Summary and Suggestions

Purpose of Practicum

Accordance with the objectives of the SEA Teacher Project, to provide opportunity for pre-service student teachers from universities in Southeast Asia to have teaching experiences (practicum) in schools in other countries in Southeast Asia. So, the purposes of practicum are to enable student teachers to develop their teaching skills and pedagogy, to encourage the student teachers to practice their English skills, and to allow student teachers to gain a broader regional and world view.

Procedures of Practicum

The practicum procedure is divided into 4 steps. The first step is observation. Observation is an activity to review things in the school, ranging from general information about the school, attitudes, and behaviour of students, academic support system, extracurricular activities of students, grading system, the pedagogical system applied by the school, and teacher’s method of teaching.

The second step is the Teaching Assistantship. Teaching Assistance is carried out with the cooperating teacher based on their respective subjects. The cooperating teacher will provide guidance and direction to teach in the classroom. This can be done by looking at the cooperating teacher’s teaching process, exploring how the teacher provides material, methods used, time management, and classroom management. The cooperating teacher will also assist in developing lesson plans. I can also consult about effective methods to attract students’ attention. this process becomes one of the keys to success for our teaching practice.

The third step is Teaching Experience. This step is a much-awaited thing and becomes the core activity of the practicum.

The fourth step is evaluation and reflection. Evaluation will be done once or twice during the implementation of teaching practice. Evaluations will be carried out by mentors and cooperating teachers. After being evaluated, the mentor and tutor teacher will reflect on the evaluation results to the participants. This is so that participants get feedback to improve and do better.

Outcomes of Practicum

All I can say is that I have learned so many things through this program. Not only how to teach but also many lessons of life. I have learned how to make friends with foreigners, learn how cultural differences still can make us friends, fascinated by the people in foreign countries. I have seen a beautiful country because of this program. 

But the most important thing is that I have learned that there are many ways of teaching procedures in this small world I have seen similarities and differences throughout my experience in Viet Nam because of the Sea-Teacher program. Not only that but also: the style of teaching, behaviours of students, tips and tricks to teach which is more valuable for me as a teacher candidate in the future. I could adopt many methods to make me a better teacher in the future.

The Challenges of Practicum

Honestly, the hardest part of the teaching practicum is the language gap. Some of the locals cannot speak English which makes the communication happen, but thankfully all the locals are kind and passionate with us. They use body language to show us what they mean. As for the teaching practice language gap is the main problem because few of the children can speak English, the only way is that I have to learn a few basic Vietnamese (which is very fun to learn).

Overall Impression

Overall, my teaching experience at Future School can be described with the word xuất sắc. xuất sắc means excellent. This program changed how I perceived everything. After spending enough time in another country, I see the world differently than before. This program also gave me new insights, knowledge, skills, and experiences to prepare me to be a teacher.

I cannot believe this program has ended. This program has taught me many things valuable for my future career in teaching. Honestly, I did not expect that I would be chosen for this. This experience was one of the most beautiful experiences in my life. This program is very educative in my opinion, because the most important part of learning is experience. 

Communication skill is one of the advantages of this program. For me the history department student, I DEFEATED MY FEAR! teaching history is difficult but teaching history in English it’s suicide. but it gave me the opportunity to practice my English with foreigners and that made my English communication skills become better and better. Thank you very much for letting me join this program.

 

Suggestions for Future Improvements

While I and the other delegates were at DThU, we were always assisted and accompanied by our buddy, so I hope our buddies are also given more attention. They are willing to be volunteers and help us voluntarily, this is very much something that needs to be appreciated. Therefore, I would like to say thank you very much to all parties, DThU, lecturers, history friends, and all buddies who have helped me.