Student Teachers' Professional and Personal Development through Academic Study of Educational Transactional Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate student teachers' personal and professional development following academic study of educational transactional analysis. Students from two countries, 21 from Finland and 15 from England, participated in the study. Members of both cohorts each made an action plan and a personal growth plan with regard to their personal and professional growth on completion of the two-day Introduction to Transactional Analysis (TA 101) course. Approximately 6 months after their respective transactional analysis courses, the students completed a follow-up questionnaire. The first-stage results showed how the students thought they would apply certain transactional analysis concepts and gave evidence of their reasons, intentions, and goals for achieving increased effectiveness as a teacher. In the second stage, the results showed the students' estimations of their increase of awareness and skill with respect to six key areas of personal and professional growth. These results indicate a need to strengthen psychosocial studies in teacher education and also that transactional analysis might be a useful theory and instrument for the personal and professional development of student teachers.