AN INVESTIGATION OF ENGLISH STUDENT-TEACHERS’ CONSTRAINTS DURING TEACHING INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Teaching internship is designed to help student transition process in becoming a teacher. The internship gives the students opportunity to put their theoretical studies into practice while being evaluated for their teaching capabilities by a supervisor. The objective of this study is to investigate the constraints faced by student-teachers during teaching internship program. The study employed the qualitative method with a case study as its research strategy. A total of 26 students who involved in the teaching internship program at Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of Syiah Kuala year 2016/2017 participated in this study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the sample. The data were collected by using questionnaire before being analyzed with Miles and Huberman’s data inductive analysis. The result from questionnaire shows that there were fourteen constraints faced by student-teachers during teaching internship program. The constraints were mainly in the domains of personal, class participation, class management, instructional, emotional, adjusting to students, and supervision. As teaching practice is an important component of teachers training program, considerable attention is needed for a more effective and fruitful outcome. Therefore, this study suggests that the cooperation of the Faculty and schools in terms of supervision needs to be improved in order to optimize the outcome of the program.


INTRODUCTION
Teaching and learning is an important factor of human life. By definition, teaching is an action of helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instruction, guiding in the study of something, providing knowledge, causing to know or understand (Brown, 1994). The definition implies that the process of teaching and learning is a complicated process that includes various variables and factors that influence each other. One of the significant issues within teaching and learning is the way of training and educating teachers. That idea suggests that teachers' quality will affect the students learning. Leigh and Mead (2002) explained that teachers' knowledge and skills are one of the most vital factors that influence children's learning. Therefore, efforts have been made to improve the quality of professional teachers. On the other hand, the issue on teacher's quality has become an important object of many studies. All of these efforts are aimed to develop and increase the quality of teacher in Indonesia in general, specifically in the Aceh Province. Regarding this issue of increasing the quality of teachers through education and training, Aceh has many universities that offer the teacher training and education program. establishing the teaching internship program, called Magang (internship). This program is intended to provide an opportunity for students, as candidate of teachers, to practice their knowledge that was learned and acquired from theories and discussion during the class in the previous 3 or 4 years. As supported by Kiggundu and Nayimuli (2009) explained that the purpose of the teaching internship program is to give the student-teacher the opportunity to try the art of teaching before actually getting into the real world of the teaching profession. Magang is actually aimed to serve one of the Faculty missions, the fourth mission, which was to consolidate and expand the relationship with other educational institutions upon the development of science, knowledge and technology.
The evaluation is performed by several divisions, including the faculty supervisor, the supervising teacher, and the principal of the school. There are various aspects that are evaluated in Magang Program, including attendance, punctuality, discipline, performance, comprehension, teaching performance, and the ability in writing the internship report. The main principle of the Magang program is the development of self-evaluation, which means that students are able to evaluate themselves in order to develop their understanding and capability to overcome emerging problems in the future.
In Indonesia, the government has also paid attention on teacher quality. It shows in the government's policy, Law No. 20 of 2003, regarding the National Education System. It was stated that every teacher must be qualified and certified as well as having a good physical and mental health to serve the goal of education in Indonesia. In regard to the government's concern, Mardiyono (2006) stated that one of the educational program is the Teaching Internship Program or widely called Praktek Pengalaman Lapangan (PPL), and recently it is called Magang.
Magang practice has its own obstacles. The problems mainly occur due to the condition of students, teachers, classroom, also the stakeholders involved. Pomerantz and Pierce (2004) revealed that some of the challenges experienced by student-teachers in the "real world" are ironically lies in the teaching practice itself.
In Addition, Morrow and Lane (1983) investigate the perception of the faculty supervisors, the supervising teachers, and the studentteachers concerning the instructional problems regarding the teaching internship program. "Discipline, classroom control, motivation, and getting students interested are found to be main sources of concern for student-teachers". Meanwhile, Laruan (2006) stated that the problems and difficulties student-teachers encountered during their teaching practice are mainly about personal problems, teacher's preparation, class participation, class management, instructional, evaluation process, emotional problems, adjusting to students, school adjustments, over extended and workload problems, and guidance. These problems discouraged the teachers and felt strange in their professions.
According to Rachmawati (2009), there were some problems faced by student-teachers during the program, such as difficulties in developing lesson plan or syllabus: choosing and developing materials; and teaching performance: adapting and socializing with students, transferring knowledge, and supervision. Veeman (1984,) focused on "classroom discipline, motivating students, dealing with individual differences, assessing students' works, relationships with their parents, the organization of class work, insufficient and/or inadequate teaching materials and supplies, and dealing with problems of individual students".
Inevitably, such problems also occur in the magang program of FKIP at University of Syiah Kuala. Thus, it is urgent to identify the problems that are faced during the program hence then the appropriate treatment can be given to eliminate or minimize them. Realizing the urgency of the issue, this study attempts to detect and investigate the constraints faced by the student-teachers during the teaching internship program.
Teaching practice is the most stressful component in teaching for the majority of the student-teachers. Therefore, a study should be conducted to understand the student-teachers' experience in teaching for the first time in order to investigate problems encountered by English student-teachers during the teaching internship program at Junior High School.

