THE ROLE OF SELF-OBSERVATION IN INITIAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

Self-observation is considered to be an important part of the teacher's professional development. This study aims to gain an insight into the role of self-observation in initial teacher education. The study attempts to answer the following questions: 1. What aspects of teaching are in the focus of student teachers' self-observation?; 2. Upon what criteria do student teachers evaluate the efficiency of their own teaching?; 3. For which aspects of teaching do student teachers most often report the need for improvement and change?; 4. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards self-observation practice in teacher preparation programmes? Twenty-six student teachers of English language and literature at a Croatian university took part in this study. The study was made during the course Practicum and Teaching Practice. Two instruments were used in this study: a self-observation sheet and a questionnaire. The self-observation sheet consisted of the general part and four key questions. The questionnaire consisted of nine items accompanied by a five-point Likert scale. The aim of the questionnaire was to find student teachers' attitudes towards self-observation as an activity in the process of becoming a teacher. Each student filled-in three observation sheets during his/her teaching practice. Seventy-eight sheets were collected. The students filled-in a self-observation sheet a day after they delivered a lesson. The questionnaire was filled in by 22 student teachers upon the accomplishment of their teaching practice. The data collected by self-observation sheets were analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods. The questionnaire data were analysed by the methods of descriptive statistics. The findings show that the organisation of the activities for the improvement of four language skills and the organisation of the activities for introducing new language structures are in the focus of student teachers' self-observation. Student teachers most often evaluate the efficiency of their teaching on the basis of the learners' engagement and learners' success in the performance of an activity. Participants in this study most often report the need to improve their lesson planning in terms of task-design and the choice of the teaching materials. The results of the questionnaire show that students report that self-observation helped them most to understand the impact of their teaching on the students, to reflect critically on their own teaching, and to evaluate their own lessons.