Reflection on the Quality of Teacher Education Professional Thinking as Reflected by Pre-Service Teachers

Jacob M Selesho

doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n2p57

Abstract

Reflection is a mysterious concept to many of the students who enter the pre-service teacher educator programme. The study of exploring the quality of pre-service teacher education programme of a newly qualified educators have not been undertaken in our context, many have not written or even thought reflectively during early years of their career. This paper reports on the findings of a research conducted on the quality of teacher education programme for pre-service students who enrolled for the teacher programme. The key issue examined in the paper was to establish the quality of pre-service teacher programme and whether these programme has indeed produced students that have a significant contribution to the world of work. The assumption made is that pre-service teacher who have performed better in high school are likely to complete their qualification in the designated time at the university and perform better in the workplace. In an effort to widen understanding regarding the factors that predict the performance of a pre-service teacher at work, prior academic achievement results in the form of university results were examined. 228 student admitted in the pre-service qualification programme at the beginning of 2004 academic year were sampled for the study. Data concerning completion rate, satisfaction with the experiental learning, self inquiry, professional inquiry, professional training and mentoring progress were assessed. The survey were designed to study reflections of respondents related to the quality of their education courses and understanding of different educational phenomena with a purpose of studying changes in their pedagogical thinking. Data about career development were obtained from interviews with graduates, School Management Teams and learning facilitators. An analysis of the results revealed significant differences in the professional thinking of the educator readiness of co-operation with colleagues, in the perception of learners’ characteristics and problems of teaching, and in the attitudes towards learners. The results reveal that pre-service teacher perfomance at university had a significant effect on world of work. High perfomance is associated with significantly less time before graduation, better career progression and better productivity in the teaching subjects. Gender differences were found in the study duration and career progress. Female students graduate earlier and have a better chance of climbing the ladder in terms of career progress. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n2p57

Highlights

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation
Data were collected from graduates of university from students enrolled for Teacher Education programmes
Experienced teachers and teacher educators are aware that becoming a teacher is an ongoing, life-long process

Summary

Introduction

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. Developing critical thinking skills in societal contexts involved examining “the deep meanings, personal implications, and social consequences of any knowledge, theme, technique, text or material” (Lip 2010: 550). It seemed that students develop critical thinking skills if they could interpret the underlying messages from any text such as their learning experience through micro teaching. A low sense of efficacy, in turn, will affect the mode of responding to new situations, including difficult or unmotivated students Both self-efficacy and agency operate in interaction with the possibilities offered by social structures such as the school environment, or change demands produced extraneously. If these conditions clash with what teachers believe they can do or believe should be done, they may result in passive submission (lack of motivation) or in reasonable attempts to implement without leaving aside those practices already considered sound (Vandeyar 2005)

Developing Critical Thinkers

Critical thinking is a productive and positive activity

Procedure

Discussion and Findings

Profesional Support afforded during the parcticals

Conclusion