ABSTRACT
As is the case in virtually all professional and vocational training, student teachers must complete periods of field experience in which they work in conditions close to those surrounding full-time practitioners. These may vary from opportunities to teach individuals or small groups on an occasional half-day or whole-day basis, up to block practices lasting a term or longer, usually on a reduced timetable. Novices on teaching practice have often been studied by researchers. Wragg (1972) documented 578 lessons given by 102 student teachers during a ten-week practice and found that many students had fairly fixed patterns of interaction which hardly altered during the practice. Fink (1976) used diaries, questionnaires and lesson observations in her study of twenty-five student teachers, showing that they became more custodial towards their pupils as the practice progressed. Preece (1979) found that students’ anxiety fell during teaching practice when he studied 100 students on a postgraduate secondary course.
