Pre-service Teachers’ Perceived Competence And Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study At German Universities Of Technology

Author(s):

Sonja Mohr(presenting / submitting)Angela Ittel

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES C 03, Teachers' Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-09

11:00-12:30

Room:

A-103

Chair:

Ozge Hacifazlioglu

Contribution

The European Schoolnet (EUN) identified two essential actions that have been established to improve STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) in Europe: the development of motivating curricula and teaching methods, and the improvement of teacher education and professional development (Kearney, 2010). The investigation of the effectiveness and efficiency of teacher education programmes supports these actions in providing important data for the implementation regarding this goal. Therefore, cross-national studies (e.g. TEDS-M) analysed the outcomes of teacher education programmes in different countries around the world. In Germany, the results of such studies have been received with great concern. Standards for teacher education might function as benchmarks to improve these outcomes, but the implementation of standards is fairly new in Germany: In 2004 the German Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education has set up standards for teacher education in educational sciences for the first time (KMK, 2004), which define four competence areas to be developed systematically within the teacher education programmes: teaching, education, assessment, and innovation.

In the presented longitudinal study (N_T1 = 590, N_T2 = 263, N_T3 = 161), we focused on teacher education programmes at German universities of technology. The aim was to assess pre-service teachers’ self-conceptions in terms of pedagogic competence, motivations for selecting teaching as a career, personality traits, and satisfaction with study programme in order to identify particularities, strengths and weaknesses of teacher education programmes at universities of technology.

The structure and the contents of teacher education programmes vary to a great extent between German universities. For this paper, groups of pre-service teachers’ were identified depending on their chosen school type (primary, secondary or vocational education) and on their chosen subjects (STEM-subjects or non-STEM subjects) to analyse, whether special needs of these different groups need to be considered in the curricula of the teacher education programmes. According to several studies (e.g. Kaub et al., 2012) and previous analyses of this data (Mohr & Ittel, 2011), pre-service teachers’ results vary according to chosen school types and/or subjects: Apparently, pre-service science teachers’ are less satisfied from the beginning of teacher education, and pre-service science and/or mathematics teachers who chose secondary education are characterized by lower perceived competence.

For the present analyses, we focused on investigating pre-service teachers’ perceived competence over time and satisfaction with study programme. Whereas optimistic levels of perceived competence provide positive self-conceptions in terms of being a teacher (Cramer, 2010), satisfaction with study programme is considered relevant for success in teacher education (Künsting & Lipowsky, 2011). The following research question shall be answered in this paper: Does the perceived competence and satisfaction with study programme vary across groups of pre-service teachers’ depending on their chosen school type and/or subjects?

Method

Questionnaire data from pre-service teachers from five universities of technology were collected in this study (161 pre-service teachers participated in all three measurement points: 68% female; age: M = 25.23, SD = 4.25). In the sample, 17% of the students were studying to become a teacher at a primary school, 62% were studying to become a teacher at a secondary school, and 20% were studying to become a teacher in vocational education. 63% chose at least one STEM subject, and 36% chose two non-STEM subjects. Participation was voluntary which leaded to a dropout of approx. 73% throughout the three measurement points (8 months intervals, starting February 2011). Perceived competence was measured using a 33-item scale by Gröschner and Schmitt (2009). Pre-service teachers were asked to evaluate their skills in four competence fields: teaching, education, assessment, and innovation. The answers ranged from 1 (not competent at all) to 7 (completely competent). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) was sufficient for all subscales (alpha ranging from .86 to .94). Students’ satisfaction and ideas for improvement were assessed in open questions. Answers were coded using a qualitative content analysis approach. Six categories were deductively derived from the literature and inductively supported through content analysis.

Expected Outcomes

Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed to assess changes in pre-service teachers’ perceived competence over time. Accordingly, perceived teaching competence increased significantly over time. Perceived education, assessment, and innovation competence did not change in the course of this study. Subsequently, subject group and school type were included as between subject factors. A significant interaction of subject group and time was found in terms of perceived teaching, and innovation competence, and a significant interaction of school type and time was found in terms of perceived teaching, and education competence. The analyses of pre-service teachers’ satisfaction and ideas for improvement of the study programme revealed that students mostly referred to the following five categories: practical school work, subject-related didactics, subject-related specialised courses, quality of university teaching and study programme organisation. Crosstab analyses revealed that pre-service teachers’ satisfaction was associated with their chosen school type (four out of five categories) and subject group (two out of five categories). Whether per-service teachers stated ideas of improvement was not associated with chosen school type or subject group. Results show that pre-service teachers’ specialization need to be considered during teacher education to a greater extent. Suggestions for improvement will be made to conclude this presentation.

References

Cramer, C. (2010). Kompetenzerwartungen Lehramtsstudierender. Grenzen und Perspektiven selbsteingeschätzter Kompetenzen in der Lehrerbildungsforschung. In A. Gehrmann, U. Hericks & M. Lüders (Hrsg.), Bildungsstandards und Kompetenzmodelle. Beiträge zu einer aktuellen Diskussion über Schule, Lehrerbildung und Unterricht (S. 85-97). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Gröschner, A. & Schmitt, C. (2009). Skalen zur Erfassung von Kompetenzen in der Lehrerausbildung. http://www.uni-jena.de/unijenamedia/Downloads/einrichtungen/zfd/Skalenhandbuch_NEU.pdf (10.05.2010). Kaub, K., Karbach, J., Biermann, A., Friedrich, A., Bedersdorfer, H.-W., Spinath, F. M. & Brünken, R. (2012). Berufliche Interessensorientierungen und kognitive Leistungsprofile von Lehramtsstudierenden mit unterschiedlichen Fachkombinationen. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 26(4), 233-249. Kearney, C. (2010). Efforts to Increase Students’ Interest in Pursuing Mathematics, Science and Technology Studies and Careers. Brussels: European Schoolnet. KMK (2004a). Standards für die Lehrerbildung: Bildungswissenschaften. Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 16.12.2004. http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse/2004/2004_12_16-Standards-Lehrerbildung.pdf (07.05.2010). Künsting, J. & Lipowsky, F. (2011). Studienwahlmotivation und Persönlichkeitseigenschaften als Prädiktoren für Zufriedenheit und Strategienutzung im Lehramtsstudium. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 25(2), 105-114. Mohr, S. & Ittel, A. (2011). Zum Zusammenhang von Kompetenzeinschätzung und individuellen Merkmalen bei Lehramtsstudierenden technisch-orientierter Fächer. Lehrerbildung auf dem Prüfstand, 4(2), 303-318.

Author Information

Sonja Mohr (presenting / submitting)

Berlin Institute of Technology

Educational Psychology

Berlin

Angela Ittel

Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany

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