engleski

Teacher students' perceptions and beliefs about teaching and learning in different initial teacher education programmes

Research findings in the last thirty years show that beliefs about learning and teaching guide teachers’ actions more strongly than acquired academic knowledge and teaching skills in formal education (Korthagen, 2004). Pajares (1992) emphasised that these beliefs are formed very early in teachers' lives as results of life experiences and socialisation processes in family and school. Raths (2001) pointed out that the beliefs which teacher students bring with them to the higher education context can hinder the effectiveness of initial teacher education. Such beliefs, emotionally coloured and based on personal experience, resist to change during teacher education process in spite of the rational argumentation and scientific proofs which might contradict them. Some authors (e.g. Korthagen, 2004 ; Feiman Nemser, 2001) stressed that during initial teacher education those implicit conceptions about teaching and learning should be directly addressed and discussed. It means that learning sessions with students should be organised in such a way that teacher educators stimulate critical reflection of students' entering beliefs and enable students to reconsider their beliefs in the light of educational theories and research (Raths, 2001). If these entering beliefs are overlooked by teacher educators they will continue to influence the shaping of prospective teachers' professional identity and later on their behaviour in the classrooms. Therefore, it is very important for teacher educators to learn about students' entering beliefs about learners and teaching before introducing academic contents and concepts underlining effective teaching practice. The research results presented in this paper are the part of a larger longitudinal study on developing teacher professional identity during the teacher initial education. The goal of the study is to compare student teacher entering beliefs with their beliefs in the final year of study in order to check whether the expected shift in their beliefs occurred during the study time. The study examines four categories of beliefs: beliefs about the purpose of education, beliefs about the role of teachers and the role of pupils, beliefs about teaching and learning process, and beliefs about teacher self-efficacy. In this paper the results of the first exploratory phase of the research are presented comparing the entering beliefs about teacher/pupils roles and beliefs about learning and teaching of students enrolled in a different teacher education programmes. The sample consists of three groups of students at the beginning of their initial teacher education enrolled at the University of Zagreb. The first sub-sample consists of students enrolled at the first year of study programme for classroom (lower-primary school) teachers. Their study programme is organised according to the simultaneous model of teacher education. It lasts five years and students are awarded university MA degree. Two other sub – samples are students enrolled in university study programmes for subject teachers in upper- primary and secondary schools (math and science and foreign language). Their study programme is organised according to the consecutive model consisting of two cycles. In the first three year cycle they study academic discipline at the BA level and at the master level (second two year cycle) they enter teacher education programme. In the research the combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology is used. The beliefs of teachers' and pupils' roles is explored using metaphor technique (Saban at all, 2007) derived from cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 in Raths, 1997). The beliefs about teaching and learning are examined using the adapted version of Prosser and Trigwell (1999) „Approaches to teaching inventory“ (ATI). The inventory consists of 17 items which form three subscales based of the results of previous FA: Orientation toward teacher and discipline ; Orientation toward student and learning ; Participation of students in school work. The instruments were administrated by trained research assistants during the regular classes in the first semester of the teacher education programme. The results show that all three groups of students perceive teacher role in a traditional way. They see teachers primarily as transmitters of knowledge. However, in the group of prospective primary class teachers a larger proportion perceive teachers also as substitute parent or friend than in the other two groups. The same preprofessional image of a pupil appears in all three groups where pupils are primarily seen as passive recipients of knowledge (e.g. a sponge) transmitted by a teacher. Regarding the beliefs about teaching and learning the main difference between sub-samples is that class-teacher students expressed higher orientation towards learner centered teaching compared to subject teachers. These findings are discussed in light of selection procedures and students previous educational experience and implications for teacher educators and teaching process are discribed.

professional teacher development; teacher role perception; beliefs about teaching and learning

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