Do Practical and Academic Preparation Paths Lead to Differential Commercial Teacher “Quality”?

Abstract

The Swiss teacher education and training system offers a practically and academically oriented path for aspiring commercial vocational education and training (VET) teachers. Although teachers’ content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) are considered crucial for teaching quality and students’ achievement, little is known about Swiss VET teachers’ Economics CK and PCK. Using assessments of teachers’ economics CK and PCK as proxies of “quality” we found that teachers regardless of practical or academic preparation were similar in CK and PCK once in the teaching profession. This finding contradicts popular belief that academic preparation with its selectivity and education would produce higher quality teachers.