Teaching Internship and Its Roles in Teacher Education Program
Teaching internship is one of the most important elements in teacher education program. Clark and Cutler (1990, p. 7) stated that "teaching practice is the central point of the teacher education". According to them, student-teachers have the opportunity to put into practice all the theories that they have learnt into the real classroom situation. The internship is the chance for students who are learning to be a teacher to experiment new things of school real life situation.
Many studies have admitted the importance of the practice in teacher education program. In many teacher education programs, teaching practice is a compulsory course for all students as it is an integral part of the teacher's professional development even though the nature, length and frequency of the practice varies from one institution to another (Richards & Crookes, 1988). Since it is the most important component of teacher education, a lot of time and attention is required to ensure that student-teachers who participate in the course are well prepared, physically, and mentally. This is because the experience gained from the field is crucial and valuable in the learning process and in developing the understanding the profession. Furthermore, the quality of teaching practice depends on the quality of the experience gained during the teaching practice. For that, most teacher education programs design their teaching practice course in such a way as to give the student-teachers as much exposure to the real teaching world.
From the above explanation, it can be concluded that becoming expert in teaching needs dedication and determination. To develop skills and knowledge in this field also requires times and efforts, especially in integrating theory to factual setting. Regarding this notion, Richards and Crookes (1988) in their study identified eight most frequent cited objectives of teaching practice. One of them is to provide practical experience in classroom teaching. Clark and Cutler (1990) also mentioned that teaching practice offers practical teaching experience to student-teachers, which will enable them to better understand their teaching experience as teacher and make meanings to their teaching. They divide teaching practice into two parts. The first part is early field experiences which enable the student-teachers to have a look into the world of teaching and to mentally prepare them to face the demands in that world. The second part is teaching practice where the student-teachers deal with real learners in real classroom situation. During the teaching practice, the student-teachers can test the theories they learned. These two parts are important to ensure the effectiveness of the teaching practice.
The pre-practice stage includes micro teaching: a preparation stage for the potential student-teachers before carrying out the Teaching Internship Program. Afterward, they will slowly build up their professional skill as a teacher teaching in the real world.
During the student teachers' practicum, they will teach in the assigned schools and expected to be in the schools most of the time. Furthermore, student-teachers will have to create lesson plan for the weekly and daily lessons. In addition to that, they have to be accustomed with the extra-curricular activities of their schools.
Student-teachers are also expected to work closely with the faculty supervisor and the supervising teacher from the school. Both supervisors will assess the student-teachers performance in order to monitor their progress during practicum.

The Importance of Teaching Internship in Teacher Education
Since the 1950s when authentic experiences in teacher education began their transition from campus laboratory schools to public school settings, teaching internship program has increasingly been identified as the critical component of teacher preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Extended classroom practice under the guidance of a supervising teacher socializes student-teachers into the profession and provides opportunities to experience the realities of the school contexts as well as to observe the complexity of teaching through examination of the realistic teaching actions, goals, and expectations (Watts, 1987).
Teaching preparation is believed to increase student's achievement and decrease teacher's attrition. In addition, "Supports are available to student teachers through extended teaching internship which include regular observation and feedback" (Ridley et al, 2005, p. 30). Support and prompting for reflection in teaching practice enable them to focus on the improvement of their practice.
Student-teachers can experience on how the theoretical knowledge they learned in the university are played out in classroom settings. Through interactions in the schools, they observe the outcomes of experienced teachers' decision-making and offered the opportunity to engage in their own authentic educational decision-making (Nakai & Turley, 2003).
The student-teachers who took part in the teaching practice are better prepared in facing the real classrooms and schools situation and can successfully address the challenges compared to those who do not engage in the extensive teaching practice (Darling-Hammond, 1999). Student-teachers may also be granted access to different forms of student data which allows them to practice integrating the decisionmaking processes with the school contexts, goals and knowledge of students. Through interactions with learners in their practice settings, particularly those in which they are encouraged to design or participate in classroom research, student-teachers begin to integrate theory, practice and their own applied research into their teaching.
Through the teaching internship program, student-teachers engage with professional educators on issues surrounding students and their needs and participate in learning communities. Through this program, student-teachers explore what student diversity may look like in different settings and experience enhance possibilities for learning to address student's needs and interests in an authentic and appropriate ways that support the learning goals.

