Section archive - Preservice Teachers

The authors conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study in 2016 with 697 student teachers from two Universities. The study used structural equation modelling to analyse the effects of received social support from family and fellow-students as well as perceived self-efficacy in relation to the basic psychological needs in teacher education. To measure the effects of received social support on the satisfaction of basic needs, the authors developed two scales adapting Mansfield’s qualitative approach on teacher resilience. Perceived self-efficacy turned out to be effected directly by received fellow-students’ support as well as having a mediation effect on higher levels of autonomy and competence, whereas received family support leads only to higher levels of autonomy. Especially received fellow-students’ support is directly connected to higher levels of need satisfaction. Finally, the authors discuss conclusions for shaping conditions of university-life according to experiencing what is necessary for a higher level of perception and satisfaction of basic psychological needs.

This paper reports on an exploratory study designed to determine and enhance the conceptual understanding of a group of pre-service mathematics teachers at one Irish university utilizing an established framework for understanding mathematics. 23 students on a one-year Professional Diploma in Mathematics Education participated in the study, which involved the distribution of a pre- and post-test and engagement in a ten week intervention designed to enhance their subject matter knowledge (SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings highlight that although there was an improvement in overall conceptual understanding across the entire cohort at the end of the intervention, within certain mathematical topics there was a statistically insignificant improvement and many deep-rooted issues remain. In this paper the authors focus on the pre-service teachers’ understanding of elementary algebra, in particular, how to solve a linear equation.

In a mixed-methods longitudinal study, the authors monitored the development of interaction skills among a group of Dutch pre-service teachers with repeated measures for 3 years and structured interviews. The results of a linear mixed-effects model revealed an impressive growth of interaction skills during the pre-service training. The qualitative interview data revealed progress of pre-service teachers’ professional reflection on their interaction with young children. These outcomes show the effectiveness of pre-service training for the development of interaction skills and professional reflection in early childhood education and care. However, progress is relatively modest for instructional skills and this domain needs further investment in pre-service training.

This article examines the ways that students recounted personal and professional stories in classroom discussion in relation to their emerging understanding of what it would mean to become a bilingual educator. The authors found that the storied character of teachers’ knowledge building and identity exploration. Through narratives-in-interaction shared in online written discussion, the participants related experiences and described imagined teacher roles as they made sense of bilingual teaching. The findings also demonstrated how narrative-in-interaction functioned as a learning system through which preservice teachers made diverse knowledge sources their own, connecting individual to collective and theoretical to experiential knowledge.