Approaches to teaching of trainee teachers. An exploratory analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: European reports regard teacher training as a key indicator of the quality of educational systems. Furthermore, research provides strong evidence of the positive impact of training programmes on teachers´ approaches to teaching. This paper reports a study on the impact of teacher training on approaches to teaching of Spanish pre-service teachers. Since there is evidence of an association between how students learn and how their teachers teach, and between learning and learning outcomes, it is of paramount importance to explore to what extent teacher training may have an impact on teachers´ approaches to teaching. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyse pre-service teachers´ initial teaching approaches, as well as any variation in approaches on completion of the teacher training. Methodology: Participants’ scores of their student-focused and teacher-focused teaching approaches were recorded using Trigwell and Prosser´s (2004) Approaches to Teaching Inventory, and analysed in terms of sex, discipline, and teaching experience. Results: On completion of training, the sample was significantly less teacher-focused than at the outset. Conclusions: This study sheds light on how pre-service teachers would teach at the beginning and end of training, which may guide the planning and design of initial and development teacher training courses, so that teaching approaches would become more student-focused and thus positively influence students´ learning approaches and outcomes, thus increasing the quality of education. This paper reports preliminary results on the impact of initial teacher training, which should be further researched in subsequent studies.