Pre-Service Teacher Education = An Incisive Phase of Personal Transformation? On Pre-Service Teachers’ Strains and Developmental Tasks

Author(s):

Nadja Maria Köffler(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Poster

Session Information

10 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:

2015-09-09

12:30-14:00

Room:

Poster Area

Chair:

Contribution

Theoretical Framework

Since the "PISA-shock" around 2001 and the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999 the teacher education in German-speaking countries has been constantly reformed and has constituted appropriate grounds for scrutinising the efficacy of its curricular standards (cf. Buchberger & Buchberger 2002, S. 12). The curricular conception and framing of teacher education has been usually based on opinions and hints of educational experts. Nevertheless, also the needs of the learners themselves (cf. Sloane 2003) might be conclusive and able to reveal important curricular deficiencies. According to the approach of the theory of “Bildungsgang” (vgl. Trautmann 2004a; Schenk 2005; Hericks 2006; Meyer 2007) it is highly advisable to take pre-service teachers’ learning needs into consideration, which are seen as a reliable source for the curricular conception of teacher education. Also the fact that subject-oriented teaching promotes quality in learning and enhances “self-determined” (Combe & Gebhard 2007; Neuß 2009) and “expansive” learning (cf. Holzkamp 1995, Rihm 2010) needs to be taken into account. This study aims at approaching the concerns of personalized education, where learning needs are considered to be an important source for curriculum design. Therefore, this study focused on pre-service teachers’ ways of mastering university teacher education. It examines the question which strains they have to face during their time at university and which personal and educational needs those strains might indicate.

Research Question

This study addresses the following research questions:

Which strains and developmental tasks arise in the course of university teacher education from the perspective of pre-service teachers’ study biography?

Starting from this main question, the study intends to compare the reconstructed personal developmental areas to curricular learning standards in order to identify problematic discrepancies. It also seeks to reveal if university teacher education offers suitable support to master those developmental tasks successfully and if further intervention is necessary to reduce drop-out rates and students’ lack of drive during their years of study.

On the basis of the identified strains and students moments of crisis subjective developmental tasks (cf. Hahn 2004) are formulated. This still is an essential research desideratum in educational sciences (cf. Hericks 2006). Rudimentary research has been carried out on young in-service teachers (cf. Hericks 2006). Developmental tasks for pre-service teachers although haven’t been formulated so far, which underlines the potential of this study.

Method

One of the chosen tools for the reconstruction of subjective developmental tasks are experienced demanding situations/crises and health-affecting problems. According to action-based theories of learning (cf. Holzkamp 1995) demanding situations are seen as the breading ground for learning and development and bare great potential to trigger of intentional learning processes. Health-affecting problems on the other hand refer to the significance and power of experienced educational demands. The learner’s well-being in this context is understood as an important indicator of demanding situations which need to be handled, but require a lot of effort. This also might allude to possible needs of support on the part of the educational institution in order to be able to handle those problems more easily trying to minimize their turning into a highly critical situation. Following a pilot study, 30 one-hour semi-narrative interviews on highly demanding situations and their well-being within university teacher education with TES haven been conducted so far (19 interviews with focus on student’s well-being and their connection to university-related difficulties and problem areas; 12 interviews with focus on demanding situations & crises). In the course of a secondary analysis, the gained data was been refined by ten further interviews on TES’ occupational biography and ten written reflective documents on their professional development (written by students themselves at the end of their studies). Aiming at generating a theory on the genesis and type of subjective developmental tasks in teacher education, the collected data was analysed with the help of MaxQDA based on the principles of the Grounded Theory (cf. Strauss & Corbin 2010). At the moment it is still unclear if the results will be validated by the use of a follow-up questionnaire (mixed-method approach).

