Teachers play the critical role in student learning and achievement.

How teachers instruct and interact

with the learners is the cornerstone around which to build effective schools. Teachers' competencies
affect their values, behaviors, communication, aims and practices in school and also, they support
professional development and curricular studies. As such, teachers must have expertise in a wide-
ranging array of competencies in an especially complex environment where hundreds of critical
decisions are required each day in order to maximize student learning. This could be achieved through
maximizing the benefits of internship and action researches. Aligned to this, Teacher Education involves
the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills they require to
teach effectively. Teaching practice or teaching internship is an integral part in teacher education
because it allows us student-teachers to apply the theories into practice. It provides us an opportunity
to integrate the theoretical knowledge on strategies and methods and instructional aids to try out in the
reallife situation. It is a gateway through which we become capable and able to enhance our pedagogical
knowledge, content knowledge as well as our technological knowledge. Additionally, it provides us
direct experiences on various roles of a teacher including teaching and developing command over the
subject. Through internship program, we acquire more knowledge of teaching and learn or sharpen the
needed skills, attitudes and values associated with efficient performance in our job. The internship
experience is a vital phase that helps us to grow from being student teachers to full-fledged
professionals who develop professional and moral ethics and proficient skills in pedagogical strategies.
We could be guided by our cooperating teacher through checking our lesson plans, critiquing our
instructional materials, observing our actual classroom teaching and providing feedbacks for
improvements. Moreover, I see the program as a preparation to deal with conflicts and problems that
we may also encounter in the actual workplace. Managing these problems would prepare us for more
significant conflicts that we need to settle as we become employed. The internship journey is a
significant aspect of a teacher education program that plays an essential role in equipping us pre-service
teachers and defining our level of self-esteem to deal with a myriad of problems and conflicts.

Aside from teaching internship, conducting action researches is one way of enriching the competencies
of a future teacher like me as discussed in the PAFTE Region 1 Students’ Congress. I have realized that
this plays an important role in the preparation and professional development of teachers and pre-
service teachers for it is a valuable exercise to undertake as it offers us a systematic, collaborative and
participatory process of inquiry that actively seeks to address areas of concern or redress. Through
action research we will be able to gain insight, develop reflective practice, make positive changes in the
school environment and improve student outcomes and the lives of those involved. The action research
cycle typically engages us in a systematic examination of instruction or practice or an exploration of real
problems experienced in schools. This cycle rests on the beliefs that we educators better serve our
students when we examine and reflect upon our practice and when we specifically consider ways to
address challenges that exist in our practice. It can be used to fill the gap between theory and practice
and helps us develop new knowledge directly related to the classroom. Moreover, it facilitates teacher
empowerment. We are empowered when we are able to collect data to use in making decisions about
the classroom. When we are allowed to take risks and make changes related to teaching and learning,
student achievement is enhanced and schools become more effective learning communities. With this
congress, I have also realized that we teachers are the agents and source of educational reform and not
the objects of reform. Action research empowers us teachers to own professional knowledge through
the process of action inquiry—conceptualize and create knowledge, interact around knowledge,
transform knowledge, and apply knowledge. Moreover, it enables us become more autonomous in
professional judgment; develop a more energetic and dynamic environment for teaching and learning;
articulate, build and craft knowledge; and recognize and appreciate our own expertise. To conclude,
action research sequence holds a significant value in improving practice within classrooms, schools, and
communities. We will always on the go in enriching the competencies of pre-service teachers as we play
a great role in the learners’ achievement. and educational journey.