Quality teacher education:

What helps or hinders learning in teacher education

Airini

Barry Brooker

Christchurch College of Education

Te Whare Whai Matauraka Ki Otautahi

Aotearoa New Zealand

With a view to informing understandings of quality teacher education, research through the Quality Teacher Education (QTE) Project has focused on what helps or hinders learning in teacher education. Particular attention is paid to preservice teacher education and factors which students themselves report as influencing their ability to learn how to be an effective teacher. While existing teacher education research has tended to focus on evaluating the student teacher’s competency to teach as an indicator of quality teacher education, the QTE Project has emphasised the conditions and processes in preservice teacher education. Using the Critical Incident technique (Flanagan, 1954) the QTE Project examined 9 transcripts, identifying 12 categories that describe what helps or hinders learning preservice teacher education. It is suggested that the incidents and categories have implications for policy and practices associated with achieving quality in teacher education in general and preservice teacher education in particular. In response to the need to understand what processes in teacher education might support the provision of quality teacher education and thereby contribute to high quality teaching, this paper reports on the research questions: What hinders learning in preservice teacher education? What helps learning in preservice teacher education?

This paper is about teacher education, about student perceptions of preservice teacher education and what those perceptions might tell us about the development and delivery of quality teacher education. In an environment in which teacher education is increasingly under public and political scrutiny, a precise answer to the question ‘What is quality teacher education?’ becomes urgent yet remains unanswered. With the intention of generating informed decisions about quality teacher education, this paper describes what factors help or hinder learning in preservice teacher education.

As in many countries with established teacher education programmes, teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand has been a significant part of public discussion on education. From time to time, the popular press and political circles questions are raised about the content of preservice teacher education and the quality of graduating teachers. Viewed broadly, the questions are suggestive of dissatisfaction with teacher effectiveness in schools. Consequently, the ability to be an effective classroom practitioner has become a key consideration in calls for reform in teacher education.

In responding to these recurring issues, research in teacher education has tended to focus on evaluating the student teacher’s competency to teach (see, e.g., Fitzsimons & Fenwick, 1997). In effect this has resulted in research on the behaviour of preservice teachers in school settings and the outcomes of teacher education, rather than the conditions and processes (Yarger & Smith, 1990) influencing the education of future teachers. This paper contributes to research in teacher education by focusing upon teacher education itself, through an examination of the conditions and processes within preservice teacher education.

This relatively narrow focus is reflected in understandings of teacher education applied in this paper and elsewhere (Yarger & Smith, 1990). That is, that teacher education is the context and process of educating individuals to become effective teachers. As will become apparent in this paper, this focus only includes those factors which in some way influence or guide the education of teachers and does not comment upon the competency or otherwise of those individuals as teachers. In this paper, the field of study is further narrowed to the education of preservice teachers.

Understanding teacher education in this way is both more and less helpful than current research into teacher education. It is more helpful in the sense that it seeks to describe factors within teacher education that affect the student’s ability to learn how to be an effective teacher. The research then goes some way towards redressing trends in teacher education research to focus on the most readily measured aspects of quality (Doyle, 1990; Hitchiner, 1997), i.e. learning outcomes and competencies. Not only does this paper suggest alternative aspects of teacher education worthy of pursuing if an authentic understanding of teacher education is to be achieved, but a research method for such investigations is modelled by the study which forms the basis of this paper.

However, this understanding of teacher education also renders the discussion in this paper less helpful because it is context focused. The context and process of one Aotearoa New Zealand institution’s efforts at educating preservice teachers to become effective teachers in primary schools as described. Consequently, a clear correlation between specific and general contexts is not assumed to exist. While it should not be inferred from this that generalisable knowledge cannot be gained from contextualised teacher education research, it is up to the reader to identify those principles and details most relevant to their own local or national contexts.

The provision of high quality teachers is of concern to all teacher education providers. In an effort to usefully inform teacher education policy and teacher education practices, the present study focused on the needs specific to preservice teacher education. The educational worth of this study is that it aims to inform individuals and groups working in preservice teacher education about the conditions and processes within teacher education. By focusing on teacher education itself rather than student behaviours and competencies, understandings of how quality teacher education might be achieved are broadened. In response to the need to understand what is quality teacher education, the research questions for this study are: What are barriers to learning in preservice teacher education? What helps learning in preservice teacher education?

This study utilised the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954), to explore the facilitation of quality preservice teacher education. The process identified categories that hinder or help learning, as stated by preservice teachers.

The Critical Incident Technique is a form of interview research in which participants provide descriptive accounts of events that facilitated or hindered a particular aim. Upon completion of the interviews, critical incidents are extracted from accounts and then grouped by similarity to form a set of categories that encompass the events.

The sample group comprised of seven females and two males. Their ages ranged from 18 to 40-45 years with seven being from the youth age group (18-25 years). The range in age, gender representation and ability in the sample group reflected patterns in the final year cohort as a whole.

