GÖRSEL SANATLAR ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ ÖĞRETMENLİK UYGULAMASI İLE İLGİLİ GÖRÜŞLERİ
VISUAL ARTS TEACHER CANDIDATES’ VIEWS ON TEACHING PRACTICE Teaching Practice is the most important and most effective practice course offered in the teacher training program of the education faculties. The Teaching Practice course is carried out as a course of two hours of theory and six hours of practice during the second semester of teacher candidates’ final year. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the problems, experiences and observations of visual arts teacher candidates encounter during their teaching practice in middle schools. The study group consists of a total of 37 4th year visual arts teacher candidates majoring in Art Education of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University’s Education Faculty. In this study, the data obtained from the teaching practice courses carried out in 11 different middle schools in Niğde city center during the 2018-2019 academic year were used. After completing the 12-week (72-hour) teaching practice period, visual arts teacher candidates were administered interview forms consisting of six questions on the evaluation of the teaching prcatice process. The data were evaluated using the descriptive analysis method, one of the qualitataive research methods. According to the most important study findings, teacher candidates improved themselves greatly in classroom management, and their self-confidence and communication skills increased. The findings also show that this process a challenging one for students who have anxiety in their 4th year over being appointed as teachers in the future and therefore focus on the big exam. The study suggests that Teaching Practice can be gradually increased starting from lower grades, and that students’ days at some of the practice schools do not need to be divided into two days by increasing the teaching hours of practice teachers.

Keywords
Teaching Practice, Visual Arts, Painting