An Ideal Classroom as Depicted by Pre-service English Teachers - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 16, 2 (2024) 21–35

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2024-0014

Abstract. Recently, more and more studies have focused on analysing the development of teacher trainees in order to examine the influence of their past experiences on learning and teaching, to follow trainees’ professional identity development, and to see how teacher training courses and actual teaching experiences contribute to trainees’ transformative learning.

The present article discusses teacher trainees’ envisioning of their ideal future lesson.Data was collected in February 2022, at a time when teacher trainees were still ahead of their English teaching methodology course. Trainees’ visual and written narratives reveal that they are able to visualize a future ideal class most often relying on their previous language learning experiences. Trainees’ narratives were analysed focusing on the way they see themselves as teachers, how they imagine an ideal learning environment, and how they depict classroom interaction.

The obtained results imply that the main aim of trainees’ ideal lesson is to create a pleasant, stress-free learning environment so that their learners not be anxious or afraid to share their ideas and express themselves.

Keywords: teacher trainees, transformative learning, visual narratives, teacher identity