Like every profession, teaching has an apprenticeship period. Before stepping into a classroom as the person in charge, aspiring teachers spend years preparing. They take courses in their subject field, study educational theory, learn about developmental psychology, and eventually reach the course that ties it all together: teaching practice.
Throughout their university education, student teachers follow a structured path. Field courses give them deep knowledge of their subject. Education courses teach them how learning works, how curricula are designed, and how to assess student progress. Psychology courses help them understand the minds of the young people they will be working with. But all of this remains theoretical until teaching practice begins.
Teaching practice is, in my view, the single most important course in a teacher's education. It is the first time all that theoretical knowledge meets real students in a real classroom. Everything changes in that moment. The neat lesson plans meet the unpredictable reality of thirty different minds, each with their own pace, their own struggles, their own way of engaging with the material.
Currently, teaching practice is limited to two semesters in the final year of the program. I believe this is far from enough. If we want to produce truly prepared teachers, this practical component should span at least two full years. Two semesters simply cannot provide enough exposure to the countless situations a teacher will face throughout their career.
Personal Experiences
During my own teaching practice at Ari Koleji elementary school, I had the chance to observe experienced teachers in action. I sat in the back of classrooms, took notes, and paid close attention to what worked and what did not. I watched how different teachers handled the same types of situations in completely different ways, some brilliantly and some poorly.
I noted the positive behaviors: the teacher who greeted every student by name at the door, the one who turned a wrong answer into a learning moment without making the student feel small, the one who somehow kept the energy in the room alive during a Friday afternoon lesson. These were the moments that no textbook could have taught me.
I also noted the negative behaviors, just as instructive in their own way. The teacher who lost patience and raised their voice, only to lose the class entirely. The one who stuck rigidly to the lesson plan even when it was clear nobody was following along. These observations were invaluable precisely because they showed the gap between what we learn in theory and what actually happens in a classroom.
The truth is, there is a massive difference between theory and practice. In a university lecture hall, everything is clean and organized. You study classroom management strategies and they all make perfect sense. But the moment you stand in front of a group of actual students, improvisation takes over. Each class has its own personality, its own dynamics, its own rhythm. What worked perfectly in one classroom falls flat in the next.
This is why I believe so strongly in extending the practical component of teacher education. You cannot learn to improvise from a textbook. You cannot learn to read a room from a PowerPoint slide. These skills come only through experience, through being in the classroom day after day, making mistakes, adjusting, and gradually finding your own voice as a teacher.
In the end, I came away with one clear conviction: the method of teaching is more important than the knowledge itself. A teacher who knows everything about their subject but cannot convey it effectively is no teacher at all. And a teacher who may not know every last detail but who can inspire curiosity, encourage questions, and make students feel seen will leave a lasting mark on every student they teach.