Acquiring teaching competences – On effectiveness of teacher training and effects of experiencing teaching during first year in profession

Author(s):

Matthias BAERDoris EdelmannGünter DörrTitus Guldimann

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 03A, Research on Initial/Pre-Service Teacher Education and in the Induction Year

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

14:00-15:30

Room:

A1 338

Chair:

Ian Menter

Contribution

The paper presents aims, methods and first results of a research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the Internationale Bodensee Hochschule (IBH) involving three educational universities in Switzerland and Germany. Our focus of interest is the longitudinal analysis of teaching competences from the beginning up to the end of teacher training and into the first year of professional occupation as a teacher. We investigated the teaching competences of a sample of student teachers at the beginning of their training at the involved educational universities and trace the development of their competences over the three-year period of their study as well as their first year in profession. Methodologically, our study is based on Oser's professional standards, as well as on the four dimensions ‘subject knowledge’, ‘diagnostic knowledge’, ‘didactical knowledge’, and ‘classroom management knowledge’, which have been framed as crucial competences for teachers. A combination of the following different instruments was used to investigate how teaching competences develop during teacher training: (1) questionnaires for teacher students and expert teachers, (2) vignettes, and (3) video analyses of school lessons. According to this goal, the relationship between students' subjective ratings of their competences and standardized data from observations and tests are compared to investigate the relationship between subjective rating data from students and standardized data from observations and tests. Our study aims at the development of complex teacher knowledge in order to gain empirically based insights into the acquisition of professional competences in pre-service teacher training and first year in profession. Collected data from teacher students and novice teachers are compared to data accordingly collected from expert teachers.

Method

Quantitative data (from questionnaires) (n = 794) as well as qualitative data from vignettes (n = 120), and videos of school lessons (n = 120) were collected during students' three years in teacher education for primary school teachers and during their first year as novice teachers in profession, and manuals for transforming qualitative data into quantitative data were developed and applied to the collected qualitative data.

Expected Outcomes

The study allows for a longitudinal analysis from the beginning up to the end of teacher training and the first year in profession. It is aimed at working out an empirically based answer to the following question: Do prospective teachers become more competent through teacher training and - as novice teachers – due to experiencing teaching during the first year in profession, and how do their competences relate to the competences of expert teachers who have been working more than 10 years in their profession.

References

Baer, M., Doerr, G., Fraefel, U., Kocher, M., Kuester, O., Larcher, S., Mueller, P., Sempert, W. & Wyss, C. (in press). Competences and standards in teacher education in Switzerland and Germany - Do prospective teachers become more competent through teacher training? In F. Achtenhagen & F. Oser (Eds.), Teachers´ professional development: Aims, Modules, Evaluation. Rotterdam: Sense. Baer, M., Dörr, G., Fraefel, U., Kocher, M., Küster, O., Larcher, S., Müller, P., Sempert, W. & Wyss, C. (2007). Werden angehende Lehrer durch das Studium kompetenter? Kompetenzaufbau und Standarderreichung in der berufswissenschaftlichen Ausbildung an drei Pädagogischen Hochschulen in der Schweiz und in Deutschland. Unterichtswissenschaft, 35 (1), 15-47. Baumert, J. & Kunter, M. (2006). Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 9 (4), 469-520. Helmke, A. & Weinert, F.E. (1997). Bedingungsfaktoren schulischer Leistungen. In F.W. Weinert (Hrsg.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Bd. 3: Psychologie des Unterrichts und der Schule (S. 71-176). Göttingen: Hogrefe. Oser, F. & Oelkers, J. (2001). Die Wirksamkeit der Lehrerbildungssysteme. Von der Allrounderbildung zur Ausbildung professioneller Standards. Nationales Forschungsprogramm 33, Wirksamkeit unserer Bildungssysteme. Zürich: Rüegger. Oser, F. & Renold, U. (2005). Kompetenzen von Lehrpersonen – über das Auffinden von Standards und ihre Messung. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Beiheft, S. 119-140. Oser, F. (2004). Standardbasierte Evaluation der Lehrerbildung. In S. Blömeke, P. Reinhold, G. Tulodziecki & J. Wildt (Hrsg.), Handbuch Lehrerbildung (S. 184-206). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Oser, F., Achtenhagen, F. & Renold, U. (2006). Modeling teacher competences: Identifying and measuring standards. In F. Oser, F. Achtenhagen & U. Renold (Eds.), Competence oriented teacher training. Old research demands and new pathways (pp. 23-48). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Author Information

Matthias BAER

Zurich University for Applied Sciences

Teaching and Learning

Zurich

Doris Edelmann

University of Fribourg (CH)

Education

Fribourg

Günter Dörr

Educational University Weingarten

Weingarten

Titus Guldimann

University of Education, St. Gallen, Switzerland

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