Constraints during the Program
Teaching internship is designed to help the student-teachers and gives them opportunity to direct the classroom activities for the first time. Through the program, student-teachers are expected to develop essential competencies and skills which are helpful for the real situation. It provides the first intimate contact to the real world of teaching.
However, there are many challenges arise during the practice. A number of studies have been conducted to understand the difficulty faced by the student teachers. Ong et al. (2004) noted that pressures faced during the practice prevented the students to relate the theory into the practice. Their study identified problems ranging from supervision to non-teaching workloads. Goh and Matthew (2011) identified four obstacles that include classroom management and student discipline, institutional and personal adjustments, classroom teaching, and student learning. Tan (2008) who studied challenges faced by English language teachers discovered a few areas of concerns that encompass establishing good rapport, support from supervising teacher or faculty supervisor, putting theories into practice, and the importance of classroom management. In the study by Ganal, et al. (2015) regarding the problems and difficulties encountered by the student-teachers of Philippine Normal University, Isabela Campus, Alicia, Isabela, the findings revealed that the problems faced by the student-teachers were mainly related to personal problems, teachers preparation, class participation, class management, evaluation, instructional, emotional problems, adjusting to students, school adjustment, over-extended schedules or workloads, and guidance.
The present study is similar as the previous research because it investigates many constraints encountered by student teachers in the teaching practice. Nevertheless, with due to its large scope, the present study selected only nine categories of probable constraints that looked further in this study, namely 1) personal, 2) student teachers' preparation, 3) class participation, 4) class management, 5) instructional, 6) evaluation, 7) emotional, 8) adjusting to students, and 9) supervision.

Research Design
This study utilized the qualitative and used questionnaire as the main instrument to collect the data. Twenty six student-teachers were targeted as the subjects of the study. The participants were varied from the age 21 to 24 years old. All respondents completed their internship program at junior high schools in the city areas of Banda Aceh and Greater Aceh. The sampling method used in this study is the convenience sampling, where the participants were chosen on the basis of availability at the time of the study (Cohen et al., 2000). The technique was chosen based on the consideration of time limitation and as well as the participants availability.

Results
The findings of the questionnaires from the nine constraint domains faced by the student-teachers during the teaching internship program.

Personal constraints
Regarding the personal constraints, Table 1 shows that most of the participants (18) struggle with the distance between their houses and the schools. Another striking point is the large amount of work or responsibility they encountered in school, as reported by 16 participants. It can be inferred that the respondents' personal constraints are mostly related to distant, school's responsibility, and adjustment to the school.

Student-teachers' preparation constraints
Student-teachers faced no obstacle in the preparation domain. It means that they were able to prepare the learning activities or plan the lessons that meet the learning objectives. The data indicates that the students received sufficient support from the school in organizing good learning activities. In fact, more than half of the participants (14) agreed on the result. Thus, the schools that carter for the internship program and provides sufficient support to the student-teachers are said to have good relationship with FKIP. Interestingly, almost all participants (24) were able to set the learning goals. It is an indication of their proficiency and mastery on the subjects, as well as their good knowledge of the theoretical background, which was shown in their ability to determine the appropriate learning outcomes. Class participation constraints Table 3 shows that student-teachers are having trouble in building relationships with the students. A total of 17 participants acknowledged that it was hard to get the attention of students who are not attentive and responsive during class activities. This finding indicates that the student-teachers could not manage the students well in the classroom.  Table 4 provides information of the student-teachers' constrains on classroom management. The unsuccessful way of handling disciplinary problems is the most frequent constraint the participants (14) faced during the program. It can be inferred that they did not have a sufficient understanding regarding the application of classroom management as well as lack of actual classroom observation experiences before the internship.  Table 5 illustrates the instructional constraints encountered by the student-teachers. The participants (17) have difficulty in dealing with an impromptu teaching. In addition, their (15) incapability of relating the lesson in accordance with the students' development level is another form of constraint during the program. The last one, the student-teachers only taught a number of materials students can handle, i.e. not teaching all the materials, which were experienced by 14 participants. The student-teachers have difficulty in developing the lesson based on the development level of the students, lack of skills in formulating clear, simple, and easy to understand questions, and inability to carry out impromptu teaching. These problems are crucial to be discussed by the faculty supervisor and supervising teacher in order to minimize the problems which are faced by the student teachers.