Once the interviews were completed and transcribed, events were extracted and worked on by means of the validation procedures until a set of categories was established. The following validation questions tested the soundness and trustworthiness of the category system:

Transcripts were subjected to intense examination by the researchers. In this examination the following criteria were applied:

Each of the incidents was then divided into three component parts: source, associated activity, and outcome. This facilitated the sorting of the incidents into ‘categories’ that divided the incidents into groups that seemed similar. At the conclusion of the scrutinising processes (which the researchers undertook collaboratively and independently), categories emerged that accommodated the incidents described in the sample group of interviews. A description of the categories is the focus of this paper.

Through analysing interviews with 9 participants, critical incidents were elicited that reported on what helps or hinders learning in preservice teacher education. The critical incidents were then placed into 12 categories (see table 1). A brief description of the category, examples of the incidents in the category and an indication of the range or variation within each category is provided. All of the incidents describe what has helped or hindered learning for the preservice primary teachers who participated in the study.

Table 1

Categories of factors that help or

hinder learning in preservice teacher education

• Safety

• Lecturing style

• Personality of lecturer

• Influence of peers

• Lecture content

• Course design

• Assessment

• Academic rigor

• In-school professional practice

• Institutional protocols

• General perspective

• Self awareness

In the positive sense ‘safe’ teacher education will include supporting a diversity of identities) including indigenous rights and perspectives, empowering students, effectively addressing potential feelings or acts of violence. The category of ‘safety’ refers to factors that have affected the participants’ safety in preservice teacher education.

Examples are provided of ways in which learning was affected by the presence or absence of safety in preservice teacher education. Outcomes of experiencing unsafe environments included a sense of alienation, a desire to respond with physical aggression, silence and withdrawal. In short, the absence or presence of a safe learning environment affected the student’s attitude and ability to participate in courses. Four sub-categories relating to safety in teacher education are described: safety as a male, a mature student, a person of Mäori descent and as a student.

This sub-category refers to the participant gaining an awareness or understanding of ways in which their gender affects learning preservice teacher education. In all cases this was a category used by males only and was used for incidents that hindered learning. That is, in preservice teacher education, male gender was perceived by male students to work as a barrier to learning how to be an effective teacher.

Example

QTE 2: I think being a guy is a real barrier at um College. Um the high number of female lecturers make it difficult to sort of associate. They can’t see where a guy is coming from… And I think some of the lecturers are quite threatened by having a guy in their [class]….And when you go on section, especially when I did a Year One section at New Entrants, you have the kids coming up to you and they are crying and they have been hurt and your [female] associate would give them a cuddle. And for a guy, you see that and wonder, "Is that appropriate to do? Would a guy in the same situation react the same way?"… And so having guy associates for males is really important, I feel, so that we can see a positive role model of a guy. Because people look at you strange being a guy teacher, you know.

This sub-category refers to the participant gaining an awareness or understanding of ways in which their age affects learning as a preservice teacher. Both younger and older students described destabilising effects upon learning when age groups mixed in classes. However it was the mature students who described ways in which the conditions and processes of teacher education were oppressive to their sense of identity.

Example

QTE 7: The next time that I met [my Professional Studies tutor] was in the Principals’ Day and our Prof Studies group was in a great big circle waiting for the principals to arrive. And she sat two away from me and then leaned over to me and she said, "Um are you a mature student?" And I thought, "I am going to be perverse here?" And I said, "Sometimes." ... And she said, "Oh I can see by your face it’s sort of tough, isn’t it?" And then she said to me, "But when the principals come in, you will smile won’t you?" And I could have smacked her one because it was insulting. She had singled me out because of my age.

This sub-category refers to the participant gaining an awareness or understanding of ways in which their Mäori heritage affects learning in preservice teacher education, making it feel an unsafe environment in which to learn.

Example

(a) As a description of experiences that hinder learning, this sub-category refers to the participant gaining an awareness or understanding of ways in which their status as a student makes preservice teacher education an unsafe context in which to participate and learn.

Example

QTE 7: At the end of the course we do those evaluations and some courses ask us to put them, you know, not to put our names on them. And a lot of us feel that if we put our names on them then our marks might be affected. I always put my name on it, but I know some other students that think, "No, I am not putting my name on it because we haven’t got our assignments back and it might affect it." And if students, if teachers are saying to us, "You don’t have to put your name on it," then they must be aware that we don’t feel the environment is a safe learning environment. So if they are aware of it why isn’t something being done? You know, why isn’t it set up so everybody in the class feels comfortable with putting their name on a statement they are making?

(b) As a description of experiences that help learning, this sub-category refers to the participant gaining an awareness or understanding of ways in which the processes and context of preservice teacher education can be made safe for the student.

Example

QTE 10: [B]ecause of what I wrote on the [course] evaluation... victimization takes place and you learn just to keep your mouth shut half the time. But you learn when to keep your mouth shut and when not to. Like, [one lecturer] would say to us, "You can say what you want in this class." You know, "You are allowed to disagree." "You are allowed to say something at college is wrong." "We are not a sausage factory here," was his standard remark. You know, "It might seem like one, but this isn’t a sausage factory. We are not trying to pump out the same things all the time." And he gave us permission to speak.

