Recently, cultivating pre-service teachers' practical teaching skills in the educational service
activity subject has been considered as one of the most important objectives of teaching
practice. In this regard, the current study examined the operation condition for the subject, with
a focus on the teaching practices through the perceptions of the pre-service teachers in order
to improve the effectiveness of the educational service activity subject. For this purpose, a
survey was conducted for 30 secondary science pre-service teachers. The results revealed that
most of the participants had proper perceptions on the purpose of the educational service
activity subject while some of them misunderstood the purpose of the subject as simply
donating their own capabilities to society or building their qualifications for the job. It was also
discovered that the pre-service teachers mainly performed the roles of the mentor and/or the
teacher's assistant during the educational service activity. The pre-service teachers who had
opportunities for teaching had tried to provide good lessons for the students. However, most
of the pre-service teachers had difficulties teaching because 1) they taught the subjects unrelated
to their major, 2) the teaching was tailored to the needs and directions of the institutions
without reflecting the pre-service teachers’ views on teaching methods and strategies, and 3)
the students were not serious in the preservice teachers’ class. It was verified that pre-service
teachers found the solutions for the problems themselves and/or endured the problems without
seeking solutions when they faced problems related to the teaching practices during the
educational service activity. Educational implications of these findings were discussed.