Fostering prospective teachers’ explaining skills during university education—Evaluation of a training module

Abstract

Providing instructional explanations is a core component of effective instruction and an important teaching skill. Teaching skills are generally regarded as learnable, and teacher education programs aim to improve teachers' professional competences. In this study, we analyze to what extent explaining skills can be fostered during teacher education at university by means of a specific training module. We designed a training (university module) for prospective economics teachers at vocational schools (candidates in a Master's teaching program). By means of videotaped simulated interactions at two measurement points, we analyzed the development of teacher candidates' explaining skills. Teacher candidates were asked to explain the neoclassical supply and demand model (treatment group: n = 48; control group: n = 30) to an actor playing the role of a school student. The quality of the explanations was operationalized in respect of five aspects of successful explanations, which were derived from a literature review: (1) Content, (2) Studentteacher interaction, (3) Process structure, (4) Representation, and (5) Language. The results show that there was a treatment effect on the development of the Process structure aspect, while Student-teacher interaction appeared to develop "naturally" through experience, regardless of participation in the training. The quality aspects Content, Representation, and Language appeared stable over time. Hence, the findings show that some aspects of explaining skills are learnable even in a short training module. Learning effects are attributable partly to the instructional input received and partly to repeated practice. Both imply the importance of further opportunities to practice instructional explanation in teacher education.

Learning-by-Teaching Without Audience Presence or Interaction: When and Why Does it Work?

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Analyzing textbook requirements to create physics learning resources

“…Pedagogic competence in managing, designing, and implementing learning [8], evaluating learning outcomes, and developing students to actualize their various potentials. Pedagogic competence is generally Int J Eval & Res Educ ISSN: 2252-8822  considered something that can be learned [9], and tertiary education programs aim to improve prospective teachers' professional competence [10].…”

The effectiveness of TMLM on Student Teachers’ Personality and Social Competence measured with Teacher Competency Assessment in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

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