Contribution
Description: Moving between Learning Spaces and Cultures: Student Teachers' Entering Beliefs Meeting new Learning Contexts - a Preliminary Analysis of Second-level Teacher Education in Ireland
Existing research suggests that student teachers' entering educational and epistemological beliefs play a crucial role in their knowledge acquisition and are often resistant to change (Pajares, 1992). They are increasingly expected to have an equally pivotal impact on teacher practice and student outcomes in general.
It has been recognized that teacher education programmes must strive to 'resolve mistaken assumptions' leading students to belief that 'there is little to learn about teaching or that a strong teaching personality and an assertive energy are what matter most as opposed to refined cognitive skills, pedagogical acumen, or the mastery of subject matter knowledge' (Department of Education, Ireland, 2002, p. 32).
This paper represents the first phase of a research project aiming to explore the influence of the institutional and biographical context of teacher education on student teachers' prior beliefs and knowledge construction about what teaching and learning and the purpose of a teacher training programme are. Belief- and knowledge transformation and transfer between and across contexts and time will be analyzed theoretically and empirically.
The notion of Bereiter's 'contextual model' that is 'not just related to a context' but 'embodies the person's whole relationship to that context' (Bereiter, 1990, p. 613) inspires an analysis of the multiple relationships between student, university and placement school. To explore the multilayered nature of these relationships, Popper's 'three worlds' concept will be adopted to distinguish between external (different learning spaces, knowledge bases, established norms, etc.), social (processes of enculturation) and internal (biographical) knowledge worlds (Popper, 1979).
Methodology: Statistical data collected from applicants for the Higher Diploma in Education courses at the National University of Ireland (Cork, Dublin, Galway, Maynooth) will be analyzed to describe student teachers' demographics, educational backgrounds and prior teaching experience. The data is provided by the Higher Diploma of Education Application Centre where applications are centrally administered and selection and course place allocation takes place.
Unstructured, in-depth interviews with student teachers will further explore their personal context and perceptions of learning and teaching as well as their expectations regarding the teacher education programme.
Unstructured, in-depth interviews with University tutors and school staff will explore beliefs and conceptions about learning, teaching and teacher education.
Constant comparison (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, 105-6) will be applied with the aim to derive sets of preliminary categories within and across different contexts. They are expected to cluster around notions like belief-systems and their formation, perceptions regarding desirable goals and strategies of teacher education programmes and school-university-student relationships.
Conclusions:
This study will offer new insights into the process of belief and knowledge formation and transformation in second-level student teachers. By highlighting critical contextual factors of influence it can contribute to the development of 'teaching and learning structures that directly engage with teachers' beliefs, assumptions, theories, and understandings about teaching' (Department of Education, Ireland, p. 59).
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