Teacher educators' conceptions of learning to teach and related teaching strategies

Abstract

Many contemporary pre‐service teacher education programmes aim to enhance the self‐regulation and active knowledge construction of student teachers. Fostering the growth of these life‐long learning skills in teacher education is an important task for teacher educators. It is often taken for granted that teacher educators when engaging in innovative practices will be able to take on these new roles of facilitators for learning. However, research investigating the relationship between teachers' thoughts and actions showed a picture of great variability. Studies investigating the relationship between teaching conceptions and strategies among teacher educators are scarce. To better understand why teacher educators teach the way they do, we aim in this study to advance current understandings of teacher educators' conceptions of learning to teach and related teaching strategies. Data were collected from 119 teacher educators of a Belgian Institute of Teacher Education. Results show that teacher educators have different conceptions of learning to teach and that these conceptions are moderately associated with their teaching strategies. Relationships between teacher characteristics and contextual factors yield possible explanations as to why inconsistencies are also present between likewise conceptions and strategies. The results are not only important for theory, but also for teacher education practice. Within current contexts of educational change, it is an important prerequisite to recognise these individual differences and, if needed, to also seek out ways of enhancing discussion and pedagogic development for teacher educators.