Evaluation constraints
From the data, the student-teachers did not experience any constraint in making different types of questions to evaluate the learning outcome. Furthermore, they also demonstrate their capability in effectively administering test during learning. It shows that studentteachers have good ability in establishing learning evaluation. Emotional constraints Table 7 provides information on the emotional constraints aspects of student teachers. It reveals that they were anxious of being a beginner student-teacher and feeling anxious about the assessment and grading aspect of the program. Respectively, about 19 and 17 participants experience these types of constraints. They were stressed out and lacking confidence. They (15) acknowledged that their inability to sleep well and strong heartbeat might be the reason behind it. Fourteen of them confessed of experiencing fatigue. Eight of them admit on having difficulty in establishing good relationships with the principal, supervising teachers and other school personnels. They (8) also experienced various emotional constraints pertaining to the personal and environmental training, experiences, and different personality. Adjusting to students' constraints Table 8 describes the student-teachers' attempt on adjusting to the students. It can be seen from the table that working so hard to be accepted by students was their greatest constraints (16). However, 15 of them admit of having to deal with impolite or naughty students. The data shows that the participants adjust differently to the students. The adjustment constraints are caused by different factors such as personality, preferences, and potentials.  Table 9 shows that the student-teachers only constraint is about the infrequent visits of supervisor. The majority of them (18) is on consensus on this. It can be concluded that the supervision from the faculty supervisor must be improved.

