Postgraduate diploma student teachers' perceptions of their levels of knowledge and skills at the bginning and end of their initial teacher preparation programme
This paper reports a part of a longitudinal study of 170 student teachers who were enrolled in the 2004 intake of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education – Primary (PGDE – Primary) initial teacher preparation (ITP) programme at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. It examined the changes, if any, in the student teachers' perceptions of their pedagogical knowledge and skills at the beginning and the end of their teacher preparation using a survey which was administered at these two data points. The survey instrument was found to be reliable for assessing these perceptions of knowledge and skills. The findings also indicated that the student teachers' perception of their pedagogical knowledge and skills in facilitating student learning, planning and preparing lessons, assessing students and accommodating student diversity increased significantly by the end of their teacher preparation programme. However, the level of their perceived knowledge in the area of non-teaching responsibilities remained unchanged while their perceived skills in this factor decreased significantly at the end of the programme. Implications of these findings on the PGDE (Primary) ITP programme will be discussed in this paper.
Singapore's preservice teachers' perspectives in integrating information and communication technology (ICT) during practicum
The purpose of the study is to investigate preservice teachers' perspectives in technology integration in Singapore. The preservice teachers participated in three surveys: 1) before taking the technology course, 2) after completing the course, and 3) after completing the ten-week teaching practicum. The first two questionnaires collected data related to their thoughts of using technology in their future teaching. The third questionnaire asked about their actual integration of technology during their ten-week teaching practicum. Qualitative data was also collected from ten purposefully selected participants to gather more in-depth information about how they planned to integrate technology and how they actually used technology in their teaching practicum. The findings from the quantitative survey data and the qualitative information were consistent and complemented each other. The results of the study provided a better understanding of preservice teachers' thoughts and actual practices in integrating technology into their teaching.
A comparison of perceptions of knowledge and skills held by primary and secondary teachers: From the entry to exit of their preservice programme
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.
Developing a better understanding of technology based pedagogy
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.
Closing the gap: Pre-service teachers' perceptions of an ICT based, student centred learning curriculum
As technology continues to influence many aspects of our social and work lives, it is important that school experiences equip students the skills and knowledge that will enable them to develop into effective independent, creative, and lifelong learners to cope with the influx of changes. Given that teachers play a key role in the effective use of technology in education, there is a need to ensure that teacher education programs prepare teachers for the effective integration of ICT in the classrooms. We believe that there is a need to adopt a student-centered learning framework to design our ICT based Student-Centred Learning (SCL) curriculum for all pre-service teachers. In this paper, we presents parts of the findings from a curriculum review which evaluated 483 pre-service teachers’ overall satisfaction level towards an ICT based SCL course. We also provide some recommendations to the ICT curriculum based on the results found.