Expected Outcomes

Pre-service teachers experienced a wide range of strains in the course of their academic years which mostly relate to personal problems and self- development ranging from clarifying study and job doubts, organising one’s life, cutting ties with the parental home, dealing with setbacks or lowering one’s high aspirations. The identified strains were summed up to the following five developmental tasks: competence, autonomy, resilience, self-concept and failure tolerance. Learning outcomes which refer to specific study contents pre-service teachers had to deal with in the course of their professional education have only been rudimentarily mentioned. At this point the question arises why study contents are of such minor interest? Do students need to solve personal problems first before they are able to concentrate on more content-specific ones (cf. Fuller & Brown 1975) or are they perceived not as tiring as personal issues? Nevertheless, it has to be emphasized that self-regulating processes make up the basis of academic professionalization as models on teacher professionalism underline ( Cramer 2011, Sombre 2004, Bauer 1998). The gained results might indicate that university teacher education needs to provide more additional time as well as a special kind of mentoring to guarantee better support for pre-service teachers’ personality development (cf. Neuß 2009; Hericks 2006). Moreover, it turned out that social interchange especially with fellow students and study-integrated practical training represent important resources. Therefore, social interchange especially between novices and experienced teachers has to be promoted (e.g. ceremonies or intensified tutoring) and study-integrated practical training phases need to be maintained or even increased. Keeping teachers high responsibility in mind and the need for mature and balanced personalities in teaching professions, these results need to be discussed in the scope of the current reformation process of teacher education all over Europe.

References

Bauer, K.-O. (1998). Pädagogisches Handlungsrepertoire und professionelles Selbst von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 44 (3), pp. 343-359 Buchberger F. & Buchberger, I. (2002). Aktuelle Entwicklungslinien von LehrerInnenbildung in Europa. In: Sertl, M & Falkinger, B. (Eds.): LehrerInnenbildung in Bewegung? Zur Reform der Pädagogischen Akademien. Wien, pp. 9-30 Combe, A. & Gebhard, U. (2007). Sinn und Erfahrung. Zum Verständnis fachlicher Lernprozesse in der Schule. Opladen. Cramer, C. (2011). Entwicklung von Professionalität in der Lehrerbildung. Empirische Befunde zu Eingangsbedingungen, Prozessmerkmalen und Ausbildungserfahrungen Lehramtsstudierender. Bad Heilbrunn. Fuller, F. F. & Brown, O.H. (1975). Becoming a Teacher. In. K. Ryan (Ed.): Teacher Education. 74th Yearbook of the NSSE, Part I1, pp. 25-52 Hahn, S. (2004). Zum Gegenstand der Bildungsgangforschung – empirische Fragestellungen für eine Theorie „subjektiver Entwicklungsaufgaben“. In: Trautmann, M. (Ed.): Entwicklungsaufgaben im Bildungsgang. Wiesbaden, pp. 167-186 Hericks, U. (2006). Professionalisierung als Entwicklungsaufgabe. Rekonstruktion zur Berufseingangsphase von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Wiesbaden. Holzkamp, K. (1995). Lernen, Subjektwissenschaftliche Grundlegung. Frankurt a. Main. Neuß, N. (2009). Biographisch bedeutsames Lernen: Empirische Studien über Lerngeschichten in der Lehrerbildung. Wiesbaden. Rihm, T. (2010, Hrsg.). Teilhaben an Schule: Über den wirksamen Einfluss auf Schulentwicklung. 2. Auflage. Wiesbaden. Sloane, P.F.E. (2001). Lernfelder als curriculare Vorgabe. In: Bonz, B. (Ed.): Didaktik der beruflichen Bildung. Baltmannsweiler, pp. 187-203 Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (2010). Grounded Theory: Grundlagen Qualitativer Sozialforschung. Weinheim. Schenk, B. (2005, Ed.). Bausteine einer Bildungsgangtheorie – Studien zur Bildungsgangforschung. Wiesbaden. Trautmann, M. (2004). Entwicklungsaufgaben im Bildungsgang. Wiesbaden.

Author Information

Nadja Maria Köffler (presenting / submitting)

School of Education/ University of Innsbruck

Innsbruck

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