Am I Planning well? Teacher Trainees’ Voices on Lesson Planning

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to explore the first lesson planning experience of the teacher trainees’ and identify their reactions. The participants of the study are 150 second year teacher trainees studying at the English Language Teaching (ELT) department at Uludağ University, Turkey. The data is collected by means of examining the lesson plans of the teacher trainees and the analysis of their comments. It is determined that lesson planning experience has a positive impact upon the teacher trainees and it enables them feel like real teachers. However, the results emphasize that when planning, teacher trainees face with problems like formulating objectives and selecting appropriate activities for certain stages. Main challenges include teacher trainees’ hesitations about the process, timing difficulties, problems in sequencing and selecting activities, providing effective transitions and finding sources.