Discussions
Based on the data from the questionnaires, it was revealed that feeling anxious of being a beginner student-teacher is the highest constraint among the student-teachers during the teaching internship program, with nineteen student experienced the same thing. It proves that the emotional constraint plays a crucial aspects on the studentteachers. This might occurred due to the fact that it was their first experience of the real life of teaching. This result is similar with the study by Foncha et al. (2015) and Ganal et al. (2015). They stated that the student-teachers indeed feeling anxious of being a beginner studentteacher.
The result is followed by house distance, which is far from the school, with 18 out of 26 participants agreed upon. Actually, most of the student-teachers experience this obstacle. Ijaiya (1998) stated that that school location that far from the the student-teachers home is indeed a problem. The reason is mainly because they have to leave earlier for school to be on time.
The third constraint is about the infrequent visits from the faculty supervisor during the program. About 18 participants voice their agreement on the matter. Based on the interview, the faculty supervisors explain that they have a very hectic shedule so having less time to visit the student-teachers. Naeem (2014) also found that her participants was rarely visited by the faculty supervisor.
Lack of students' attention and response during classroom activities sit at number four with 17 participants consented. In fact, this aspect is the major constraint that faced by the students-teachers, which ironically also faced by experienced teachers. The reason behind this phenomenon is due to the students' lack of motivation to study and their laziness in following the instructional process. This data is supported by Rachmawati (2009), Saricoban (2010, and Ganal, et al. (2015) in their study. Another significant problematic case was related to the students' interests. The student-teachers who carry out their practice in primary schools reported that their students have lack of interest in learning English.
Inability to execute an impromtu teaching when necessary accumulated 17 point. Similarly, the research which is conducted by Ganal, et al. (2015) support this result. For this reason, it can be said that teaching without preparation is rather difficult for the studentteachers.
Feeling anxious because of the assessment and the score over their internship program was another obstacle faced participants (17). The student-teachers were concerned that they were not doing their best in teaching hence influence their grade. Ijaiya (1998) explained that anxiety is one of the constraints that faced by the student-teachers, especially anxiety on the assesment and grading of their teaching performance.
Another constraint is pertinent to the extra workload or responsibility at school, with 16 participants acknowledge of having experienced it. Based on the interview, some of the resposibilities that they were trusted on are to be a substitute teacher, designing the lesson plan, curiculum, designing the assessment, and helping the social activities in the school. Okobia et al. (2013) reported that aside from an excessive amount of workload or responsibility, student-teachers might have to deal with the stress as the aftermath of doing the task. Without a doubt, this constraint can become a pinnacle on the student-teachers.
Another significant obstacle transpired form how hard the student-teachers try in order for them to be accepted by the students. 16 participants admit of having difficulty in this area. Underestimated by the students in the classroom is another obstacle that faced by the student-teachers. Okobia et al. (2013) and Ganal et al. (2015) also find this in their research. The students believe that the student-teachers have no authority to punish them on their bad behavior. In their opinion, the student-teachers are not the real teacher and that they only teach temporarily.
Lack of skills to relate the lesson to the development level of the students turns out to be the obstacle of 15 participants. This result is in line with the research of Okobia et al. (2013) and Ganal et al. (2015). Given that the level of students' ability is different, the student-teachers faced constraint to manage the teaching material that is suitable and appropiate for every students. Actually, this can be such a burden if they do not have the capability in relating the lesson to the development level of the students.
Based on the data, the 15 of the participants seemed to experience the stress or feeling very low during the program. This problem was also thoroughly investigated by Ganal, et. al. (2015). When their self-confidence decreased, they fail to remember the details of the lesson in which subsequently lead to chaos as well. Moreover, their lack of confidence also affects their initial understanding of the leasson. Not to mention when they were being tested by the students, thus making them anxious about a probable situation where student asks question that they have no knowledge off. Ganal et al. (2015) referred this situation to teachers' lack mastery of the academic content and labled it as the possible cause of the problem.
Impolite or naughty students are two other obstacle faced by the participants (15). The student-teachers have to tackle various situation, such talking during the lesson, inappropriate replies to the teacher and complete chaos. Green (2009) pointed out that students who were rude and disrespectful to their teachers often had bad parenting skills. It was believed that those students were short of on the right model in their daily life. Thus, it was believed that a teacher has the responsibility to change this bad behaviour to the better.
Another constraints faced by the student-teachers was related to an ineffective method of handling students' disciplinary problems. 14 of the participants admit of having to experience this problem. Undeniably, classroom management is a crucial problem faced by teacher. Many studies which resulted many solutions had been done to deal with this problem. Unfortunately, this problem still exist as found by Ganal et. al. (2015) in his research which presents the problems and difficulties of prospective teachers on classroom management. Teach only some of the information they know, i.e. not teaching all the materials Furthermore, 14 student-teachers also seemed to have difficulty in mastering the material thus students might experience information gap since the student-teachers only teach what they know, i.e. not teaching all the materials. In this situation, the student-teachers did not remember the details of the lesson. This problem was thoroughly investigated by Naeem (2014). He referred this situation to teachers' lack of mastery of the academic content as the possible cause of this problem. He also discussed several approaches to overcome teachers' lack of confidence focusing on changing their perception of teaching circumstances and increasing their knowledge.
The last point referred to having fatigue following the internship program with 14 participants admit of experiencing it. The studentteacher told that the internship program exhausted them. Okobia et al. (2013) explained that the teaching practice is a stressful period for student-teachers. They were trusted with huge responsibility, such as teaching, completing the teaching equipments, and a lot of assignments to do. important to build good relationship with the supervising teachers in order to get suggestions relating to their teaching performance. Furthermore, the result of the study provides advice, advantages and is also useful for the curriculum improvement of the English Education Department at Syiah Kuala University. This study investigates the constraints of 26 English student-teachers during their internship. Thus, the result of the study cannot be generalized into a large scope. Therefore, further study is needed, especially in the aspect related to assessment and supervision. Improvement and development are required for the internship program of Syiah Kuala University. It may include the preparation of student-teachers in order to give them sufficient theories and knowledge about the teaching. Furthermore, the management of the Internship Program, particularly on the placement and supervision must be taken into account. Lastly, the improvement requires cooperation from all parties involved: the Faculty, the participating schools, and the Regional Office of Education, as well as the student-teachers themselves.