Challenges and Preparedness of Pre-Service Teachers in a Globally Competitive Work Force

This study explored on the pre-service teaching performance of the students of St. Paul University Philippines. To achieve this purpose data were obtained using a tool in evaluating classroom instruction among student-teachers. Data were analyzed using weighted mean and T-test for independent samples. The pre-service teachers’ performance was categorized into three areas namely; as a teacher, handling students’ class participation and other observations related to teaching. Results revealed that the performance of the pre-service teachers was generally Very Good. However, their choice and expression of words, ability to answer questions, ability to connect material to the broader aspect of the subject and their technique in asking questions were rated as Good. T-test results reveal that there is no significant difference in the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers when grouped according to gender and program of study. The research was also guided by an open-ended question to identify the weaknesses of the pre-service teachers. The weaknesses were identified such as: art of questioning, use of creative slide presentations, introducing reinforcement activities and handling students’ misbehavior. The result of this study will be a basis for introducing initiatives to improve the Teacher Education Program to lead pre-service teachers to become globally competent.


Literature Review
The goal of this section is to present important concepts and related studies gathered from literature and related studies that have relationships in the present study. Discussions of these have been important in supporting and strengthening the study in all its aspects. The literature and related studies are grouped according to the theme for easy reading and understanding.

Who Is a Teacher?
Teachers are the most important resource in the teaching process. Pawilen (2016) affirms that teachers in a global classroom must possess a high degree of expertise in content and pedagogy. They should serve as an ambassador of goodwill to all peoples across different cultures. The statements affirm that from the beginning of their formation as teachers they should be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for them to teach effectively in the future. Being a teacher is a process that is developed and honed through the years as confirmed in the study conducted among the beginning teachers in Singapore. It was found out those beginning teachers' pedagogical knowledge, and skills increased significantly, but at different rates, in all three factors at the end of their third year of teaching. It was declared that learning to teach is an on-going process that begins from the pre-service teacher education program and continues into the initial three years of teaching (Choy et al., 2013).
Several studies have supported the important role of the cooperating teachers in the formation of the pre-service teachers (Roberts et al., 2014;Izadinia, 2015Willegems et al., 2017;Matsko et al., 2018). Pre-service SETs need Cooperating Teachers (CTs) in their emotional development, those who can model and support them in the development of effective practices, and who promote the cognitive processes involved in instructional decision making. Furthermore, they articulated that when CTs are mindful of the learning needs of beginning (special education) teachers while also embracing the knowledge and skills they can bring to the partnership, they are more likely to help pre-service teachers develop the skills needed to succeed on their own. It was proposed that a mentoring framework needs to be developed to enable pre-service teacher educators to maximize the potential use of mentoring during the professional placement component of a pre-service teacher education degree (Ambrosetti et al., 2014;Stronge, 2018). The formation of the pre-service teachers then is due in part to the guiding support of cooperating teachers as their guide and mentors. This present study also found the importance and powerful roles of the cooperating teachers in the lives of the pre-service teachers in their laboratory schools to facilitate and to provide them the opportunity to develop their confidence, skills, and expertise so that ultimately they can compete in a competitive global market.
A study conducted by Chiew (2002) reveals that student-teacher relationships and classroom climate were significantly related to students' achievement and attitude towards learning. A similar study also reveals that relationships between teachers and students can make a vital difference in student success (Bernstein et al., 2013) and another from Ullah et al. (2007) which resulted in students' relationships with faculty influence academic achievement significantly. Across disciplines and levels, most of the studies worldwide revealed that the learning environment affects both the cognitive and affective developments www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer the importance of feed backing to allow the pre-service teachers to become conscious of their weaknesses in teaching. Communication is a necessary tool to improve the working relationships between the cooperating teacher and her mentee. The absence of this may reduce the pre-service teachers into mediocre professionals. Lawley et al. (2014) stressed that poor communication between pre-service teachers and cooperating teachers can cause barriers to planning lessons, feedback, and teaching experiences. This finding is also in allusion to the result of the study conducted by Izadinia (2015; that when the mentoring relationships were positive and expectations were met, pre-service teachers felt more confident as a teacher. However, for some participants, who experienced a partially negative mentoring relationship, their confidence declined, and they felt they did not improve. Accordingly, students who have a positive experience in the classroom somehow promote learning to some extent if not to the maximum. Teacher factor, class activities and general classroom atmosphere can significantly motivate them to attain academic success (Falsario et al., 2014). Similar findings were also revealed in the study conducted by (Latifah, 2014). Results show that the supervision of an in-service teacher has been successfully enhanced the ability of pre-service teachers in teaching art and culture, particularly music lesson. The competence of pre-service teachers can be achieved by giving them examples, model, and music experience from in-service of the pre-service teachers. In support of these findings, the researcher took the initiative to look closely at the results of the cooperating teachers' evaluation of the pre-service teachers to spot more on those areas in their practice teaching performance which need enhancement.

