International Teaching Internship: Development of Pre-Service Teachers’ Competences

Abstract

Teachers’ competences should be shaped from a very early stage of their training (Mâţă, Cmeciu, & Ghiaţău, 2013). For that reason, pre-service teachers are required to get involved in teaching internships and gain professional experience from training programs and workshops. These experiences are assets for these pre-service teachers when they resume teaching positions upon graduation. The present narrative study, therefore, aims to investigate the benefits of international teaching internship, known as South-East Asian Teacher (henceforth SEA-Teacher Program) on Indonesian pre-service English teachers’ identity and competence development. There were four male and four female participants of SEA-Teacher program participated in the study. The data for this study was generated through in-depth semi-structured phone and email interviews. The study reveals that this program has developed personal competences of the pre-service teachers, in which they improve self-confidence, coping mechanisms, and time management skill. The “SEA-Teacher” also improved pre-service teachers’ professional competences, such as development of communicative competence, pedagogical skills, new worldviews on education, career goals and new opportunities. The program also benefited these pre-service teachers’ understanding of different cultures, strengthening global-networking and promoting respect. The findings also indicated that SEA Teachers’ competences need to be further developed. Given the significant relationship between teaching competences and teaching internship at international level, it is necessary to promote the SEA-Teacher personal and professional competence. These competences are advised to be reinforced, with more emphasis on weaker domains.