Student teachers' perceptions of the utility of undergraduate elementary education courses
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Date
1986
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine what undergraduate elementary education majors thought about their professional preparation courses. A second purpose was to understand why the prospective teachers felt as they did about those courses. This naturalistic study was conducted in College Station ISD in College Station, Texas. As a guide to data collection and reporting, a slightly modified version of the Duncan and Biddle Model was used. Presage data showed that the majority of the student teachers were native Texans, from rural backgrounds and held middle class values regarding the importance of education. The context data revealed that this particular school was middle to upper middle class in several aspects. These included such things as a well maintained building, a good supply of materials and a professional staff. Process data revealed several areas of concern for the respondents. This section dealt with these concerns and how the student teachers dealt with them. In a series of on-going interviews with the student teachers, cooperating teachers and university supervisors, twenty two categories eventually emerged which were concerns of the student teachers. These categories were separated into three groups: emergent concerns, changing perceptions and stable perceptions. Emergent concerns relate to those categories which were introduced by the student teachers. The changing perceptions groups refers to concerns which either increased or decreased in perceived imporance as the semester progressed. The stable perceptions group relates to areas which were perceived to be problems for the student teachers throughout the semester. The product data showed the increased professionalism which was demonstrated by the student teachers at semester's end. Conclusions included: (1) that the present elementary education programs generally produce quality professional educators (2) few courses, if any, should be eliminated from traditional undergraduate education programs (3) in order to facilitate an even better program, additional field components should be included within teacher education programs (4) in order to institute more field components, program developers should consider an extended education preparation period past the traditional four year program.
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Major curriculum and instruction