TP, etc. The informants (47) of the study are policymakers and experts in Education in Yemen. Through a questionnaire, consisting of 11 core close-responses type questions pertinent to measure major dimensions of TP, participants were asked to indicate to the extent to which they agreed with. Then the participants were asked to brainstorm the difficulties that face TP. After sticking the difficulties on the wall, the participants were asked to vote on the top five only. The study ends with identifying the problems: limited funding (74%), insufficiency of supervisors (73%), increase in the number of student teachers (71%), short period of TP (69%), absence of coordination between the Ministry of Education (MoE), and the universities (65%), there is no manual and by-law to regulate TP (53%), some departments use only microteaching (53%). The participants suggested solutions. The length of the training should be about a term. The STs need to spend a major period of their training at schools supervised by the faculty supervisor and cooperative teacher/s as well as school administration. The placement of STs has to be arranged between the Faculty, MoE offices and schools. There should be some training for the supervisor who should be given some incentives for their supervision. Funding has to be managed by the university and the ministry of finance. Assessment of TP is to be shared between the different supervisors.