Student Teachers' Preparedness for Classroom Interaction During Teaching Practice: University of Zululand Supervisors' Perspectives.

Classroom interaction during teaching practice is the crucial aspect that shapes schools' teaching and learning enterprise. Student teachers must develop their lesson plan guided by classroom interaction as one of the teaching styles similar to those observed from mentors. This exploratory case study was underpinned by a qualitative approach to better understand their experiences and context. The sample consisted of university supervisors who were selected from the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa. Using thematic analysis, narrative reflections, and one-on-one structured interviews with 17 university supervisors were analysed. Findings revealed that most student teachers failed to integrate classroom interaction when teaching, while some relied on question and answer method to implement classroom interaction. This study recommends that students first be exposed to laboratory simulated lessons capable of helping them acclimatise to classroom interaction dynamics. Also, student teachers should be introduced to more dynamics of the question and answer teaching method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]