An international study on teachers’ conceptions of learning and teaching and corresponding teacher profiles

Figures & data

Table 1. Five teacher profiles based on their conceptions of learning and teaching.

	COLT Scales
Profile	Teacher centredness	Appreciation of active learning	Orientation to professional practice	Description
Transmitter	++	–	––	Teacher prefers to transmits expert knowledge to students
Organizer	+	–	=	Transmits expert knowledge, in a way with more active involvement than transmitters and helps learners to organize this knowledge
Intermediate	+	+	+	Intermediate profile, depending on the context these teachers can combine transmitter characteristics with CCA characteristics
Facilitator	–	=	––	Facilitates learners to learn, helps to apply and to engage them into deep learning strategies
Conceptual change agent	––	+	+	Aims to stimulate and engage students in deep learning activities, by (re)constructing knowledge and conceptual concepts

The scores on the three scales are represented. For ease of interpretation we used ++ (much higher mean score than overall mean of total group) + (higher mean score), –– (much lower mean score), or – (lower mean score), and = signs (a score almost equal to the overall mean scores).

Table 2. Descriptives.

Characteristics
Gender: ‘You are …’	Male 297 (41.9%)	Female 411 (58.1%)		Missing 0	N 708
‘What is your age?’(yrs)	Mean 42.7 (SD = 11.5)	Minimum 20.0	Maximum 74.0	2	706
Teaching experience	<5 years 274 (38.7%)	5–10 years 172 (24.3%)	>10 years 262 (37.0%)	0	708
Hours in teaching (weekly)	Mean 7.3 (SD = 7.2)	Minimum 0	Maximum 60	19	689
Organization	University: 591 (83.5%)	Non-University, other health care professionals: 113 (15.9%)	Unknown organization: 2 (0.3%)	2	708

The characteristics of the participants (N = 708) including labels of the categories, numbers, means, percentages, standard deviations and missings.

Table 3. Overview of participants and their institutional countries.

Continent	Institutional country	Frequency	Percentage
Europe	Belgium	1	0.1
	Danmark	1	0.1
	Germany	2	0.3
	Greece	2	0.3
	Norway	8	1.1
	Portugal	3	0.4
	Sweden	8	1.1
	Switzerland	48	6.8
	United Kingdom	9	1.3
	The Netherlands	436	61.6
North America	Canada	4	0.6
	United States of America	71	10.0
South America	Argentina	1	0.1
	Brazil	25	3.5
	Peru	1	0.1
Australia	Australia	44	6.2
	New Zealand	1	0.1
Asia	China	1	0.1
	Hong Kong	1	0.1
	Indonesia	3	0.4
	Philippines	1	0.1
	Malaysia	2	0.3
	Singapore	2	0.3
Middle East	Israel	20	2.8
	Qatar	1	0.1
	Saudi Arabia	6	0.8
Africa	South Africa	2	0.3
	Zambia	1	0.1
Unknown		3	0.4

Table 4. Overview of six teacher profiles in international study.

	N (percentage)	Teacher centredness	Appreciation of active learning	Orientation to professional practice
Transmitters	97 (14.0)	1.29 (++)	−0.22 (−)	0.45 (+)
Neo-transmitters	117 (17.0)	0.57 (+)	−0.11 (=/−)	−0.79 (−)
Organizers	73 (10.5)	0.48 (+)	−1.50 (––)	−0.51 (−)
Intermediates	177 (25.5)	0.11 (=/+)	0.69 (+)	0.69 (+)
Facilitators	112 (16.0)	−0.77 (−)	−0.22 (−)	−0.49 (−)
Conceptual change agents	118 (17.0)	−1.33 (––)	0.74 (+)	0.61 (+)

The six teacher profiles are presented, with horizontally the z-scores for each COLT-scale (teacher centredness, appreciation of active learning and orientation to professional practice). As in Table 1, we provide for ease of interpretation, plus (+ or ++), minus (− or --) and (=) signs, indicating that the mean score is higher (or lower or almost equal) than the overall mean score of all teachers on that scale. The teacher profiles are ordered based on their z-scores on the scale teacher centredness.