Teacher Students' Perspectives to Teacher Education Paradigms and Possibilities to Develop Teacher as a Researcher Approach in Teacher Education

Author(s):

Laura Hirsto(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 04 B, Programmes and Approaches: Teacher as researcher

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

K5.20

Chair:

Gaele Macfarlane

Contribution

The aim of this paper is to investigate and reflect on the idea teacher as researcher and different perspectives to it. The perspectives of teacher as a researcher has been given considerable thought in the history of teacher education. According to Zeichner (1983) research based paradigm of teacher education was not common in the US in 1980’s. According to him, there were many teacher education programs relying in behaviorist or master-apprentice models of teacher education. The apparent nature of teachers work and the lack of qualified teachers has sometimes led to political decisions to providing prospective teachers with short qualifying teacher education courses, in which theoretical viewpoints have been given little emphasis while the focus has been in teaching methods (Darling-Hammond, 2008; Hess, 2008). In this view, practicing teachers are objects of research, and not active collaborators or research partners (Babione, 2015, ix). In Finland, the idea has been to provide a university level masters’ education for teachers since 1970, when teacher education became part of universities’ faculties of education. Kansanen (2011) argues that teacher as researcher paradigm is especially apparent in Finnish teacher education in the requirement of teacher students to complete Masters’ thesis and in the amount of studies of research methods included. However, supporting teacher students’ development to become a research oriented practitioner may take different forms. There are different approaches through which the idea of teacher as researcher can be explored. The approaches reflected here are the evidence based practice, teacher inquiry (e.g. Babione, Stringer, Gough, Thomas & Pring, 2015) reflective practice (e.g. Zeichnerin & Liston, 1996) and Scholarhip of teaching and learning (SoTL) (e.g. Boyer, 1990, Kreber & Cranton, 2000). SoTL has been developed recently in the area of higher education and in the context of university teacher development. However, it provides interesting viewpoints through the elaborated contents for reflection ( e.g. Kreber & Cranton, 2000).

Method

In this paper, we first present perspectives to Zeichner’s (1983) model of various teacher education paradigms. Then, we will present preliminary findings of teacher students’ perspectives on the paradigms of teacher education from a pilot study investigated through a questionnaire. And finally, we will focus shortly on some of the different approaches of the idea of teacher as researcher (e.g. evidence based practice, teacher inquiry, reflective practice and Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)), and reflect their implications and possibilities in respect to the teacher students’ viewpoints. The design of the empirical study was cross-sectional. Questionnaire responses were collected in three different teacher education courses on voluntary bases. Altogether 155 teacher education students from different programs responded to the questionnaire. Response rates on the four different courses varied from 30 % to 70 %. Of the respondents 53,8 percent participated in the first year questionnaire, and 46,2 responded to the questionnaire in their third of fourth year of teacher education studies. 50,9 percent were elementary teacher education students, 30,1 percent were subject teacher education students and 19,1 percent were early education teacher students.

Expected Outcomes

The structure of the teacher students’ approaches to teacher education was investigated with Principal Axis Factoring. The factor structure was fairly similar to theoretical expectations, and the factors were named based on the theoretical perspectives identified by Zeichner (1983). First factor included the items of apprentice learning, therefore it was named Traditional-craft approach. The second factor included items of practical training, and it was named Practical or behavioristic approach. The third factor included items which described the importance of finding own ways of teaching and being a teacher, and it was named Personalistic approach. The fourth factor included items describing the meaning and importance of theory and educational research for teacher education and teachers. That was named Inquiry-oriented approach. In response to the first research question, on the basis of means, it seems that these teacher students perceived the practical approaches most important in teacher training. Among the highest means was also an item referring to personalistic approach. On significant level, lowest means received two items which referred to Inquiry-oriented approach. Responses to those items can still be perceived to be slightly on the positive side. Thus, teacher students seem to feel that educational research and inquiry approach have a role in their teachership. According to Mann-Whitney U test there were significant differences in the means of the first and third to fourth year students in the Personalistic approach (p.<.01, η^2=.09 x ̅=4.64 and 4.15, respectively) and in the Inquiry-oriented approach (p<.05, η^2=.06) (x ̅=4.28 and 3.97, respectively). Thus, it seems that in terms of facilitating students to acquire a stance of teacher as a researcher, we could accomplish a little better. On the basis of theoretical viewpoints, some suggestions are made for the further development of teacher education in promotion of teacher as researcher.

References

Babione, C. (2015). Practitioner teacher inquiry and research. San Fransisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. -Jossey-Bass. Barnett, R. (2004). Learning for an unknown future. Higher Education Research & Development 23(3), 247–260. Barnett, R. & Coate, K. (2005). Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Boyer, E. L. (1990) Scholarship reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED326149.pdf Luettu: 20.12.2015. Cano, F. (2005). Epistemological beliefs and approaches to learning: their change through secondary school and their influence on academic performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology 75(2), 203-221. Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Knowledge for teaching –What we know? Teoksessa Cochran-Smith, M., Feiman-Nemser, S., McIntyre, J.D. & Demers, K.E. (toim.) Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group and the Association of Teacher Educators. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st-century teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 57, (X), 1-15. DOI: 10.1177/0022487105285962 Healey (2005). Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus. Hess, F.M. (2008). Teacher education and the education of teacher. Teoksessa Cochran-Smith, M., Feiman-Nemser, S., McIntyre, J.D. & Demers, K.E. (toim.) Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group and the Association of Teacher Educators. Kansanen, P. (2003). Teacher education in Finland: current models and new developments, in: B. Moon, L. Vlasceanu & L. Barrows (Eds) Institutional approaches to teacher education within higher education in Europe: current models and new development (Bucharest, UNESCO-CEPES). Kansanen, P. (2011). Selected thesis for a sustainable teacher education programme. Orbis Scholae, 5(2), 51-65. Kreber, K & Cranton, P. A. (2000). Exploring the Scholarship of Teaching. The Journal of Higher Education 71 (4), 476-495. Perry, W. G. (1970). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Shulman, L. S.. (1986). Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1175860 Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review 57(1), 1-22. Thomas, G. and Pring, R. (Eds.) (2004). Evidence-based Practice in Education. Open University Press Zeichner, K. (1983). Alternative paradigms of teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education 34, 3-9. Zeichner, K. & Liston, D.P (1987). Teaching student teachers to reflect. Harvard Educational Review 57 (1).

Author Information

Laura Hirsto (presenting / submitting)

Univeristy of Eastern Finland

Philosophical Faculty

57101 Savonlinna

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