Challenges in Becoming a Global Teacher
What constitutes a quality teacher and how to educate better teachers? How prepared are the pre-service teachers in facing a more competitive global market? How important their training is in their laboratory classrooms to becoming a global teacher? Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) enters the scene at this moment as one of the most critical elements of improving teacher quality (Karaman, 2017). Pre-service teachers need to be competitive as early as they should be. Therefore, there is a need to strengthen teacher preparation. Darling (2014) calls it "well-supervised clinical practice as a critical element of effective preparation". She outlines further in her article the challenges to creating productive clinical experiences for prospective teachers and identifies strategies that have been found successful in confronting these challenges. These include the development of professional development school relationships that strengthen practice in partner schools and the use of teacher performance assessments that focus attention on pulling together practical skills and providing feedback to candidates and programs. As a productive experience, Kabilan (2013) found out that the exposure of six students was beneficial and meaningful professional development as they were exposed to an international teaching practicum experience although there were also identified challenges and limitations of the international practicum which were highlighted. Other efforts therefore which may contribute largely to the development of pre-service teachers so that they can have comprehensive experiences is to partner with the Department of Education (DepEd) as in the case of urban Australian university and a State Department of Education. The key purpose is for the development of schools to be Centers of Excellence which contribute to the preparation of pre-service teachers. Further, the foundational aims of the partnership include addressing the gap between theory and practice, facilitating pre-service teacher recruitment and providing a guarantee of future employment (Allen et al., 2013). The present study assessed the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers and recommended initiatives to improve the shaping of a global teacher.
The school and its curricula of studies also contribute significantly to the formation of its students.
Multiple global education frameworks (AACTE, 1989;Klassen, 197S;Merryfield, 1997;Roberts, 2007) have suggested that two keys to globalizing teacher education curricula are the integration of global content courses and participation in co-curricular cross-cultural experiences. The study conducted by Mottola Poole et al. (2015) was able to determine the extent to which global content courses and co-curricular cross-cultural experiences had been integrated into the teacher preparation of pre-service teachers in public university in the southeastern United States. Result confirmed that higher rates of participation in both global content courses and co-curricular cross-cultural experiences have a significant positive relationship with pre-service teachers' global perspectives. The teacher education curriculum by allowing the pre-service teacher to have more meaningful and significant experience will eventually lead them towards global and culturally responsive teachers. Tangen et al. (2017) believe that the experiential learning through participation in the program allowed participants (pre-service teachers) to consider their possible future selves as teachers with a deeper understanding of diverse learners' needs and how they might strive to address these needs in their own classrooms. Similarly, Green et al. (2011) believes that today's changing student demographics in public schools; teacher education programs realize that their candidates need more than a "one size fits all" general education curriculum.
Tomorrow's prospective teachers need specialized knowledge of the lives and learning styles of urban children-first-hand experiences in urban schools and an understanding of the community from which the child comes. The research further found that through experiential learning for both the Australian and Malaysian pre-service teachers had gained in positioning their cultural selves currently and as future teachers.
The practice of Indiana University's Global Gateway for Teachers programs (Stachowski et al., 2015) is worthy to note here as it provides structured learning opportunities for student teachers in culturally diverse settings, both domestically and internationally through its Overseas Program to broaden their professional and personal horizons in host-nation schools and communities worldwide. Akiba (2011) concluded in his study that creating a sense of community in classrooms, and modeling constructivist and culturally responsive teaching are likely to promote positive beliefs about diversity among pre-service teachers and had recommended that field experiences should promote pre-service teachers' interactions with people from diverse backgrounds, assign a mentor to support their learning experience and promote self-reflection, and provide opportunities to understand the connection with diversity coursework.
Finally, the authors further proposed that the experience must include a substantive preparatory phase and structured onsite requirements and reflections to maximize the professional and personal impact of time spent abroad. Also, they suggested that well-planned experiences have the potential to launch emerging educators on a trajectory of powerful transformation that informs their teaching practice, interpersonal relations, and worldview.

