Changes in the Images of Teaching, Teachers, and Children Expressed by Student Teachers before and after Student Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how education majors' images of teaching, teachers, and children change before and after student teaching, with special attention to the grade level (Grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) taught by the student teachers at primary school in Japan. A total of 126 student teachers from an education faculty (49 men, 77 women) participated in this study using metaphor-questionnaires before and after student teaching. For images of teaching, responses to the factors Dull Event and Live Event changed, suggesting that students started to develop more positive, active, and clear images of teaching. For images of teachers, responses on the factor Performer changed, suggesting that students started to develop more active images of teachers. For images of children, responses on the factors Critic and Pure-minded Person changed, suggesting that student teachers started to develop more realistic images of children. However, grade level taught had no significant effect.