2004 Volume 13 Pages 122-132
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether college students were able to test their aptitude and to find their own problems in preparing for teaching profession through participation in the "Manabi (learning) Club", which is a practical, experiential program working with children through the academic year.
Friendship projects have been developed in teacher training courses across the country. And the results of many have been reported. However, there seems to be two points left unanalyzed.
First, there has been no examination of whether or not the students have developed a flexible ability to respond to various children through the project. Second, the extent to which practical experience with children helps students to find out whether the profession is right for them and to identify their own problems to be tackled has not been explained.
Therefore, we tried to shed light on these questions by using data generated from students' assignments such as reflection cards, self-evaluation cards, review meetings, the "Manabi Club" symposium and so on.
We found that these programs give the students the opportunity to work with children, helping them to understand children, fostering both ability to build a better relation with others and self-understanding of whether to go on into the profession, and promoting understanding of what the teaching profession is and of their aspiration toward it.
