Student Teachers Readiness and Challenges for Internship Program: A Survey on English Language Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta

For students majoring in education, the teaching internshipprogram is mandatory. Along with employing the KurikulumMerdeka in schools, student teachers must also prepare to useit through the teaching internship program. This study aims toinvestigate student teachers’ readiness and challenges for theteaching internship program. This study employs bothquantitative and qualitative methodologies to achieve itsobjectives. In all, 40 English Language Education StudyProgram student teachers batch 2020 at Universitas NegeriJakarta completed questionnaires and participated in FocusedGroup Discussions focusing on their readiness and challengesbased on key teaching competences, enabling competences,professional conduct, and personality. The research uncoveredstudent teachers level of readiness and challenges in'administration', 'methodology: knowledge and skills','assessment', and 'lesson and course preparation' to KurikulumMerdeka as ‘developing readiness’ and ‘mostly challenging’.However, they perceived ‘approaching readiness’ and viewsthem as ‘mostly not challenging’ aspects as in 'digital mediaimplementation,' 'professional behavior', 'personality', and'intercultural skills'. Because prior studies did not cover theseareas all at once, the knowledge obtained through this researchstudy applies locally.