Abstract

Education plays an important role in the development of an individual's competency in accomplishing being learned in a competitive era. The role of teachers in nation building cannot be overstressed, this is because teachers are professional educators who have the primary duty to impart, to teach, to guide, to direct, to train, and to evaluate students from early childhood to secondary education level. The study examined teaching practice exercise: sustaining its impact in the training and development of pre-service teachers in senior secondary schools in Atiba local government, Oyo. A self-developed students' questionnaire was used to access information from the students. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select one hundred and twenty (120) chemistry students were selected from 300 level in the Department of Chemistry, School of Secondary Education (Science Programmes), Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo. The self-designed students' questionnaire was subjected to face, content and construct validity. Pilot test was conducted and data obtained was calculated using Cronbach alpha to obtain 7.2 reliability co-efficiency. Simple percentage was used to analyse the data. The findings of this study revealed that teaching practice has exposed the pre-service teachers to the problems and prospect of the teaching profession. It has also made training teachers learn how to plan, prepare and present their lessons. The study recommends among many others that Government should motivate students and teachers to be more committed and also that more attention should be paid to teaching practice as core aspect of teacher education.

Keywords: Teaching Practice, Chemistry, Performance, Education, Pre-service