Conceptual Framework
This study posits the importance of assessing the pre-service teachers in their practicum laboratories. It includes demographics as the basis for the conceptual framework.

Figure 1. Feedback
As a result of the literature review and studies, both foreign and local, this research is conceptualized and formed. Collectively, all the literature and studies reviewed lend strong support and basis to the present study. These literature and studies have led the researcher to come up with the assessment of the pre-service teachers' teaching performance in SPUP, particularly in their laboratory classrooms. This assessment will become a basis for the teacher-education program of SPUP to come up with mechanisms, designs and procedures and initiatives to improve the teacher education program and to produce globally competent teachers who will teach locally and internationally.
This study explored on the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers. It included the profile variables namely; gender and program of study which are the inputs of the study. The process delved on the analysis of the assessment of the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers. The output served as an input for devising mechanisms, designs and procedures and restructuring initiatives to improve the teacher education program of SPUP.

Research Questions
In this study, the researcher investigated the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers as assessed by their cooperating teachers. Further, the researcher wants to know how prepared are they in facing a globally competitive work force. Thus, it sought to answer the following problems:

Data Analysis
The data was drawn out from the results of the evaluations of the cooperating teachers with their mentee. The data gathered were analyzed and interpreted using the following statistical treatments: Frequency and percentage distribution were used to confirm statistical assumptions and to describe the participants' profile in terms of the identified variables. The weighted mean was used to interpret the responses obtained from the use of the Likert's scale. T-test and ANOVA were used to determine the significant difference between teaching performance and the identified variables. To determine the participants' teaching performance, the following range and qualitative interpretation were used: 4.20-5.00 excellent; 3.40-4.49 very good; 2.60-3.39 good; 1.80-2.59 fair; and 1.00-1.79 poor.

Locale of the Study
This study was conducted in SPUP, an internationally accredited university granted with an autonomous status and a Center of Excellence (COE) for Teacher Education by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The participants were the pre-service teachers in SPUP.

Instrumentation
The research utilized an evaluation tool officially used by SPUP based on the National Competency-Based Teacher's Standards (NCBTS) to evaluate the demonstration teaching of pre-service teachers which consists of 16 items. The tool is based on the basic competencies for classroom teachers.
As part of the assessment tool, the cooperating teachers were further asked to write their observations with their mentee regarding their weaknesses and their suggestions to improve particularly their teaching demonstrations.
The second part of the assessment tool was qualitative in nature. This part is a documentary analysis of the weaknesses of the pre-service teachers as observed by the cooperating teachers. Their responses were clustered into different themes as reflected in the data.
This study also employed quantitative research using a descriptive survey method. The survey aimed to determine the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers and their profile variables. Specifically, it sought to determine if there are significant differences in the participants' teaching performance and profile variables.
The following steps were followed to pursue this research. The researcher sought permission from the Research and Publication Office in conducting the research. Also, the researcher personally sought the permission of the cooperating teachers and the pre-service teachers requesting that their evaluation with their mentee will be used to conduct a research.       As shown in Table 2, the pre-service teachers' appearance and composure got the highest mean score which is 4.32 with a descriptive interpretation which is Excellent. This means that the pre-service teachers have shown a certain level of confidence as they execute their lessons with their students as assessed by their cooperating teachers. This is followed by the student-teachers' mastery of the subject matter when they teach with a mean score of 4.18; presentation of their subject matter with a mean score of 4.12 which implies that the pre-service teachers are moving towards quality teaching. Pedagogical

