Pre-Service Teachers' Expectations and Evaluations of Childcare Practice

The purpose of this study is to find out what pre-service teachers' expectations and positive and negative evaluations of childcare practice are. The participants of the study were 48 4th grade students majoring in child psychology and education. The survey was conducted before and after childcare practice. As a result of frequency analysis of the responses, expectations for childcare practice were 96 responses in 6 categories, of which ‘career aptitude exploration’ was the most frequent. As for the evaluations of childcare practice, the positive evaluations were 69 responses in 9 categories, of which ‘emotional interaction with children’ was particularly frequent. And the negative evaluations were 75 responses in 20 categories, of which ‘physical fatigue’ was the most frequent. This study suggests that pre-service teachers expected to learn a lot and acquire values from the practice, but they experienced more negative aspects than positive aspects in the practice process. The results of this study can be used as a basis for finding ways to improve the efficiency of childcare practice.