Challenges of Eeflective Internship from the Perspective of Student-Teachers of the Department of Basic Sciences at Farhangian University of Tehran

Farhangian University has always placed special emphasis on promoting thoughtful internships and helping student teachers recognize, improve, and enhance their professional identities. The purpose of this study is to identify practical problems in implementing the internship program. This study examines the issues and problems of internships at Farhangian University, as well as the challenges in implementing internships from the perspective of interns. This study was conducted with a qualitative approach of conventional content analysis. The sampling was purposive and continued until complete data saturation from 24 students who had completed an average of 4 internship units. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with students of basic sciences at Farhangian University of Tehran. Data analysis was performed using conventional content analysis, and two methods of participant observation and peer review were used to validate the findings. The findings from the analysis of the interviews showed that this course faces challenges, including the role of supervisors (such as lack of knowledge about the importance of internships, incorrect evaluation, lack of communication with interns and supervisors, weakness in guiding and monitoring the proper implementation of internships in schools), the role of supervisors (lack of knowledge about how to implement internships, lack of trust in interns, disregard for the needs and challenges of interns), The academic, cognitive, and motivational characteristics of interns (misunderstanding of reflective internship, failure to meet needs and expectations, considering the internship process and writing reports and papers as formal), the physical, social, and emotional environment of the school (top-down interaction between the principal and school staff, lack of appropriate space in the classroom and school office, lack of a plan for guiding and properly implementing internships in the school), and the lack of support and planning from the university (such as lack of proper planning and supervision, variability in internship guidelines, insufficient time allocated to internships, and failure to select efficient and trained mentor teachers) are the most important challenges of internships at Farhangian University. Based on the experiences of intern students, Farhangian University's executive planning to explain the importance and dimensions of reflective internship has not been done adequately. This has discouraged interns and reduced the effectiveness of internship, as the most important teacher training program. To solve this problem, utilizing the results of research such as new styles and operational plans of internship, creating an appropriate mechanism for interaction with schools, empowering participating factors in internship, increasing the scientific and operational level of schools, and increasing continuous supervision and monitoring of internship can be effective in addressing the challenges.