Perceptions of Prospective Teachers about Effectiveness & Professional Development of Practicum

Teaching is an art and teaching practice is the key element of teachers training, but presently in the 4 years Professional Development Program, Practicum replaced teaching practice. A prominent feature of the B.Ed. (Hons) Elementary Program upcoming is practice teaching also known as the Practicum. Practicum is a university course intended to give a prospective teacher skilled oriented education of a subject earlier studied in theory. The basic purpose of it is to produce professional development, abilities, and skills of the prospective teachers. But those consequences are not obtained from this as being expected. How it occurs that quality teachers are not produced? In this research, the effects of the practicum will be discussed and try to understand that what role practicum is playing on the professional development of prospective teachers. In the light of the recommendation of this research, the objectives of Practicum will be obtained and develop the professionalism in prospective teachers. The study is conducted through quantitative approach, passed out prospective teachers of the University of Karachi and affiliated colleges B.Ed. (4 years program) are selected as population and 100 prospective teachers is selected as a sample through random and convenient sampling. and opinionnaire is used as a research tool for authentic data collection and the collected data analyzed by Chi-square and in the light of results, recommendations are placed.