EFFECT OF VITAMINS C AND E INTAKE ON BLOOD ... - EuroJournals

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Volume 2, Number I (2006)
of how to teach and, for some, unease with teaching practice as a whole. To understand this, it has to
be noted that many of the students in the teacher education of the programme of the University, and
indeed other federal universities in the country, are virtually forced to be in the programme after failing
to secure admission into the programmes of their first choice. Owing to the low social status of the
teaching profession in Nigeria, only very few candidates seek admission into university faculties of
education. In this university, at least two out of every five students in the teacher education
programme would initially have sought for admission in other faculties especially the Faculties of
Social Science, Science, Arts and Environmental Management to read such courses as accountancy,
economics, geology, computer science, and so forth, which lead to jobs that attract higher incomes and
social status than does teaching and when they are unsuccessful, would apply to the Faculty of
Education as a last resort.
On being offered admission, such students enter the teacher education programme in order to
secure a foothold in the university in the first instance and later on transfer to other faculties, or even
retake the University Matriculation Examination, in their efforts to read the course of interest to them.
Thus, a good number of students in the teacher education programme in the University have no
genuine interest in the programme ab initio. Entering the programme with little or no interest in the
teaching profession, little or no attempts will be made by the student teachers either to immerse
themselves in the practicum or aspire to develop any professional skills. Consequently, their concern
for their pupils’ learning will be limited. The need for reviewing the process of selecting candidates
for teacher education is, therefore, indicated.
This lack of interest in the programme is reflected in the responses of 23 of the subjects of this
study who claimed that they had no concerns about teaching practice or who stated some concerns that
were not related to teaching practice. Typical of such unrelated concern statements were: ‘the problem
of transferring to another faculty’; ‘missing part of the holiday period’, and ‘how to improve on my
grade point average’. The concern with the grade point average invariably has more to do with the
students’ acceptability in the faculties or departments to which they would like to transfer than with
their performance in the teacher education programme. Naturally, one has concerns for activities or
situations which are important to oneself.
Teaching experience and types of concern
It was found in this study, there was no difference in the types of concerns expressed by those students
who had previous teaching practice experience and those who did not. This is in spite of the fact that
over half of the students, especially those who entered the programme after graduating from Colleges
of Education, had gone on teaching practice exercise three or more times previously with each exercise
lasting not less than six weeks.
This could also be accounted for in terms of the finding of Katz’s (1972) study, when even veternan
teachers are placed in new teaching situations, they revert to earlier stages of development. This,
according to him, is because in unfamiliar environments survival concerns become more prominent
than higher order concerns. It could be that those with previous teaching practice experience were as
equally concerned with their placement in new teaching situations as those without teaching pratictice
experience. Another possible explanation could be that the teacher education programmes in some
Nigerian Colleges of Education and that of the university involved in this study do not lay adequate
emphasis on pupils’ learning. It could also be that teacher educators do not offer student teachers
adequate opportunities to develop the right attitudes and skills to address this task.
The minor differences between those with previous practice experience and those without it in
regard to the ranking of their concerns for transportation and accommodation came as no surprise
because it is expected that some of the student teachers who had not had the practicum experience in
the university and has not addressed issues of transportation and accommodation associated with it,
would be more anxious about them that those that had had the experience.
85