Effectiveness of Teaching Practice Supervision as Perceived by Student-Teachers in Ilorin Metropolis, Nigeria

Teaching practice is central to achieving the goals of teacher education. It provides student-teachers needed experience in real teaching and learning environment. This study examined student-teachers perception of the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision. The quantitative descriptive method was employed to conduct the study. Random sampling technique was employed to sample 150 student-teachers at the 400 level of a university in the metropolis. A researchers-designed questionnaire titled “Student-teachers’ Perception of the Effectiveness of Teaching Practice Supervision Questionnaire (STPETPSQ)” was used for data collection, with descriptive and inferential statistics used for data analysis. Findings revealed that the majority of the student-teachers perceived teaching practice supervision as effective for improving students’ teaching knowledge and skills. There was no significant difference was established in the perception of student-teachers on the basis of departments. It was recommended that teaching practice supervision should be improved upon to assist student-teachers to adopt appropriate and varied teaching methods.

Teaching practice is central to achieving the goals of teacher education. It provides student-teachers needed experience in real teaching and learning environment. This study examined student-teachers perception of the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision. The quantitative descriptive method was employed to conduct the study. Random sampling technique was employed to sample 150 student-teachers at the 400 level of a university in the metropolis. A researchers-designed questionnaire titled "Student-teachers' Perception of the Effectiveness of Teaching Practice Supervision Questionnaire (STPETPSQ)" was used for data collection, with descriptive and inferential statistics used for data analysis. Findings revealed that the majority of the student-teachers perceived teaching practice supervision as effective for improving students' teaching knowledge and skills. There was no significant difference was established in the perception of student-teachers on the basis of departments. It was recommended that teaching practice supervision should be improved upon to assist student-teachers to adopt appropriate and varied teaching methods.

Keywords:
Teaching Practice Student-Teachers Effectiveness Supervision Teacher Education

Introduction
 Teaching as a process of education is usually defined with reference to learning. To teach is to help another person learn as it is concerned with the task of bringing about understanding and knowledge. In teaching, the teacher describes, explains, questions, evaluates, urges, sometimes threatens and cajoles, so as to achieve learning objectives. A teacher basically carries out the process of teaching. A teacher is a professional who imparts skills, knowledge, information, attitude among others to the learner. A teacher is someone who has a thorough understanding of a particular body of knowledge or skill and has the capability to transfer the knowledge to a group of learners (Shukla, 2014). A teacher goes through a long period of socialised training and is regarded as a moral instructor, educator and a model for his or her learners (Akinpelu, 2013).
For an individual to be a teacher or practice the teaching profession, such a person must undergo the teacher training programme at a teacher training institutes such as colleges of education or universities. The teaching practice exercise plays a central role in achieving the general goals of teacher education. It is a form of internship for professional teachers, a statutory and mandatory professional requirement for entering into the teaching career (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013). Teaching practice is a practical programme in which students or trainees are posted to schools, normally lower than their institutions of learning, to teach the subject(s) in their specialisations for a specified period. During the period, student-teachers assume the position of subject-teachers and at the same time engage in all lawful assignments given by the cooperating school authorities (Kumar & Azad, 2016).