In this large category participants described ways in which lecturing style helped or hindered their learning about effective teaching. That is, ways in which lecturers were able or unable to develop student knowledge and to use appropriate teaching skills to provide a learning environment. Several sub-categories emerged. Each is listed and illustrated with examples. In order to depict the integrated nature of these elements of lecturing style this section closes with a participant’s general description of lecturing styles and how they affected learning.

Participants identified ways in which the planning and delivery skills of a lecturer helped or hindered learning.

Examples

QTE 7: [It’s the] little things that lectures do. Like, it annoys me so much when lecturers say. "Can you read this," and they keep talking and you are sitting there going, "My goodness just be quiet and I will read it," and they keep talking about something else.

QTE 8: The thing that happens in the course is that [the lecturer] constantly checks and asks us, "How is the pace? Am I going too fast? Am I going too slow?" Actually [another lecturer] has done it and so has [another]. You know, "Is this what you need? Am I telling you stuff that you already know?" And it’s great.

Through their lecturing style the lecturer provided an atmosphere that helped or hindered learning.

Examples

QTE 5: I thought [the course] would be excellent because of what it was about and everything. So I went into the course and after the first class I positively didn’t say one word to anybody because the whole time she spoke to us or at us. And I just, after that, I just went, "This is so boring I, I am just going to be hopeless." And I just knew that I couldn’t learn that way...So I dropped the course.

QTE 5: [One course] um involved me to see a different side of what I was seeing if you can understand that and just feel... [I]t was a real happy class and [the lecturers were] really cool... It was quite hard at first like I told you before, but eventually I just let my guard down and thought, "Oh well I will just go for this." And, you know, I just, everybody else was really enjoying it and I thought "Why am I the only one that’s dead against it and calling it shit?" You know, I thought, "Is it my own experiences that has made me feel that way?" So I have to deal with that and get on with it. And those classes did definitely do that. Because it was so open and you, they didn’t push strong things at you.

In this sub-category participants described ways in which the lecturer’s technical and personal knowledge of education and other fields affected their learning. Participants referred to the way in which lecturer knowledge encouraged confidence as a beginning teacher and the sense of effective teaching involving the development of one’s own knowledge.

Example

Participants described the effect upon their learning of a lecturing style that is or is not accepting, particularly with regards to student initiated contact with lecturers.

Examples

QTE 6: It is helpful when [lecturers are] approachable... You can go to them and ask about assignments and you feel comfortable doing so. You don’t feel like you are being a bit silly or he’ll think that you are not listening or don’t understand. He says, "Oh I understand what you mean. Here is what to do," um giv[es] you ideas on resources you could use or where to go to get the help.

QTE 2: If I don’t believe something [said in class] I’ll um have it out [with the lecturer]. You know, "I don’t believe this." You know, "Show me why."... I sort of get that feeling that I like lecturers cause they sort of like me, but then I know the ones that I don’t like because they don’t like me coming with these questions and things like that. So that hinders my learning because I don’t ask questions in their class. You know, I will sit down the back and talk to somebody else or take a book and read and not really pay attention to what’s going on.

Participants were aware of the impact of role models of effective teaching upon their learning. Of particular concern was the effect of double standards.

Examples

QTE 2: I just think that it gets some times it gets a bit hypocritical that they are saying, "Don’t do this, don’t do that," whereas when they are lecturing they do these things. And, you know, when the assignments express that, you know, "Don’t say names of children. Don’t do that, don’t do this," but then lecturers will talk about the names of the kids. And I think there is a real double standard in what they expect from us and what they do themselves. And I think that makes it hard because there is no sort of role model with the lectures sometimes.

QTE 8: I remember once in my first year course we had a lecturer that actually goes out. And it was a reading course and [the lecturer] actually sat down with the kids and actually read the book and we observed that. That was really valuable I think ‘cause then we saw the lecturer as a teacher as well.

In this sub-category emphasis is placed upon how credible the lecturer’s style of teaching is, that is, whether they have had current classroom experience, can meaningfully relate teaching experience to teacher education, whether they integrate research into their lecturing and their willingness to engage in critical thinking about education. In this way, credibility an expression of the depth of understanding communicated in the lecturer’s style influenced student learning.

Examples

QTE 8: [Having a particular lecturer helps] because she has got the ideas, she shares them with you. And also because as a teacher she was at quite a hard school and just her, the fact that she enjoyed it and loved it even though she was at a hard school, there is hope for us still.

QTE 4: I think that lecturers that have been in college for a little bit too long haven’t got those stories [about pupils and teaching] anymore. And what stories that they might have it’s sort of getting a little bit old. That sounds terrible but I think yeah, and that sort of flows over into what my ideas of a teacher. I think you wouldn’t want to be in a school for too long. I think you have to keep alive and keep moving. I don’t think lecturers, I don’t know, some lectures have probably been here fifteen years. I don’t know, but that sort of worries me when they are teaching new students that are going to be having a class soon and yeah... Um if the lecturer has been out recently as well, they know what it is like out there. We are being prepared for teaching in the real world. If we are being taught by a lecturer that’s been in college for fifteen years, are they really in touch with the real world? And no I don’t think that they are.

