Effects of block vs. nonblock teaching experiences upon secondary teachers' preceptions of teacher education program competencies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of four variables-time arrangement of student teaching assignment (block vs. nonblock), personality variables (sociability and responsibility), and subsequent employment status (teaching vs. nonteaching)-upon student teachers' perceptions of the importance of components of their secondary teacher education program and the effectiveness with which these components were presented. The Texas A&M University Follow-up Questionnaire, used to assess student teachers' perceptions, contained two Likert-type scales, importance and effectiveness, referenced to a common stem of thirty competencies included in the teacher education program. When these thirty competencies were factor analyzed, seven factors or clusters were identified: Interpersonal Skills, Analysis of Instruction, Use of Theoretical Constructs, Evaluation Procedures, Instructional Planning, Instructional Skills, and Provision for Student Differences. Two subscales of the California Psychological Inventory were utilized to assess sociability and responsibility personality traits. The research was conducted in the form of a follow-up study of secondary teacher candidates who participated in the Fall, 1974, and Spring, 1975, student teaching program at Texas A&M University. Sixty-one subjects were randomly selected and randomly assigned to the block (full day, half semester) and nonblock (half day, full semester) student teaching experiences. One year after completion of the program, former student teachers were asked to respond to a follow-up questionnaire. The respondents, fifty-five in number, became the subjects of this study. Each student teacher's responses to items within each of the instrument's seven factors were totaled in order to arrive at a factor score. These scores were then analyzed using a factorial analysis of variance to determine main and interaction effects of the four independent variables..