Session Information
10 SES 12 A, Research on Programmes and Pedagogical Approaches in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
This research is located within the Modern Languages Section of the School of Education in the University of Glasgow and investigates how a group of student teachers from a variety of nationalities following the PGDE Secondary programme perceive the value of their own and others’ prior experience. The original overarching aim of an initial research project was to identify how the prior experience of student teachers could best be utilised to prepare them for the challenge of teaching modern languages in the Scottish context (Crichton & Templeton, 2010). Their own successful prior experience of language learning and its use provides these future teachers with the basis for engaging young Scottish learners with the concept of international education and for countering the misconception that a knowledge of English alone will suffice.
At a time when many universities are incorporating problem based or collaborative learning into their courses, this latest stage in the research project focuses on collaborative, directed study tasks and how these can best be constructed in order to capitalise on the range of prior experience within the group. This research describes a group of student teachers’ perceptions of the role of prior experience in completing collaborative tasks. The students in the study came from a wide variety of international backgrounds and had a broad range of experience before they started their postgraduate teaching course. Directed collaborative tasks related to pedagogy and practice, performed in pre-determined groupings reflecting the diversity of their personal histories and experience, allowed the students to have the opportunity of working with a large number of their peers each week over a period of twelve weeks. The students were asked to comment on how they valued their own and others’ prior experiences and how they considered prior experience informed the completion of the tasks. They were also asked to comment on the dynamic of groups in which they worked and how they felt it affected the management and achievement of the task.
Previous research into student teachers’ prior experiences has tended to focus on how their prior experiences impact on their future teaching (Banks 2009, Beijaard, et al. 2000, Powell 1992, Calderhead & Robson 1991). There appears to be little research about the way students' prior experiences might form part of a collaborative learning environment before they start their teaching career and how shared contributions from students who bring to the Post Graduate Diploma of Education (PGDE) course a variety of relevant experiences may contribute to the construction of understanding of what it is to be a teacher and the links between theory and practice. As new initiatives for teacher education are being implemented in other countries, the research may be considered significant not only by highlighting collaborative tasks as a possible model for curricular development in teacher education programmes which up till now have not included collaborative practices, but also by demonstrating the way that students may be helped to assign meaning to areas of policy and the curriculum.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Banks, F. (2009) What prior experiences are perceived as useful to students following an ITT design and technology course? The Journal of Design and Technology Education 2, 3: 230-235. Beijaard, D., Verloop, N. &. Vermunt, J. D. (2000) Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: an exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education 16, 7: 749-764 Calderhead, J. & Robson, M. (1991) Images of Teaching: Student Teachers' early conceptions of classroom practice. Teaching & Teacher Education, 7, 1:1- 8. Crichton H. & Templeton B. (2010) The New Alliance: Pedagogy and Student Experience. Intercultural Professional Learning TEAN journal 1, 1 http://194.81.189.19/ojs/index.php/TEAN/issue/current/showToc Powell R. R. (1992) The influence of prior experiences on pedagogical constructs of traditional and nontraditional preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 8, 3: 225-238.
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