Pre-Service Program Effects on Student-Teachers' Concerns & Identity

Many pre-service programs worldwide fail to fully address the needs of the student-teachers who are the change agents in the society. Numerous beginning teachers leave the teaching profession early in their careers and some even withdraw from the teacher preparation programs. The pre-service English language program in the Faculty of Pedagogy/Education at the Lebanese University has some effects on the senior student-teachers' teaching concerns and formation of their professional identity. It helps participants decrease some of their self and task concerns while keeping their impact concerns unchanged. Also, it could somehow develop the participants' teacher identity. The role of this pre-service program is to train the trainers on the one hand and to equip the student-teachers with the needed class management and testing skills in addition to guiding these future teachers become reflective practitioners. Developing reflection skills is crucial to the formation of the participants' professional identity. Hence, improving this program is necessary to better equip the student-teachers with the needed knowledge and skills to adapt to the demanding teaching profession in Lebanon.