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Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers’ Beliefs




               are ‘energy-free’ (Betul, Int.) and not ‘willing to do anything new’ (Emel, Post-M). According to the
               PTs, teachers are contended with the flow of the teaching process and resist on not bringing something
               new to the classroom.
                  The last concept of post-images defined by the PTs was teaching. PTs referred to English language
               teaching as teaching the world, mostly, as they did in the early-images. By relating the concept of teach-
               ing the world and the teaching English, PTs highlighted the importance of learning English in the global
               context. Similar to teaching as teaching the world metaphor, PTs referred to teaching as raising a child.
               PTs considered that ‘learning is an onerous process and it takes a lot of time just like raising a child’.
               While defining teaching through metaphors in the post-images, PTs defined teaching as cooking and
               art as they did in the early images with similar explanations in terms its nature as a ‘coherent context of
               experience’ (Tuğba, Post-M) and a ‘gradual process’ (Gulcin, Post-M).
                  PTs reflected on their perceptions of being a PT, teachers of English and teaching profession both
               before and after the practice teaching experience. In terms of overall content analysis, it was observed
               that PTs found it difficult to reflect on their role as a prospective teacher before they attended the prac-
               tice teaching. Although PTs were given the same data collection tool at the end of the practice teaching
               experience, it was observed that the descriptors used by the PTs to define their role increased and PTs
               used an increased number of secondary concepts that do not play a primary role in teaching to define
               their role in the practice teaching course.

               Interviews


               In this section, the change (or lack of change) in the beliefs of the prospective EFL teachers in terms of
               self, teachers and teaching will be reported. The data analyses of the interviews were conducted after
               completing the verbatim transcription of the interviews. The findings based on the influencing factors
               were examined and discussed.

               Change (or Lack of Change) Throughout the Practice Teaching Course


               The findings showed that some PTs reported on a stable understanding of their experience throughout
               the course, whereas some of the PTs reflected on the difference in their understanding of the profession
               which could be ascribed to a number of reasons. The influencing factors of change or lack of change
               were addressed by the PTs as the context of practice teaching and the independence of the PTs during
               practice teaching experience. The two concepts were very closely related to each other and were difficult
               to distinguish. In addition to the conceptual change in the professional learning processes of PTs, they
               considered a number of facilitating reasons for them to monitor their professional learning and imped-
               ing factors affected their understanding of the practice teaching process. By referring to the context of
               professional learning experience, PTs were worried about their role as they were treated as students
               rather than prospective teachers.

               The mentors I observed were very kind and nice to me; however, [rather than a professional], they
               treated me like a student… It was true but they should have considered the fact that I will become a
               teacher soon.(Seda, Int.)






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