This paper examines changes in pre-service teacher’s perceptions of pedagogy. As they progressed through teacher education these beliefs are either reinforced or challenged (Burn et al., 2003). Pre-service teachers enter teacher education with strongly held views and attitudes, taken from their own apprenticeship of learning (Fajet et al., 2005).  This study reports on a research study that systematically tracks the beliefs of desirable pedagogical qualities of 167 pre-service teachers in an undergraduate degree. It draws on constructivists’ theory, the notion that the teacher learns to construct meaning about teaching from experiences they bring into their teaching in a conscious and systematic way (Loughran, 2010). This study argues that constructed perceptions exist, yet there is the potential to support the pre-service teacher to reframe and reconstructed firmly held ideas (Korthagen et al., 2008).  The implications are that an understanding of how pedagogy beliefs evolve will assist teacher educators in supporting their students’ pedagogical learning with the potential to influence as well as reconfirm pedagogical beliefs.

Research Questions:

• Which teacher qualities were seen as statistically significant and referred to most often in the data at specific points in their course?
• What perceptions did the pre-service teachers have in terms of the teacher qualities they most valued?

Theoretical framework

This paper draws on the theoretical understandings of pre-service teacher’s beliefs and on the concept that pre-service teacher’s views on pedagogy change only when there are changes in their personal belief systems (Kagan, 1992). Pre-service teacher’s conceptualisation of teaching, views on effective teaching and understandings of student behaviour are influenced by personal beliefs (Pajares, 1992). Changing pre-service teachers’ views on effective pedagogy is complex with pre-service teachers, often having fixed conceptions about teaching unwilling to take on alternative conceptions (Fischler, 1999).

Pre-service teacher’s pedagogical quality depends on multiple, interdependent factors: the school, the classroom practices and the characteristics of teachers. Developing effective pedagogical expertise involves the linking of new learning within existing preconceptions (Wubbels, 1992). It is directly influence by professional experiences, the teaching context and the cooperative teacher (Korthagen et al., 2006). Pedagogical learning involves making familiar the language, ideas and pedagogy of the teaching with opportunity for reflection and confidence building (Loughran, 2011). Gholami and Husa, (2010) refers to this as ‘practical knowledge’ which is converted to suit the situational demands of the classroom. Pedagogical understandings can also include the ideas of emotional knowledge, viewed as the concept of ‘care’, based on the ‘what works notion’ central to the reasoning behind teaching (Garritz , 2010).

Effective teachers have an ability to discover techniques that is best fit for their students. These are learnt first- hand on the job, linking theory to practice within the school setting (Darling-Hammond et al., 2006). Pedagogical learning from experience requires first that one interpret that experience, involving reflective thought and action, shared learning, connections to prior learning (Paris, Polson-Genge and Shanks, 2010).

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