Choy, Doris

The purpose of this study was to investigate if there were differences in the levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills as perceived by the student teachers who were enrolled in the Primary and the Secondary Post Graduate Diploma in Education programme at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. 170 Primary and 426 Secondary student teachers participated in the study. The results showed that there were no significant differences at the beginning of the programme between the two cohorts. However, there were significant differences between the two groups at the end of programme, with the Primary student teachers tending to perceive themselves as gaining more pedagogical knowledge and skills by the end of their initial teacher preparation programme than the Secondary student teachers.

The focus of this paper is to present the major qualitative findings from a one year, mixed methods study that explores a cohort of preservice teachers’ process of learning to teach with information and communication technology (ICT) across their teacher preparation program in Singapore. This study suggests a variation in the preservice teachers’ technology competency, stances, decision making and actions in using ICT for classroom teaching and learning. The majority of the participants seemed to be unable to translate into teaching practice their increased technological competency and espoused constructivist orientation gained from the coursework. They tended to use ICT to improve and enhance teacher centred instruction on a regular basis during the teaching practicum. However, three focus participants were also able to use ICT to engage their students in student centred learning. They began to demonstrate their leadership potential in influencing others to use ICT for enhancing student learning. The findings suggest that preservice teachers may need more guidance, modelling and collaboration to develop a better understanding of technology based pedagogy from their own practice so that they can synthesise their constructivist orientation, student centred teaching approaches, and effective use of ICT.