‘It Is Not Our Fault; It Is Our Professors’ Fault!’ Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives on Their Own Experiences in Teacher Education Classrooms

Mustafa Yasar

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.8.1.141

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">Teacher education programs are often accused of failing to prepare preservice teachers for real life classroom situations. In the case of research on classroom management, the focal point is often classroom teachers and their educational and behavioral goals rather than students’ experiences. This study aims to explore the perspectives of preservice teachers on their attitudes and behaviors in the university classrooms. For this purpose, 40 preservice teachers, who studied in the Early Childhood Education department at a state university in Turkey, were selected. The interview was chosen as the data collection method. The interview questions were based on the questions that Cothran, Kulinna and Garrahy (2003) used in their study with the secondary physical education students. The collected data were analyzed by the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and common themes were constructed through the analytic induction method (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). In this study, the findings indicated that incompatible behaviors served different functions in teacher education classrooms. The preservice teachers perceived punitive teacher responses to students’ negative behaviors as compelling, ineffective and mostly humiliating practices. The preservice teachers provided three main elements that affect their attitudes, behaviors and experiences in a teacher education classroom. These elements were related to students, teachers, and the context of the classroom. The preservice teachers perceived their positive or negative behaviors mostly as reactions to the behavior of the teacher and the classroom environment.</p>

Highlights

The findings indicated that incompatible behaviors served different functions in teacher education classrooms
The opportunity to interact with their teachers for a long time creates a profound and comprehensive understanding of classroom life for preservice teachers long before they decide to participate in the teacher education programs (Balli, 2011)
This study focuses on the perceptions of preservice teacher about their own experiences in teacher education classrooms

Summary

Introduction

Teacher education programs are often accused of failing to prepare preservice teachers for real life classroom situations. Gurcay (2015) found that the classroom management courses had no effect on the classroom management styles of the preservice teachers. Darling-Hammond (2010) stated that teacher education programs are often too theoretical and too abstract and that they cannot offer specific instructional tools for the use of preservice teachers. De Juanas and Beltrán (2012) argued that students tend to be as naive at the end of their university studies as the years they have entered.Teacher educators who are obliged to disseminate accepted theories and effective teaching methods work with students who tend to filter teacher education courses according to their established beliefs about how to teach (Balli, 2011). In Balli's (2011) study, she found that preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching are originated to a large extent from their memories gathered for 12 or more years by observing and interacting with their primary, secondary and high school teachers. This is similar to what Lortie (2002) calls "observation apprenticeship". The opportunity to interact with their teachers for a long time creates a profound and comprehensive understanding of classroom life for preservice teachers long before they decide to participate in the teacher education programs (Balli, 2011). It seems useful for preservice teachers to develop beliefs about teaching, observational apprenticeship provides a challenge for teacher educators

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Conclusion