Connections were made between the helpfulness or otherwise and whether the lecturing style was of practical worth, that is the style leads to learning that can be of practical use in teaching.

Example

QTE 8: [I]f I can see that there is some point to this and that as a teacher I will be using this then generally it goes to the top of the pile [of completed College activities] but if it is something um like an assignment we did on toast (we had to measure and check the optimal time to butter toast), it’s not something really important for my development as a teacher and I don’t think I would use that in the classroom. And therefore it has gone to the bottom of the pile because I think there is far more valuable things that I could have been doing.

This sub-category describes participants learning through a lecturing style that challenged knowledge and understanding.

Example

QTE 10: [This particular lecturer] is just awesome he just, he lets, he winds you up. He does it brilliantly. It’s like, he does the devil’s advocate position and he stirs things along. But he gets you thinking and he motivates you and he acknowledges everybody’s opinions and he lets you argue about things. Um, those sorts of lecturers they just, they stimulate you, and they make you go beyond where you are. You see what I mean? And that is when you are learning, that’s when you are stretching the boundaries, and they are pushing you to the limit, and they are showing you a future out there that is worth while going to.

QTE 4: [This particular lecturer] did most of the talking but she, we had the most interesting, well one of the most interesting, lectures that I have ever heard. Although she was speaking the whole time she is really fast-paced which was great. I speak quite fast as well and I just want things to carry on. Um, she gave little stories from the classroom so she brought the classroom back into the lecture. Um, she asked questions of us and she treated us like we were, you know. We were in our third and final year, we have had sections and she, um, she obviously, you know, holds that we have got experiences that she wants to hear about too. So that was probably more of a teacher-directed lecturer. But then on the other side of the coin um one of my [other] lecturers was um, said yesterday, um, "We were all doing, as part of an assignment, you go away and you are in a group and you are researching and then you come back and your parts (your unit and your research on this topic) you then teach to the class." And that is, that was really, really worth while because our topic was really researched in depth and then we got to teach it. So that’s, we knew our topic inside and out. And then other groups are now teaching their topics to us. So therefore we are doing all this learning really quickly and I think it is really worth while rather that just handing in one assignment and not knowing what other people have really done. Here we are really experiencing it and that is really worth while.

In this category participants described ways in which the lecturer’s personality helped or hindered their learning about effective teaching. That is, ways in which lecturers were able or unable to demonstrate personal qualities that help student learning. Several sub-categories emerged. Each is listed and illustrated with examples.

In comparison to lecturing style, ‘personality’ refers to the more intrinsic elements in teacher education. However, it is recognised that at times the distinction between personality and style is unclear and unhelpful to pursue. In order to depict the integrated nature of lecturing style and personality this section closes with a participant’s general description of the effect that lecturer style and personality can have upon student learning.

In this sub-category participants described their understanding of the effect that the lecturer-student relationship can have upon their learning. The nature of the relationship could directly impact upon the participant’s willingness or ability to learn.

Example

QTE 5: I just like to get to know the person I am learning off as well. I like, I mean, if you ask any, I bet you any lecturer that I have ever had as a teacher will know me, because I have made myself known to them, ‘cause I just don’t like to just not know the person... But I have been like that right through school. And if I don’t get along with a teacher then that makes a big difference to my learning because I hate them. I don’t even want to look at them. I don’t care what they have to say. "I just don’t like you." You know what I mean.

This sub-category refers to the personality a lecturer displays when they are passionate and knowledgeable about their subject area. Participants linked the personality of the ‘true knower’ with helping their learning.

Example

QTE 2: The real value in learning from this person was that they were a lecturer who knew what they had done. He could talk about how he had been here and taught these people how to read, how he had been in the classroom for years and tried these different techniques. He had read the people. We said, "What about, you know, what Frank Smith said?" He could [say], "Yeap I’ve read that. I know what he is talking about." So he could come in a different way. He could sit there and say, "Yeap, okay, this works well, and this is what it will work well in." ... He knew what he was talking about. He had done it. He had been in the classroom, he had studied, he really knew it and that I think that was real value for me. [It] was knowing his pedigree. And he knew what he was talking about and you couldn’t stump him or you know and he was quite willing to go on the divergent and talk to you and if you had a query you know, so that’s what really helped my learning: somebody like that.

Participants described personality attributes such as humour, being caring, and enthusiasm as helping learning.

Examples

QTE 7: There has got to be fun in it. [One lecturer] is wonderful, he’s just hilarious and he also shows that he cares. He brings um lollies sometimes, and I don’t mean, I mean, they are nice, but it’s just that he is going that step further for us. And [another lecturer] took our group down for a coffee, and it’s um the personal touch as well.

QTE 10: [One lecturer] is so enthusiastic about teaching that those children are just, you know, talked about. The first thing that she said to us was, "Oh you are going to be so excited about going out there and teaching. You must be so excited getting out there," and this was in our second year and it was like everyone sat up and thought "Oh okay!" You pay attention when you have got somebody like that.

In this example the incident is a negative one that had a significant impact upon what and how the student was learning about effective teaching. The outcomes of lecturer style and personality can include embarrassment, tension within the student group, confusion over roles, loss of respect and silence in the classroom.

