Purposes of Practicum
Practicum is the actual and on-field experience that every student must have before graduating in his or her chose field. This is to provide us with venues to practice all the theories, the lessons, and the values that we have acquired in our years of studying.
This Indonesian experience showed me that practicum is not only application of the theories but also applying it in a context other than in your own country. It made me see the differences and similarities in our curriculum, our teaching-learning process, our school environment and many more. This gave me an avenue to get important points and apply them in our country, as well as see areas on where our country could improve on in terms of education. It allowed me to network with professionals in my field and gain different insights on how I can improve my craft and myself.
Aside from the educational aspect, practicum abroad taught me about the different culture in other country and how culture can affect education. As I meet new people and as I delve into their culture, it also made me see how I can make use of my country’s own culture in teaching my lessons.
Procedures of Practicum
My practicum experience in Indonesia was very short because it was only for a month. The first week, we arrived in our host University and they introduced us to our respective schools. During the first week, I did classroom observation in different classes. I was able to take note of the teaching-learning process of the different grade levels in my school.
In the second and third week, I started my practice teaching. My mentors were very hands-on in critiquing and helping me in class. They would be there to observe my strengths and weaknesses in class. During the third week, there are times when I am left alone in class because they said that I am able to do it already. This time I am more confident in my lesson preparation and teaching-learning activities because I already got to know my student better than I did previously and how these students react to different materials presented to them.
In the fourth week, we had our evaluation and farewells. My evaluator was Pak Saefurrohman who was very critical during his observation and evaluation. His suggestions after my observation helped me improve during my evaluation. He is very hands-on with his critiques because he really took time to talk to me and helped me revise my activities for the evaluation. He does not spoon-feed but he helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses as an educator on my own.
Outcomes of Practicum
Practicum helped me assess myself as a person and as a future teacher. Aside from me seeing my strengths and weaknesses, I was able to grow as an individual. Practicum made me confident in sharing my ideas and experiences. It made me more confident in teaching students in class and it made me sure of myself that this is really the profession that I want. Practicum outside of the country brought me out of my comfort zone and helped me become someone who can adapt to different culture. Meeting different people, experiencing different teaching-learning processes and being independent for a month made me try different kinds of ways to be able to go through this program. It helped me develop skills such as creativity, resourcefulness, open-mindedness and many more. These are some of the many skills that I need to equip myself before becoming a teacher.
Challenges of Practicum
The biggest challenge that I had to overcome during practicum is our communication barrier. Being someone who is unable to speak their language and being someone who is used to having students who speak English in school, I really tried to look for ways in order to get past this challenge. I read articles on how to overcome this and how to present topics to learners who only knew limited English. I use pictures during the discussion, give out examples and ask them to apply their understanding in order for them to really know the lesson.
Another challenge is the motivation of learners to learn English. According to our teacher, most students do not like English class. I made it a point to make English enjoyable for them. I create games; give out positive reinforcements and interactive lessons for them to enjoy learning English.
Overall Impression
This practice teaching is beyond my expectations. I did not think that I would be able to experience this in my college life but there I was. It was not the sense of adventure that made my practicum experience very significant but it was the people that I met during the experience. My students, the teachers in UMP and MTS, the buddies, dorm mate and the people who we meet almost everyday made me see how beautiful the experience was for me.
The teaching-learning experience was not just a one-way street but it went both ways. I learned a lot from my mentors and my students and in return they also learned a lot from me. The flow of ideas in a manner that is very calm and constructive made me see how important communication is. If used in a positive way, communication can build so much.
Suggestions for Future Improvement
In the future, I would like for the next batches to experience more orientation on the educational systems of the country since it was difficult for us to get an English version of the curriculum. Our mentors had to translate it and it resulted into us not really delving into the curriculum. Another would be information on the different topics to be taught and the conditions of the school so we can prepare better materials that are appropriate to that condition. Lastly, there should be a buddy system in all universities because I have heard stories about how there were no buddies to accompany those who are doing their exchange. Lucky for us our buddies were very accommodating and friendly to us. Overall, it was a great experience and hopefully batch 8 would have the same experiences.