Literature Review
Teaching practice can be regarded as a skill development exercise involving clinical therapy, designed to diagnose, remediate and sharpen student-teachers' teaching knowledge and competencies (Young & Edwards, 2013). It is an avenue for developing and understanding the cognitive knowledge, skills and attitudes related to the teaching profession. It offers an opportunity to test and establish the needed links between the theoretical ideas which the student-teachers have learnt, and the procedures and practices under actual classroom conditions. A studentteacher can also be called 'pupil-teacher' or 'practice-teacher' because they practice teaching under actual classroom conditions with the guidance of a certified teacher. Teaching practice is the most important experience in teacher education programme and is generally based on a country's National Education Policy (Aglazor, 2017).
Teaching Practice allows student-teachers the opportunity to observe experienced teachers about implementing teaching skills, strategies and classroom achievements. Also, it is a period that affords them to evaluate their experiences in teaching through interactions with in-service teachers and lecturers and, through self-reflection, by implementing a range of approaches, strategies and skills with a view to achieve meaningful learning (Komba & Kira, 2013). Furthermore, teaching practice prepares students for optimal practical and professional training in the field of education. Student-teachers would be afforded the prospect to providing an experience through involvement and observation under the supports of the schools to which students are attached, and providing professional skills which are developed through planned programmes so as to meet and gratify the needs of the profession as well as the atmosphere to which the students are being prepared for.
During teaching practice exercise, lecturers from the teacher training institutions are expected to supervise/monitor the student-teachers in other to ensure that certain standards and objectives are met. Teaching practice programme at any higher institution is a well-structured programme designed to provides opportunities for aspiring teachers to develop instructional competence and evaluate in an actual classroom within a classroom or school settings (Aglazor, 2017). Supervision entails giving direction, overseeing and guiding to make sure that expected standards are met. Supervision is a process of making suggestions and guiding personnel for better and effective productivity. Supervision in education is a combination of supervisory beliefs and educational philosophies with the purpose of building trust, empowering teachers and fostering reflection (Blasé & Blasé, 2014). Supervision, therefore, refers to use of experience and expertee for improving teaching and learning activities in schools through oversight activities, evaluation and coordination. Supervision deals with ensuring that established regulations, rules, principles, and appropriate methods are employed to effectively implement and achieve the educational objectives (Igwe, 2011).
Instructional supervision is a process that focuses on instruction and provides teachers with information about their teaching so as to develop instructional skills to improve performance (Asta, Jolanta & Mangona, 2015). Teaching practice supervisors make use of certain strategies such as lesson plan preparation, lesson presentation, instructional resources, teacher-student relationship, classroom management, and personality of the teacher. Effective supervision requires welltrained personnel with knowledge, interpersonal skills and technical skills that are prepared to provide necessary and appropriate guidance and support to the teaching staff (Goethals & Howard, 2010). Effective supervisor possesses the following characteristics: situationally aware of details and undercuts in the school; intellectual stimulation of current theories and practices; a change agent; and, actively involves teachers in designing and implementing important decisions and policies (Glanz, Shulman & Sullivan, 2016).
For supervision effectiveness, clearly sets out the criteria for the evaluative results are set out so that a supervisor follows the process that ensures that in the event of the final assessment being negative the teacher still benefits from the supervision exercise and with the self-esteem intact (Brennen, 2016). For effective supervision to take place, the supervisors must: provide regular on-site observation of student teachers' teaching performance; help student teachers to develop lesson plan which encourage an activity-based approach; assess the student teacher's performance based on pre-established teacher performance standards; interact with student teachers about their teaching experience and their progress; and evaluate the teaching practice process as a whole. Teaching practice as a programme is faced with different challenges as identified by scholars in the field of teacher education. One of such weakness is poor supervision by college-based supervisors, subjective grading and poor feedback (Maduabum & Abah, 2010); and lack of team work and coordinated work order by the training colleges and the cooperating schools (Ogonor & Badmus, 2016). As such, there are conflicting reports by student-teachers on the benefits of the supervisory process during the teaching practice exercise. Rosemary, Richard and Ngara (2013) in their study solicited for the perceptions of student-teachers on teaching practice supervision.
The findings of their study revealed that student-teachers view teaching practice supervision as mainly useful in giving them guidance in critical aspect of teaching, motivating them and boosting their confidence to teach. Ong'ondo and Borg (2011) on the other hand studied the perception of student-teachers on teaching practice supervision. They reported that student-teachers viewed supervision process as brief, un-coordinated and that the feedbacks studentteachers received were mainly evaluative, directive and focused on general, rather than subject-specific pedagogy. This study examined the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision as perceived by student-teachers' in Ilorin, Nigeria. By so doing, the following research questions were raised: i. What is the perception of student-teachers' on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision? ii. Will there be a difference in the perception of student-teachers' on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision based on departments?

Research Hypothesis
Ho 1 : There is no significant difference in the perception of student-teachers' on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision based on department.

