a study on internship: a pathological study of internship from the perspective of teacher trainees in farhangian university of east azerbaijan

Despite ideal descriptions of internship, as the linking loop of theory and practice of teaching, and regardless of the efficiency expectations about the effectiveness of teacher trainees’ internship programs, this area of teacher training is still suffering from some problems and unwantedly faces some serious challenges for various reasons. due to the pivotal role of teacher trainees, as the forerunners and one of the main stakeholders of the educational system of the country in the near future, the present descriptive survey study, has taken a pathological perspective towards internship from the viewpoint of student teachers. therefore, in order to collect the data for the study, an explanatory session was held for a total number of 31 teacher trainees studying at farhangian university of east azerbaijan in the first and second semester of the academic year 1397-1398. the sample was selected using convenience sampling procedure, and at the end of the two semesters, the participants were asked to provide their written answers to the question of “the problems and challenges of internship 1-4”. the answers were analyzed/ coded, and based on their source; the problems were categorized into the following five broad domains according to their frequency rate, respectively: a) the administrators, staff, and teacher mentors of internship schools; b) educational curriculum, and report-based procedure of internship; supervising internship professors; the physical and social setting of internship school; and the teacher trainees themselves. the results of this study may have implications for improving internship programs and procedures currently used at farhangian university.