“Miss, I Am Not Being Fully Prepared”: Student - Teachers’ Concerns About Their Preparation at a Teacher Training Institution in Jamaica

Abstract

The issue of teacher preparation continues to occupy academic discourse relating to student outcomes and student achievement (Stronge, Ward & Grant, 2011). Research has supported the view that there is an inextricable connection between student outcomes, quality of teaching and teachers, and teacher preparation (Darling-Hammond 2005; Grover 2002). Similarly, theories about students’ self efficacy beliefs (e.g. Bandura, 1977; Dweck, 2000) and Institutional Habitus (Bourdieu, 1977) have been advanced in relation to students’ study experience, motivation and coping mechanisms. Using data from a focus group comprising 30 third year students enrolled in a four year teacher training pogramme in Jamaica, this paper discusses student-teachers’ concerns about their training. The main findings from this small scale exploratory study indicated that student teachers’ concerns were about the quality of teaching and teachers, curriculum organisation, content and delivery, and resources.