Lim, Kam Ming

This study investigated beginning teachers’ self-perceived pedagogical knowledge and skills in engaging and managing their students. More specifically, it discussed the development of positive pedagogic teacher-student relationships across three time points: at the exit of their pre-service program, at the end of the first year of teaching, and at the end of the third year of teaching. Four factors were extracted: (a) student learning; (b) accommodating diversity; (c) classroom management; and (d) showing care and concern. A sample of 358 beginning teachers participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results showed that there were significant increases in all four factors across the three time points. The results are useful in informing teacher education programs as well as teacher induction programs to facilitate support for beginning teachers during their beginning years of teaching.

The assessment modes for a core module (PED505: The Psychology of Pupil Development and the Learning Process) at the Postgraduate Diploma of Education programme at the National Institute of Education were revised to: 1) integrate some components of the course with the School Experience component (School-based activities), 2) include elements of independent learning and online learning (Online assignments), and 3) increase the practical aspects of the learning activities and assignments (i.e., to help trainee teachers to better understand the linkages between theories and practice). Trainee teachers felt that it was a good idea to place course material on the internet, even though they are rather unsure if they would do well in courses that require the use of the internet. Trainee teachers most preferred and enjoyed the school-based activities and the online assignments, and least preferred and enjoyed the traditional written course assignment (term paper). Trainee teachers indicated that they learned the most from the school-based activities, and learned the least from the online assignments. The school-based activities, which require the trainee-teachers to integrate theoretical concepts to their classroom teaching, seem to be a good learning and assessment tool which the trainee teachers enjoyed.

The status of any given discipline, be it professional status or impact on society, is related to the occupational opportunities and the roles of the professionals in the community. The roles of the professionals of the discipline therefore can directly or indirectly determine the social perception of the discipline. As such, social perception, referring to how people of a given society receive and value a situation, behaviour, state of mind, or profession is a critical focus in this study because it helps us better understand the relationship between contributions of a discipline to the welfare of the society and the values that a society attaches to the contributions of that discipline. The discipline of study in this paper is psychology and how it is perceived in a newly industrialised country. In this paper, 121 teachers’ perceptions of the psychologists’ occupational roles are examined. Teachers perceived psychologists to be professionals working with counselling cum helping services, higher education and research institutions and business cum social sector. Implications of the study for the role of psychology in teacher education are discussed.

This study followed a cohort of student teachers from the beginning of their teacher education program to the end of the third year of teaching, looking at their perceived changes in pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. The PKST survey comprising 37 items with six factors were used to collect data. In the cohort of over 1300 student teachers, 353 participated in all five survey data collections. The results showed that the participants’ overall pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching increased significantly. The largest increases were found in knowledge in lesson planning and skills in classroom management. The skills in showing care and concern did not show significant increases until the end of third year of teaching.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the beginning teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in Singapore. Data was collected from the beginning teachers at three time points: the exit point of the teacher education programme, the end of their first year and third year of teaching. In this three year study, the focus is to examine the beginning teachers’ perceptions of their development in the following teaching related factors: lesson planning, classroom management and instructional strategies. The results showed that beginning teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills increased significantly, but at different rates, in all three factors at the end of their third year of teaching. It suggested that learning to teach is an on-going process that begins from the pre-service teacher education programme and continues into the initial three years of teaching.