Preservice teachers development: Focus of concerns and perceived factors of successful teaching

Preservice teachers development: Focus of concerns and perceived factors of successful teaching

• Wong, Pui Man Jennie The Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Chan, Kwok Wai The Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Carless, David Robert

1999

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MA Professional Education for Teachers

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

Teacher effectiveness has always been an active area of research in teacher education, aiming to improve the quality of both preservice and inservice teachers, subsequently promote the quality of teaching and learning. In this respect, various aspects of teacher development have been studied by researchers such as the stages of development, mentorship, practical knowledge, teacher efficacy, teachers thinking and belief (e.g. Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Kagan, 1992; Bullough and Baughman, 1993' Nespor, 1987; Clark & Peterson, 1986). As teacher educator for many years, the author attempted to conduct a survey study of a group of preservice student teachers to examine their focus of concerns in teaching and their perceived factors leading to successful teaching as part of the investigated areas of teacher development in a teacher education institute in Hong Kong, The Fuller (1969) model of concerns has been widely utilized in teacher education programmes to explain the stages of professional development of a teacher. In the model, Fuller (1969) theorized that teacher concerns could be classified into three distinct categories: elf concerns" which center around the individual concern for their own survival related to their teacher preparation program, including their student teacher experiences; ask concerns" which focus upon the duties that teachers must carry out within the school environment; and impact concerns" which are related to one ability to make a difference and be successful with his /her students and the teaching/learning process. Subsequently, the author wished to know whether the Hong Kong preservice teachers exhibited similar categories of concerns as put forward in Fuller model despite a different cultural context. Meanwhile, the author tried to explore the factors perceived by preservice student teachers leading to successful teaching and whether and how their focus of concerns and perceived important factors of successful teaching were related. It was hoped that after the study, the findings obtained would prove useful to teacher educators and programme planners in the construction and review of teacher education programmes to cater for the needs of preservice teachers, lessen their focus of concerns, enhancing their professional development, leading to effective and successful class teaching in the end.

Paper presented at the International Conference on Teacher Education 1999: Teaching Effectiveness and Teacher Development in the New Century

• English

Conference Papers

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/6f4c11d9

2016-01-07