Example

QTE 3: My second year tutor got our group to watch a video on observing how a teacher was talking to children in the class... At the end of it I said to her just calmly like this, "Um I found it difficult with this video because," and she just exploded and really ripped into me sort of yelled um I can’t remember her exact words but basically she had got this video and so we were to watch it and she didn’t appreciate us not paying attention. And then she left the room to go and do something with the video. And my peers sort of looked at me and I was really embarrassed and one of them made the gesture of firing a gun like I had been shot down. And I thought, "I don’t think that is acceptable." So I went out of the room and met the tutor and just calmly said to her, "Look I didn’t appreciate the way that you handled that," and she burst into tears, and it took me about twenty minutes to get her calm and I thought, "Who is the professional studies tutor here?" And then when we went back into the class she really ripped into the students again she accused one of being a liar, and um she was really nasty... [After class the students] all sort of met downstairs and just talked about it and just bad mouthed her basically because of what had happened. And for me that is a conflict in how I see the role of a Prof Studies, if we as teachers had done that in the classroom or if we as students had done that to her I think that there would have been a lot of repercussions... We just became very quiet in her class. I mean, I personally didn’t respect what she had to offer because I couldn’t see that she was fulfilling her Prof Studies role. She wasn’t there for our group, there wasn’t that pastoral care that I see that needs to be part of their role.

Participants described ways in which their peers affected their ability to learn about effective teaching. Participants identified how peer interaction in teacher education could help or hinder learning about effective teaching.

Examples

QTE 6: It’s good to get back to college after you have been on section, and like talking to everyone and finding out what they did and all that kind of thing. That’s really, really good... Because you get to feel that what you did was okay. You know, you are out there by yourself and you get to find out what you did was right in the end. And, um, you just get lots of ideas. And we always put, like, a resource booklet together of all of the good ideas. And that’s really good too. You learn a lot from that.

QTE 7: [Because of a personality clash with the lecturer, but the requirement to attend classes] I go to Prof Studies now to see my friends. And I, um, have made a point of changing groups [where I sit in class] so I am not influencing my peers because they know my attitude. But I think people are quite happy to be off task. And some of the things that we are doing are just, well, they are just so childish that they are funny. You know, like making out wee one-line stories and passing them around.

This category refers to the content of lectures at ‘College’. A recurring theme was that helpful content was that which is practical, i.e. whether it is the information in the course or the assignment tasks, what is helpful to students learning to be teachers is lecture content that links learning in teacher education with effective classroom practice.

Examples

QTE 8: Some of the best assignments I have done have been, um, making resources because I am going to use that when I leave college. I can actually see myself using these things... It’s making me think about ‘Your Classroom Next Year’ and what sort of things you are going to have into it, in it. You’re learning.

This category refers to the teacher education curriculum in document form, i.e. the ways in which the approved course design and statement helps or hinders learning.

Examples

QTE 5: [The reason why] I don’t think that I have done enough [in my preservice teacher education courses is] because I am not confident. Like, I am going out there and there are going to be kids that I don’t know what I am going to do with because I can’t get through to them and I am not helping them. And they are not learning and what am I going to do? We haven’t been taught how to deal with that. We have spent time on crap here, a lot of it. I mean stuff, I mean in [one curriculum area] it’s just unit plans. Big deal. We have done that in first year. We know how to do that. But this is third year.

QTE 7: [During this year we have been] taught things like clapping routines. I figure that by the end of your third year if you haven’t got the hang of management then you know there is a serious problem. And it’s like there is nothing in that, that because it’s so basic it’s more like first year stuff. There doesn’t seem to be a development in the course structure, that is, more in-depth. It’s just, you know, it wouldn’t matter what year your were, it’s all pitched at the same. So it just makes it hard because you, I mean, I know that I switch off and I am also aware that many of my colleagues are doing the same because it’s just we know that.

In this category participants described assessment conditions and processes that helped and hindered learning. Participants stated that it helped to have assessment tasks that were relevant to teaching effectively and required them to be involved in meaningful tasks that assessed learning that had significant impact upon student performance and self-esteem. Delays in feedback about assignments, lack of detail in assessment criteria and inflexibility in assessment tasks were identified as barriers to learning. Students also challenged the need to complete assignments if learning could be assessed in other meaningful ways such as participation in in-class activities.

Examples

QTE 5: [When the lecturer set the assignment] I asked her a whole lot of questions and she just went, "Phew, I don’t know," and I said, "Well I can’t function unless I know when, what exactly I have to do, when it has to be done by, when it is due, what you want."

QTE 6: In the first year when we had to do [a particular course] I found that course really, really difficult to pass and in the end I failed it which I was absolutely, I don’t know, I was devastated, kind of, because English had always been my best subject... I mean I didn’t fail it because I was slack or because I was lazy. I mean, I tried and I failed it. So I had to repeat it again, and that was like, oh it just completely changed my whole perception about college, ‘cause I was doing really well and then I thought, and then I failed it and I was like "Oh."

