Search results for: Tang Sylvia Yee Fan

This study that explored student teachers’ learning experiences in initial teacher education (ITE) in relation to competence to work in schools. The findings demonstrate that the development of competence to work in schools was characterised by deep contextualised learning. The authors argue that student teachers’ development of competence to work in schools entails three facets. First, they need to learn about the organizational dimension of teachers’ work and develop understanding of the micro-political realities of schools. Second, they should develop competence in social capital building which involves soliciting affective and cognitive support through establishing networks with multiple actors in schools. Third, the authors note that expanding one’s repertoire of social strategies helps foster a sense of agency in the face of institutional constraints.

This study examines the relationship between different types of teaching motivation and (1) various facets of professional competence and (2) planned engagement in future teaching. The findings show the positive association between ‘intrinsic–altruistic motivation constellation’ and selected facets of professional competence. Two major professional orientations of the ‘intrinsic–altruistic motivation constellation’ were identified: (1) student-centred orientation and (2) subject-centred orientation.

The current study aimed to investigate the professional learning of student-teachers in Bachelor of Education programmes. The findings suggest a typology of different approaches of practicalising theoretical knowledge which reflect how student-teachers make personal interpretations of theoretical knowledge and develop their own teaching pedgagogies in school contexts. The three approaches to practicalising theoretical knowledge include the Procedural Approach, the Reflective-adaptive approach, and the Reflective-theorising approach. The authors conclude that the different approaches of practicalising theoretical knowledge and suggested ways of maximising professional learning are derived from empirical findings in a programme which tends to put emphasis on professional learning in the higher education context as compared to the school-based context.

This article examines the gap between the theory and practice of teaching by reporting a study that researched the inconsistencies between student teachers' best teaching strategies and their most commonly employed ones. Specifically, the authors investigated: (1) the considerations that contribute to the inconsistencies in the student teachers' conceptions of teaching; and (2) the enhancing factors of the teacher education programme which help to close the gap between the theory and practice of teaching. The findings revealed three main dimensions of consideration attributing to the inconsistencies in the conceptions of teaching: pre-training experience, teaching context and student needs.