Catalyst ISSN: 2408-137X, Volume 10, No. 2, 2014 Insitute Press 34 Understanding the Causes of Anxiety and Coping Strategies of Student- teachers during Their Internship: A Phenomenological Study Naltan Lampadan Abstract This study was intended to fulill two purposes: 1) to idenify the causes of student-teachers’ anxiety, and 2) to discover the coping strategies they employed during their internship program. The paricipants of this study were eight student-teachers who did their internship in the 2013-2014 academic year as required by their undergraduate program in educaion at a faith-based Internaional University. The phenomenological approach was employed to understand their lived experiences in relaion to anxiety and coping strategies during their teaching internship. Data were collected through individual meeings, group forums, observaions and individual interviews. The study discovered that student-teachers’ anxiety was caused by various factors which can be grouped into three categories: preparaion, classroom management and relaionship. This study also ideniied four categories of coping mechanism employed by the student-teachers: adaptaion, preparaion, aitude and relaionship. The indings of this study give cooperaing teachers and internship supervisor insight into the experience of the eight student-teachers. Keywords: Anxiety, Internship, Student-teacher, Cooperaing Teacher, Coping Strategies Introducion Researchers have pointed out that anxiety has a direct impact on teachers’ performance as well as on the learning environment in the classroom. Wilson (2002) suggested that a limited amount of stress can have a posiive impact on moivaion and creaivity of teachers but excessive pressure can have a negaive impact on them. It can lead many teachers to withdraw from the teaching profession (Keavney & Sinclair, 1978). Similarly, Cheung and Hui (2011) discovered that highly anxious student-teachers would not join the teaching workforce ater compleing their internship. Knowing that anxiety may have a bearing a teachers’ longevity in the workforce, it is important to understand the causes of anxiety of student-teachers at the internship stage. The indings would inform educators and coordinators of internship programs of factors that contribute to anxiety and the possible coping strategies. In this way, student-teachers can be helped and guided so that they have a more posiive internship experience. This qualitaive research study uses a phenomenological approach that aims to understand the experience of student-teachers in relaion to anxiety. Creswell (2013) stated that a phenomenological study describes the meaning of experiences of each unique individual. The raionale for using a phenomenological approach lies within the belief that student-teachers are free to idenify the elements that are related to “anxiety” in their personal experiences. Literature Review Thomas (2006) discussed anxiety of teaching as any feelings, beliefs, or behaviors that would impede on the teaching process, whether it may be the preparaion, or the actual implementaion. Studies have shown that anxiety does not only negaively impact relaionship and performance (Keavney & Sinclair, 1978), but also serves as the main cause for teachers leaving the teaching profession (Merc, 2004; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003).