QTE 4: I wonder if some assignments have to be... Some assignments, like the one I am doing with [a lecturer], is actually sitting down with him and explaining what I have learnt from this child and what I did with this child and why I did it. See, that’s the level because, um, it’s actually me processing it instead of doing it without thinking about it.

In this category participants describing the qualities of academic rigor often compared teacher education courses at ‘College’ with Education courses at nearby ‘University’. The former was associated with practices that reinforced students in child-like roles and learning experiences, and the latter was perceived to be more likely to integrate critical analysis, comparative studies and research into their courses. The absence of these practices made the student feel like a child learner, the presence of these practices made them feel like an adult learner with expanded understandings of what it means to teach.

Whether or not the College course content contained elements of academic rigor, the environmental conditions in the teacher education institution undermined the ability of some students to recognise or benefit from the presence of those elements.

When participants focused upon course content, they identified complementary aspects between college and university course by linking college with practice and university with theory. Comments on academic rigor highlight an unresolved question of the relationship between theory and practice.

Examples

QTE 7: It is something I have thought of often, when I go to university, "Why do I love it here?" and when I come to College it’s, "Oh, not College." And when I have classes in the Tower block [at College] I think, "How apt that I am going off to the Tower," because that’s what it feels like. And I think, "Oh what is the difference?" At university they don’t take a roll, they give you the information and their assignments don’t baby you and say. "That is the due date." They do say, "Come and see me if you have got difficulties," and um they sort of leave you to it, and I feel like I am treated like an adult... [At College] it’s like we are kids and it, yeah. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just the way that we are talked to. It’s like we are talked down to... And in College it’s like kids taking kids. It’s just, there seems to be a half-hearted attitude in some courses about what’s going on.

This category refers to ways in which participants’ learning was helped or hindered by the conditions and processes of in-school experiences of short periods of teaching, otherwise known as ‘Professional Practice’. These experiences varied from single lessons in which the student visited a school briefly, to an intensive period where the student would be resident with a class and associate teacher for four to five weeks and expected to take on an increasing level of responsibility and independence in teaching.

Sub-categories are listed with illustrative examples. Key factors that helped or hindered learning included the associate, the practical nature of Professional Practice and the ways in which Professional Practice influenced the participant’s confidence as a teacher.

This sub-category refers to the way in which the associate’s knowledge and skills helped or hindered learning. It includes styles of teaching, which may or may not complement those of the preservice teacher, and relatively fixed characteristics, such as the sex of the associate. Of particular significance was the way in which the style and characteristics of the associate did or did not result in a match-up between student and associate styles of teaching.

Examples

QTE 8: Without getting my associate in trouble... I think he’s the sort of teacher that if the kids were being bad he would sort of pick them up and drag them out of the room, and throw them outside. Or a lot of the time the kids would leave themselves. That scared the heck out of me... So knowing how to deal with that, working [it] out. Um, getting the children to realise that that is not something that I wanted, and that obviously my associate thought that was acceptable, but that in my classroom it wasn’t, and trying to sit down with the children and try and talk about why it wasn’t.

QTE 10: Yeah I must admit when it all comes together [on Professional Practice] it all comes together. And it did on the last section. It all just ‘Bomf’, everything came together... Um, I had the most amazing associate that I, I mean, I have had some brilliant associates, but this one was just incredible. Um, a principal who was just amazing and supportive, and a staff that backed you to the hilt and treated you as a professional, as an equal. Um, so I think I had the benefit of expertise around me and support around me.

QTE 2: When... you haven’t got a male... as your associate some of the things you need to know as a [male] teacher and as a learner in the situation, you don’t see. You don’t see how a guy responds to things... and you are not sure whether what you are doing is right. Um you know guys um can usually use their physical presence and its a wee bit different and may be, you know, what a female has to do. And it’s just little things like that that as a guy you are just not sure whether what you are doing is right or if there is a better way or how to react in situations that you see your associate in; how a guy would react; would the guy react in the same way?

This sub-category refers to participants linking practical learning and growth in confidence as a teacher with the conditions and processes experienced while involved in Professional Practice. Necessarily this also introduced positive and negative comparisons between the ways in which in-College and Professional Practice experiences help or hinder learning and the relationship between College and Professional Practice.

Examples

QTE 8: I think working with the children in section is the most valuable thing that College offers. When you are out there and you are doing it and you are working with the kids and you are full control. In your third year it’s not like being a real teacher, but it’s really really valuable... It’s actually putting into practice all the stuff that you have heard.

QTE 5: College can’t take any credit for teaching, for teaching me to teach. They have taught me to plan, but they didn’t teach me to teach. I had to do that myself. I thought, oh well, it’s like sort of, I don’t know how to explain it, but like they would teach you how you learn who to do, okay, planning and, okay, what objectives to pick for [whom] and what suits what and oh yeap and brain storming and how to do this, da da da da. And so, cool, you go out and you go and do that, and that’s cool. But college hasn’t talked to you about little Johnny over here who is pulling so and so’s feet and pushing this and kicking that, and swearing at you... I mean you just have to learn the hard way about things like that.

Participants described ways in which assessment practices on Professional Practice helped or hindered their willingness to expand their learning about effective teaching.

