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Development of teacher professional identity in pre-service teachers : perspectives from self-determination theory
Author
Wong, Ethan Chuan Yuh
Supervisor
Liu, Woon Chia
Abstract
There is a growing notion that the “being” of a teacher is as important as having the skills and knowledge of how to teach (Tan & Liu, 2015). Besides equipping pre-service teachers with skills and knowledge, initial teacher preparation programmes are putting more emphasis on developing pre-service teachers’ ability to articulate their values and beliefs as part of their teacher professional identity formation process. While there is agreement that teacher professional identity and its development have a significant impact on the outcome of teacher education and professional growth, there is still a lack of understanding of the construct and development of teacher professional identity (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard et al., 2004). This research seeks to explore the development of teacher professional identity in pre-service teachers through the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) perspective and answer the question of how pre-service teachers develop their initial teacher professional identity. Three studies were conducted to achieve this purpose. In Study 1, the Teacher Professional Identity Scale (TPIS) was developed and validated to operationalise the concept of teacher professional identity. In Study 2, the TPIS was used to assess the change in pre-service teachers’ professional identity between enrolment and the end of the initial teacher preparation over four time points. Additionally, adapted SDT scales were used to better understand the pre-service teachers’ perceived satisfaction of basic psychological needs during the coursework learning phases as well as the teaching practice period. The extent to which perceived satisfaction of basic psychological needs predicted the growth trajectory of teacher professional identity of participants was also investigated. Subsequently, results from Study 2 informed the design of Study 3, which focused on enhancing, elaborating, and clarifying the quantitative results of Study 2. More specifically, Study 3 sought to provide insights into the way pre-service teachers experienced needs satisfaction when developing their teacher professional identity during their initial teacher preparation. This research provided insights into how teacher preparation programmes can better support the development of teacher professional identity in pre-service teachers through the support of basic psychological needs. Of equal importance, the research pointed out that SDT has shown itself to be a fitting framework to organise and advance the research area.
Call Number
LB2157.A3 Won
Date Submitted
2022