Changes in Secondary School Preservice Teachers’ Concerns About Teaching in New Zealand

Abstract

This study followed a cohort of preservice teachers ( n = 85) in a 1-year secondary school program in New Zealand to examine their concerns about teaching in terms of what they are, how they are related to teaching efficacy, and how they are affected by practicum experiences. Before beginning the program and after each of two practica, participants completed the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (short form) and the Concerns About Teaching Scale. Focus groups ( n = 8 each) were conducted after each survey administration. Results indicated that the participants’ concerns about teaching became differentiated over time and with classroom experience; their sense of efficacy increased. Results are discussed in terms of practical implications for teacher education taking into consideration the relationships among teaching concerns, practicum experiences, views of teaching, and policy changes in New Zealand.

Connecting Attitudes Toward Teaching and Pedagogical Formation Courses: A Study of Turkish Pre-Service Teachers

“…An unexpected finding was a high agreement to the statement: "I believe that teaching would bring me prestige in the society", especially given the general agreement in the literature that teaching has become less prestigious and valued, leading in some cases to teacher shortages. Similarly to the previous research reporting lower self-concerns at the end of the preparation program (Boz, 2008;Smith et al, 2013), this study found that pre-service teachers believed that they would be successful teachers.…”

“…While examining pre-service teachers' attitudes, researchers tend to analyse their concerns about teaching. In addition to the concerns related to teaching a specific subject (e.g., Campbell & Thompson, 2007;McDonnough & Matkins, 2010), researchers also emphasized the pre-service teachers' concerns about the adequacy of their preparation (Baum & McMurray-Schwarz, 2004) and show how pre-service teachers' attitudes and concerns change as they gain more classroom experience and progress through their preparation program (Lamote & Engels, 2010, Smith et al, 2013). Yet, lesser examined in the current research is the impact of university-offered classes on pre-service teachers' attitudes toward the teaching profession, suggesting the need to further analyse this area in different educational contexts around the world.…”

Validation of the Malaysian Version of the Teacher Education Program Coherence Questionnaire

“…To do this, we correlated the obtained factors with teaching efficacy using the second data set (N=234). An integrated preservice teacher preparation has been suggested to be able to influence how efficacious preservice teachers are in the classroom (Gurvitch & Metzler, 2009;Hoy & Spero, 2005;Smith, Corkery, Buckley & Clavert, 2013). We expect that the factors will be positively correlated with positive teaching efficacy.…”

“…After all, teacher educators must continually invest their effort towards a teacher program that have well-aligned courses including the practicum to optimize the learning process and learning outcomes of their preservice teachers (Grossman, Hammerness, McDonald & Rondelt, 2008;Zundans-Fraser & Bain, 2016). Results from various studies (example, Geoghegan, Geoghegan, O'Neill, and White, 2004;Gurvitch & Metzler, 2009;Hoy & Spero, 2005;Smith, Corkery, Buckley & Clavert, 2013) have revealed, for example, a link between the accessibility, meaningfulness, and relevance of the instruction at the teacher education program, as perceived by the preservice teachers, and the preservice teachers' positive teaching efficacy. In addition, the Malaysian teacher education program coherence questionnaire could be used as a diagnosing tool to investigate the impact of teacher preparation and of changes in preservice teachers' learning environment (e.g.…”

Teaching in flipped classrooms: Exploring pre-service teachers' concerns

“…Therefore, enhancing PST self-efficacy has been an important issue in teacher education (Sadaf, Newby, & Ertmer, 2012). Studies have shown that teachers with greater self-efficacy for teaching are more open to educational reform and more willing to adopt innovative practices (Charalambous & Philippou, 2010;Smith, Corkery, Buckley, & Calvert, 2012;Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Teachers with higher self-efficacy have more intense concern on impact (McKinney, Sexton, & Meyerson, 1999), and teachers with lower self-efficacy have more intense concern on tasks (Ghaith & Shaaban, 1999).…”