Example

QTE 2: [College seems to say], "Go and take risks," you know, "You are out on section. Try these things." But then on the other hand if something goes wrong then that is marked down on your, you know, your [Professional Practice evaluation] book. Things like that, so you don’t feel like trying a risk in the end.

In this category institutional protocols (including customary practices, services and amenities, the maintenance of national protocols and group selection processes) and the ways in which they helped or hindered learning are described.

In this sub-category, participants described institutional barriers encountered in their attempts to redress unhelpful conditions and processes within preservice teacher education.

Examples

QTE 10: If you are in a crisis situation if things are going wrong... and you are given the attitude that, um, you know, college isn’t here for you, you are here for college, it puts you off. And I know quite a few people actually left because of the um the response that we were getting and the lack of support and when I took that further up, um, I actually made a complaint about it, I was told to just keep my mouth shut and the easiest way to get through was to just keep your mouth shut and put up with it.

QTE 7: I would love to go to [the Chief Executive Officer of this institution] and say, "Look do you realise that when I am out and about, when people talk of college it’s, "Oh no, yuck," people that have never been here? You know, do something, but what is a little third year student? I mean, I tried to go and see him and his secretary wasn’t even going to let me near him. It’s just, we don’t have a status as a student. Nobody in the hierarchy let’s us, I don’t think listens to us constructively and doesn’t seem to do anything and doesn’t put in place situations where we can say what we really think and what it is really like for us.

This sub-category refers to services and amenities available in the institutional context of teacher education and their influence upon learning to be an effective teacher. Reference was made to the ways in which different opportunities to talk informally or anonymously about course contexts and processes assisted learning.

Examples

QTE 3: [When I went to see the counselor] I had never really been to sort of any one like that before. And so I went and saw him for the first time and I just sort of talked to him and he just sort of asked me questions and stuff. And it just was really good to get things off my chest. And um he have me sort of strategies for dealing with things which was really helpful. It’s a really good service.

QTE 7: When I approached the third year Dean about the difficulties I was having she was really supportive and I know that quickly made me have more faith in this institution. Yeah [it was as ] if people do seem to want the best for teachers, to create the best teachers.

QTE 3: I think the student amenities like the student common room and like the games rooms and stuff like that, a group of friends and we would go down there and have a hit and have a yarn about what has happened in lectures and stuff like that I think that’s really good... [because] you socialize with more people and you get to know more people. And I think talking to them about, like, you might have done the same course with the same lecturer or a different lecturer and be able to talk and see it from their point of view.

As a government funded body the teacher education institution upholds national protocols intended to support student learning. This sub-category refers to the effect that student fees, and therefore funding, have in helping or hindering learning.

Example

QTE 3: Fees are bit of a barrier to learning,... the way the allowance scheme is... I had to work. Like, I would clean here. I would work five nights a week for three hours that’s sort of quite a lot of time. And, um, and sometimes you have just had a really hard day and you just want to go home and I sort have got to go and get something to eat and come back here and I can get a bit sick of the place some days.

While participants found group work helpful for their learning, the composition of Professional Studies groups was described as factor which could be unhelpful, for example for minority groups at college, such as males.

Example

QTE 2: The fact is that I have been the only guy in my Profs Studies class for the last two and a half years and it makes it really hard because you don’t have another guy to go and bounce ideas off or for support.

In this category participants described the general nature of the conditions and processes involved in a preservice teacher education institution. Comments indicated that learning to be an effective teacher was a complex, sometimes uncertain process in which personal, social and cultural development are challenged. The experiences of these factors were reported as being significant incidents in helping or hindering learning to teach.

Examples

QTE 2: I think the um the real I think the hardest thing about it, I’ve felt like the whole purpose of college is to take away your personality. I really felt that they are quite um, try and squash you down into what a teacher should be. And some of these things that the teacher should be are hypocritical, they contradict each other and then you get confused about what you should be. And I feel like they are trying to take away myself and who I am... I just don’t feel that you are allowed to be yourself, that you are judged in everything you say and everything that you do and the clothes that you wear to college, um, the car that you drive, the friends that you make. All the lecturers see it and comment on it.

This category refers to the participant gaining an awareness of themselves as a learner and the ways in which this understanding coupled with their self-esteem can help or hinder learning in preservice teacher education. Self-awareness is an implicit and explicit element of preservice teacher education as well as an outcome of the research model used in this study. The participants could not take part with out reflecting upon their self-awareness in some way. Therefore this category although problematic and extensive, does recognise what the narratives revealed about links between awareness and learning.

Examples

QTE 5: Funnily enough Teachers College has done quite a lot for me in my own personality. Like, I think it is really good how straight way if you, you just have to get up and talk in front of people and that is really good because I was the type of person that never said a word... [When I got to College] like, every class you would think, like, "Oh god here we go." We used to get into a little circle and go around and tell everyone about yourself and it got tiring but it was very, very beneficial because now I don’t care. I can talk in front of anybody and I don’t have any worries about it now. Like, my confidence has gone up, from doing that.

QTE 2: [One of the College Centres] over there has really helped me. You know they all know me now,... people sort of trust me to do these things and I have taken classes for them because they sort of respect the knowledge that I already bring to the class and they use that. And that’s really helped to make me more confident when I was out on section.

