Examining Changes in Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs of Pedagogy

Abstract

Pre-service teachers enter teacher education with beliefs about teaching and ideas on pedagogical approaches. This research focuses on monitoring the pedagogical beliefs of a cohort of pre-service teachers’; pre-existing pedagogical beliefs on important/relevant pedagogy for secondary teaching and how these beliefs changed over the course of their degree. Data were collected from a cohort via a survey at the beginning and end of the year of the study. The cohort comprised pre-service teachers from each year of the four-year degree. This research found that pedagogical beliefs changed over the duration of the course. This finding indicates that there are educational opportunities when pre-service teachers are most receptive to building new teaching practices. The implication of this research is that pedagogical teaching in teacher education can be improved by a better understanding of how pedagogy beliefs evolve over the duration of the course. Pre-service teachers enter teacher education with beliefs about teaching and ideas on pedagogical approaches. This research focuses on monitoring the pedagogical beliefs of a cohort of pre-service teachers’, their pre-existing pedagogical beliefs on important/relevant pedagogy for secondary teaching and how these beliefs changed over the course of their degree. Data were collected from a cohort via a survey at the beginning and end of the year of the study. The cohort comprised pre-service teachers from each year of the four-year degree. This research found that pedagogical beliefs changed over the duration of the course. This finding indicates that there are educational opportunities when pre-service teachers are most receptive to building new teaching practices. The implications of this research are that pedagogical teaching in teacher education can be improved by a better understanding of how pedagogy beliefs evolve over the duration of the course.