Methodology
This study was a descriptive survey research design. All undergraduates' in the Faculty of Education in tertiary institutions in Ilorin served as the population for this study. Target population was undergraduates of Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin. 400 level undergraduates were purposively sampled because they have completed their teaching practice exercise. Stratified sampling technique was employed to group respondents based on their Departments. There are 9 Departments in Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin. Random sampling technique was used to select 5 Departments. 30 undergraduates were randomly selected in the sampled departments to make a total number of 150 respondents.
A researcher-designed questionnaire with a content validity was determined by experts in teacher education who scrutinised the items and made possible alteration and suggestions needed to elicit information for this study. The testretest reliability method was used with a sample of 50 respondents within two weeks' interval. The scores of the two tests were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient and a reliability index of 0.83 was obtained. The questionnaire comprised two sections. Section A gathered information on the demographic characteristics of respondents. Section B elicited information on effectiveness of teaching practice supervision as perceived by student-teachers. The grand mean value was used to answer research question 1, while ANOVA statistics was employed to test the research hypothesis formulated at 0.05 alpha level. The data was run with a Statistical Package Sciences (SPSS 24.0) Windows version.

Answering Research Questions
Research Question 1: What is the perception of student-teachers' on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision?
Given that items on perception were structured on a four-response-type, participants responses were subjected to mean statistics. The mean scores of all the items were obtained and subjected to the grand mean. Thus, the grand mean equal or above 2.50 (benchmark score) signifies positive perception, while the grand mean below 2.50 indicates negative perception. The statistics is shown in Table 1. Effective supervision encourages student-teacher to always develop themselves intellectually.

2.28
2 Effective teaching practice supervision helps in developing prospective teachers' understanding of the roles of a teacher.

3
Effective teaching practice supervision helps to build student teachers confidence.

2.22
4 Effective teaching practice supervision influence student teachers' dedication to the teaching profession.

5
For effective supervision to take place, the supervisors must interact with student-teachers about their teaching experience and their progress  Table 1 indicates that 150 respondents participated in the study. Responses to items that sought information on student-teachers' perception on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision in Ilorin, Kwara State revealed that the perception of student-teachers on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision in Ilorin was positive because the benchmark grand mean score recorded was 3.44 which is above the benchmark weighted (2.50) mean score. This implies that there is a positive perception of student-teachers' effectiveness of teaching practice supervision.

Hypothesis Testing
The ANOVA statistics was employed to test the null hypothesis postulated for the study.
Ho 1 : There is no significant difference in the perception of student-teachers' on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision based on department.
In order to test this research hypothesis, respondents were collated based on student-teachers' departments. The data collected from the study was analysed with ANOVA and the result is shown in Table 2.  Table 2 shows an F-value .558 with calculated significant .644 at 0.05 alpha level. Since calculated significance .644 is greater than 0.05 alpha level, the hypothesis is thus retained. This implies that no significant difference was established in the perception of student-teachers on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision on the basis of their department.

Discussion
The first finding of this study revealed that there was a positive perception on student-teachers' effectiveness of teaching practice supervision in Ilorin, Kwara State. This finding supports that of Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu (2010) and Rosemary, Richard and Ngara (2013) that student-teachers have positive perception of educational supervision on their professional development. This can be asserted because teacher educators have found out that teaching practice serves as the most significant factor in shaping of student-teachers experience to be a teacher. However, the findings of this study is in contrary with Ong'ondo and Borg (2011) who reported that student-teachers viewed the supervision process as brief, un-coordinated and that the feedbacks student-teachers received were mainly evaluative, directive and focused on general, rather than subject-specific pedagogy.
The second finding of this study revealed that there was no significant difference in the perception of student-teachers on the effectiveness of teaching practice supervision on the basis of their department. This finding is at par with the findings of Quick and Siebörger (2005) who reported that student-teachers' departments do not have influence on their opinion on effective teaching practice supervision.

Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, effective supervisions can be attained when the focus of the invigilators/supervisors is not general but subject-based pedagogy. Also, there should be a form of interaction between supervisors and student-teachers before supervision commences. In most cases, student-teachers feel so threatened that no matter how prepared they are, they would not perform to expectation when supervisors are present and this in turn could affect the effectiveness of the teaching practise programme. Based on the results of this findings, it was recommended that; i. teaching practice supervision should assist student-teachers in understanding the curriculum, and adopt appropriate and adequate teaching methods. ii. during teaching practice supervision, student-teachers should be assisted to identify and understand the characteristics of their students.
Teaching practice supervision should expose student-teachers to various and current assessment techniques.