QTE 3: I found [a course in communication skills] really valuable when you sort of break down how you learn. And, like, we worked out what learning style we were. And I was a concrete learner. And, um, just sort of looking into how people, different people, learn and, um, seeing that different people have different realities, and all this sort of thing I found to be really useful. And, like, once I sort of had that knowledge I look at everything else sort of a bit differently.

In this category participants described the ways in which maturity (i.e. the characteristics of ‘maturity’ in terms of intrinsic qualities and behaviours, and the chronological age of preservice teachers) helped or hindered learning.

In this sub-category the ways in which qualities of maturity impacted upon learning were commented upon by young and mature students. Of concern were the ways in which maturity affected group dynamics, course content, and the apparent inconsistencies in processes.

Examples

QTE 6: There were some mature students in our first year who, I don’t know, they were just a lot different from us in their, I mean, we were just straight out of school and we were a bit silly and laughing and doing silly young people’s things. And they were like ready to settle down and do some serious work. And we were still a bit silly. It was all new to us and they found it hard being with us... And it just makes a wee bit of tension [in the group] and like a lot of talking behind people’s backs. That’s what happened to us.

QTE 7: I am a mature student. Um, I have had life experiences which means that some of the things here at college I find really straight forward. And in my Prof Studies group I am the only mature student. And so there are many situations where I just feel like I am waiting for everybody to catch up, which of course give them fifteen years and they will. Um, but I have discussed this with my tutor and she hasn’t been very supportive and so I have spent the year getting more and more bored and frustrated because there is nothing for me to develop my learning. And I have asked if I can go and do independent research or study and that hasn’t been an option so I have just found that I have been going to class and not been able to participate because when you know all the things. My tutor said to me, "If you know it why don’t you say it? Because people need to say it for themselves as part of their learning process." And if I say, "Well this is this," all of the time I’m just going to come off as a Know It All and I don’t want that to affect my friendships with my peers. So that’s been really tough, a major barrier.

QTE 10: Mature students were expected to have their work in on time and the younger ones seemed to get six week extensions and then they still got the same marks as us. Um we got really peeved about that... and a group went [to the Dean] and um they were just told "Oh well there is not a lot, we have to support the young ones. You people can cope." Of course we can cope, you know, but it would be nice to know that if there is a deadline, yeah, then the deadline was for everybody... You know at 17 to 25 they seem to get um extra assistance... How do you justify that? You know, to me that just can’t be justified and nobody did justify it, they didn’t even try. They just said. "Oh well, you know, you’ve got to look after them because they are the teachers of the future." What am I , chopped liver?

While maturity may be a quality shared by young and older students, the chronological age itself was noted as impacting in some way upon learning.

Example

QTE 7: I do know that my age sets me apart in how others see me, even my friends. If there is a comment about anything to do with something that happened ages ago everyone looks at me.

Through an examination of nine transcripts this study identified critical incidents and 12 categories that describe what helps or hinders learning in preservice teacher education. These findings arise from the perspective of the preservice teachers themselves. With the aim of informing policy and practices associated with quality teacher education, the categories identify conditions and processes within teacher education that critically affect individuals learning to be effective teachers.

The research described in this paper examines what helps and hinders learning in preservice teacher education. The research question was investigated in a way that included the input of students who were enrolled in preservice teacher education at the time of the research interviews. Contexts and processes that inhibit and advance learning, as reported by the students themselves, were explored in this study. Through gathering reports from preservice teachers, this project has begun to develop a set of categories that describe what helps or hinders learning in preservice teacher education. The aim is to inform thinking and decisions around the provision of quality teacher education.

Although millions of dollars have been spent on researching, developing and implementing teacher education, the issue of how best to teach individuals to be effective classroom practitioners remains unresolved. This project’s contribution is that it explores the insights and experiences of the people involved in preservice teacher education in order to obtain information to determine the most appropriate ways to achieve quality teacher education. The categories described in this paper are intended to further effective and meaningful decisions in teacher education.

This initial report on the QTE Project has implications for teacher education providers, and teacher education policy makers.

Teacher education providers could use the categories to develop initiatives centred upon achieving quality in the conditions and processes of preservice teacher education. This will require expanding the focus of attention beyond that of student learning outcomes and behaviours as prospective teachers. The research model has identified connections between sources, associated activities, and outcomes. Interventions could be designed in direct response to the data. Possibilities include:

Research is now required into ways of applying the insights arising from this study. Options include further data gathering with a range of teacher education providers and participants, to consolidate and test the current findings, and establishing and monitoring the effectiveness of a variety of initiatives in response to the current findings. International perspectives would further expand and consolidate understandings of quality teacher education.

Appropriate policy decisions are also needed to provide the conditions for further initiatives in teacher education. These include:

As in all aspects of education, the achievement of quality in teacher education must be a collaborative endeavor. Perspectives are to combine in the pursuit of the actual goal: quality teacher education. If we are to take seriously the need for effective teaching in our schools then we must also take seriously the insights into what helps or hinders learning in teacher education.