Preservice teachers’ perspectives about coherence in their teacher education program

ABSTRACT

While different countries have inherited different methods of teacher preparation, all countries aim for coherent programs, i.e. university-based courses are aligned with classroom practice. Yet, most published empirical research is based on data from western countries and focuses on a single feature of coherence (e.g., coherence between campus and internships). Our study examines a Malaysian teacher education university’s effort to increase program coherence, investigating 446 preservice teachers’ perceptions of various features of coherence. The preservice teachers represent six different specialist areas in the Bachelor of Education. Across these areas, the program was generally perceived as coherent. Observed differences between the areas, potentially stem from a dissonance among teacher educators about how to integrate theory and practice. Change efforts require time to implement and teacher educators discuss their beliefs about coherent teacher education to ensure coherent practices and to enable their preservice teachers to create a coherent understanding of teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• Program coherence
• teacher education
• preservice teachers
• program coherence questionnaire

Acknowledgments

The first author is grateful to be awarded the Exploratory Research Grant Scheme from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, which has enabled the research to be carried out.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Exploratory Research Grant Scheme, Malaysia [2013-0087-107-22].

Notes on contributors

Pauline Swee Choo Goh

Pauline Swee Choo Goh is an Associate Professor at the Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia. She believes that the pedagogy in teacher education should be geared towards the integration of preservice teachers' theoretical knowledge and their practical situation.  In addition, she also investigates issues faced by beginning teachers.

Esther T. Canrinus

Esther T. Canrinus is employed as an Associate Professor at the University of Agder. She investigates the coherence and quality of teacher education program. She furthermore is interested in various aspects of teachers' lives and drives.

Kung Teck Wong

Kung Teck Wong is an Associate Professor at the Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia. He is interested in multi-disciplinary studies which include educational technology among educators (psychological influences on technology acceptance and adoption) and quantitative methodological topics (psychometrics properties, items validation and development).