Results
Content Knowledge (PCK) as Karaman (2017) thinks that this moment is one of the most critical elements of improving teacher quality. The organization of their subject matter with a mean score of 4.08; articulation and modulation of their voice with a mean score of 4.05; their ability to arouse interest with a mean score of 3.73 and their ability to control class with a mean score of 3.40. All of which have a descriptive interpretation which is Very Good. The result findings are consistent with the result in this same Table which shows that the pre-service teachers were well-composed as they faced their learners.
This implies that the pre-service teachers appeared in their classes well-prepared and with well-organized lessons. This research is proving fruitful, in part because of the researcher's findings as revealed in this Conversely, the Table shows some disturbing results in terms of three significant characteristics of the pre-service teachers. It is noted that their ability to answer questions with a mean score of 3.34; ability to connect material to the broader aspect of the subject with a mean score of 3.29 and the choice and expression of words with a mean score of 3.19 with a descriptive interpretation of Good makes this research more significant because it shows a whole landscape of what is weakest which needs greater attention in the formation of the pre-service teachers. Though the pre-service teachers are well-prepared with their lessons, it shows that they were quite not fully equipped with unanticipated question/s from their students. This result also supports the findings in this same Table that the student-teachers are quite weak in their ability to connect the material to the broader aspect of the subject. This also implies that more than the lessons that they prepare is a greater need for further exploration and going beyond the obvious and mental pictures.
Generally, subjects in the Basic Education curriculum in the Philippines are taught in English while the majority of the pre-service teachers speak Filipino. The choice of words used in the classroom can largely be attributed to this scenario. This is the importance of exposing the pre-service teachers to diverse opportunities for thinking and speaking English which is considered as the second language of the Filipinos. It was found out by Mottola Poole et al. (2015) that higher rates of participation in both global content courses and co-curricular cross-cultural experiences have a significant positive relationship with pre-service teachers' global perspectives. The more meaningful and significant experience they have will eventually lead them towards global and culturally responsive teachers. Table 3 reveals that class response has the highest mean followed by class attention with a score of 4.16 and 4.00 respectively. The category mean of 4.08 is described as Very good. This implies that the pre-service teachers have the capacity to draw attention from their learners and further mean that they have successfully led the learners to respond to the activities they prepare in class. This result gives a positive outlook for the pre-service teachers and their learners because it fosters an encouraging learning environment. Findings have shown that students who have a positive experience in the classroom somehow promote learning to some extent if not to the maximum. Teacher factor, class activities and general classroom atmosphere can significantly motivate them to attain academic success (Falsario et al., 2014). Table 4 shows that the use of audio-visual aids/technology got the highest with a means score of 4.07 with a descriptive interpretation which is Very good. This implies that the pre-service teachers have very good use of audio-visual aid/technology (in particular, video and audio presentations) as a motivational tool in teaching. These tools when they are utilized effectively will help the students visualize concepts/theories clearly. In a study conducted by Rasul et al. (2011) among 150 students, they found out that audio-visual aids play an important role in the teaching learning process. Audio-visual aids make teaching-learning process effective. Their participants viewed that these tools provide knowledge in depth and detail, it brings change in the classroom environment, and it motivated teachers and students. A similar result was also found in the study conducted by Shah (2015) that the outcome of helping materials plays a significant function in the learning activities, it makes it successful, provide detailed information and provide attractive learning atmosphere in class. Also in a study by Hale (2009), it concluded that information contained in the audio portion of an audio-visual presentation is better comprehended and retained among young children. Teachers likewise affirm the importance of visual aids in teaching. This is supported by a study conducted by Yunus et al. (2013) that the use of visual aids enables the teachers to engage their students closely with the literary texts despite being able to facilitate students of different English proficiency level in reading the texts with interest. The same results were also found in the study conducted by Ode (2014). The result revealed that the use of audio-visual resources have a significant impact on the teaching and learning in secondary schools and another result found that the use of video is believed to be efficient since it illustrates visual examples to help develop an understanding as Bal-Gezegin (2014) puts it. This is followed by the rapport between teacher and students with a mean score of 3.98 with a description of Very Good. The finding in Table 3 can be related to this result where rapport between teacher students brings about class response and class attention. This finding supports the study conducted by Chiew (2002) that student-teacher relationships and classroom climate were significantly related to students' achievement and attitude towards learning. A similar study also reveals that relationships between teachers and students can make a vital difference in student success (Bernstein et al., 2013) and another from Ullah et al. (2007) which resulted in students' relationships with faculty influence academic achievement significantly. Across disciplines and levels, most of the studies worldwide revealed that the learning environment affects both the cognitive and affective developments of students.
