Abstract:
Teacher education programs are designed to develop professionals who are prepared to
meet the challenges of the 21st century classrooms and workplace. To this end, the
teacher education program must aim to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes of
pre-service teachers to prepare them to teach effectively in the schools systems. It is,
therefore, argued that the academic program of the teacher education should be coupled
with an important and integral component called school -based experiences i.e.
practicum which provides students with supervised experiences and help the student
teachers to understand the full scope of teachers role. Many have also suggested that
these experiences are very powerful in shaping pre-service teachers as they are real in
contrast to the artificial environment of the tertiary education courses. Hence, the
purpose of this paper is to address the need of and justification for school based
practicum experience. Attempt was also made to show the current debates and future
direction of practicum in teacher education.
