Relationship Between Student-Teachers’ Personal Characteristics And Anxiety Towards Teaching Practice. A Case Of University Of Kabianga And Laikipia University, Kenya

Abstract

Teaching Practice (TP) also called Practice Teaching is the working of a student-teacher in a real classroom setting to gain teaching experience. TP is important for students’ professional development and has been steadily gaining ground since the publication of the Coleman report in the nineteen sixties. Many student teachers are said to experience anxiety towards teaching practice exercise which interferes with their performance. In Kenya few studies have been done concerning student teachers anxiety towards TP and learner demographic factors. This study investigated university student teachers’ anxiety levels towards TP with the view for mitigating against anxieties and finding out how anxiety relates with learner demographic factors. Two Kenyan universities; University of Kabianga and Laikipia University were involved in this study. Research design was descriptive-correlational research design while research method was cross-sectional analytical survey. A questionnaire was administered online and it comprised of two sections; student teacher characteristics (demographic factors) and TP anxiety (Student Teacher Anxiety Scale (STAS). Student-teacher factors and anxiety were determined through SPSS analytical tool. Relationship between TP anxieties and demographic factors was determined through three-way analysis of variance (Anova). The findings indicated high levels of TP anxiety in the category of evaluation and no relationship between TP anxiety and demographic information availed during the study.