The discussion technique has a mean score of 3.68 with a descriptive interpretation of Very Good and the lowest is on the question technique asked by the pre-service teachers with a mean score of 3.39 and with a descriptive interpretation of Good. This implies that the pre-service teachers still lack the skill in asking thought or critical questions categorized according to Bloom's Taxonomy which may fall under knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This part proves the finding of this present study that "the technique in asking questions" is a common difficulty among the pre-service teachers. Tofade et al. (2013) assert that poorly constructed questions can stifle learning by creating confusion, intimidating students, and limiting creative thinking but well-crafted questions lead to new insights, generate discussion, and promote the comprehensive exploration of subject matter. Table 5 shows the summary of the pre-service teachers in terms of their overall performance as assessed by their cooperating teachers. It further shows that the pre-service teachers' performance in handling student's class participation has a mean score of 4.08 and with a descriptive interpretation of "very good". This is followed by other observations related to teaching with a mean score of 3.80 and their performance as a teacher with a mean score of 3.77. Both are described as very good. The overall www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer performance of the pre-service teachers is 3.88 and with a description of very good. This implies that the pre-service teachers performed satisfactorily in their laboratory classrooms as assessed by their cooperating teachers. The results further imply that the pre-service teachers of SPUP met the standards which later qualify them to join the teachers' workforce globally.  in the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers when grouped according to their program of study. This implies that whether BEED or BSED the teaching performance did not make any difference in their teaching performance. Table 8 shows an analysis of the cooperating teachers' qualitative evaluation of the performance of the pre-service teacher and they are further grouped into several thematic perspectives pertaining to the art of questioning, use of slide presentation, ability to introduce reinforcement activities, classroom management, focus and time management. It is revealed that "the art of questioning", ranks the first with a frequency of 21 with a percentage of 53.85. Many of them use questioning carelessly. This result finds similarities in the findings in Table 4 which illustrates that the pre-service teachers lack the skill in asking questions. Cotton (2001) found out in her study that oral questions posed during classroom recitations are more effective in fostering learning than in written questions and questions which focus student attention on salient elements in the lesson result in better comprehension than questions which do not. This finding suggests the prime importance of asking critical questions. Similarly, the result was found in the study conducted by Blaik (2013) where it showed that language barrier, multi-layered tasks, nature and dimension of reflection, lack of reflection skills, absence of post-development plan, emotional barrier, external locus of control and socio-cultural context of learning are considered as the weaknesses of their participants. It was further cited that the findings addressed areas which needed improvement and that recommendations were suggested to enhance critical and practical reflective skills among future teachers in Abu Dhabi. Akiba (2011) suggested that creating a sense of community in classrooms, and modeling constructivist and culturally responsive teaching are likely to promote positive beliefs about diversity among pre-service teachers and had recommended that field experiences should promote pre-service teachers' interactions with people from diverse backgrounds, assign a mentor to support their learning experience and promote self-reflection, and provide opportunities to understand the connection with diversity coursework.
The "utilization of creative powerpoint presentation" is ranked as second weakest with a frequency of eighteen with a percentage of 46.15. This implies that the pre-service teachers lack creativity in their use of slide presentations. They, however, have not mastered the most important rules in presenting slide presentations. Wiemer (2012) found out that the faculty in her survey and other studies report that using powerpoint improves teaching. It certainly does help with organization and with keeping teachers on track. The result finds similarity with a study conducted by Brock et al. (2011) where the number of slides used per session appeared not to affect effectiveness but lower density (3 bullet points and 20 words or less per slide was associated with effectiveness). Also, in the same rank is the pre-service teachers' lacking in ability at "introducing reinforcement activities" which implies that although they have mastered the current lesson, they however still lack the proficiency in introducing other activities which may reinforce students' motivation and performance. A substantial minority among the student-teachers with a frequency of 9 and with a percentage of 20.08 ranks third is on "handling students' misbehavior". This means that some of the pre-service teachers' ability to handle misbehavior is still emerging. Lastly, 4 with a percentage of 10.26 of the student-teachers were evaluated by their cooperating teachers sometimes would lose track of their focus and also their ability to manage their time.

Conclusions
Teaching is a vocation and a noble profession which involves great responsibility and it is a challenging task. It is not simply a job but should be regarded as a humanistic profession. Teachers are assets in building friendships, communities, and nation. Accordingly, from the outset in the formation of future teachers, they need to imbibe that they have a huge responsibility in building strong and responsible citizens. The making of a teacher is an ongoing process that is developed and honed over the years.
Creating meaningful experiences through their exposures in collaboration with their cooperating teachers is therefore inevitable. The researcher understands that there are challenges and difficulties in the practice teaching of the pre-service teachers which need to be addressed. The researcher believes that well-planned experiences have the potential to launch emerging educators to the path of success.
Providing pre-service teachers with a worldview perspective will influence them to greater chances of achievement. The present study found that the pre-service teachers of SPUP generally are prepared for classroom work as revealed in their evaluation of their practicum exposure in their laboratory classes which consists of their roles as practice teachers and their ability to handle students' participation.
Moreover, findings indicate that gender and program of study did not show a significant difference in the teaching performance of the pre-service teachers. They are prepared to join the teaching force and are equipped to face the challenges of teaching either locally or globally. However, results suggest that