Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Instructors’ Teaching Skills

Hasan Huseyin Sahan

doi:10.5539/jel.v6n3p217

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of pre-service teachers attending the pedagogical formation program offered by Balıkesir University Necatibey Faculty of Education pertaining to instructors’ teaching skills. A total of 220 pre-service teachers participated in the study. The data were collected by “Perceptions of Teaching Skills Scale” (PTSS), developed by the researcher. A three-way ANOVA was used to test whether pre-service teachers’ perceptions correlate significantly with their gender and major, and the subject-area of the instructors they evaluated. The results of the study showed that, according to the pre-service teachers’ perceptions, instructors “frequently” demonstrated behaviors indicative of teaching skills. Pedagogs and subject teachers showed similarity in the frequency of display of general teacher behaviors as well as behaviors belonging to the warm-up, development, and closure stages of a lesson. However, they displayed a higher rate of frequency than field instructors in the mentioned behaviors. The independent effect of gender was a determining factor in pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding general teacher behaviors and behaviors in the warm-up, development, and closure stages of a lesson. On the other hand, the independent effect of major was a determining factor only in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the behaviors in the warm-up stage. The research revealed that the gender*field common effect affects pre-service teachers’ perceptions of general teacher behaviors, while the field*major common effect affects both general teacher behaviors and behaviors in the warm-up stage. The results also indicated that gender*field common effect and field*major common effect mutually affect each other.

Highlights

With the rapid developments in science and technology, philosophies and practices in the field of education have been undergoing dramatic changes
The data of the study were collected by the “Perceptions of Teaching Skills Scale” (PTSS) (Şahan, 2016)
The findings reveal that gender*field and field*major variables each have an interaction effect on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of general teacher behaviors indicative of teaching skills

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid developments in science and technology, philosophies and practices in the field of education have been undergoing dramatic changes. It seems possible to divide the research literature on evaluation of instructors’ skills in two groups The former includes scale development studies (Dalgıç, 2010), and the latter includes studies aiming to evaluate the instructors in terms of properties of an ideal instructor (personal features, communication skills, teaching skills, class management, subject area knowledge and measurement and evaluation) (Açıkgöz, 1990; Akgül, 1994; Ergün et al, 1999; Şen & Erişen, 2002; Watthaisong, 2003; Erdem & Sarıtaş, 2006; Parpala Lindblom-Ylanne, 2007; Özdemir & Uzel, 2010; Gül, 2010). 3) Do pre-service teachers’ gender and major, and the subject field of instructors affect pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding instructors’ levels of displaying teaching behaviors?

Design

Participants

Data Collection Tool

Results

Results and Discussion