Newly qualified teachers’ needs of support for professional competences in four European countries: Finland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Belgium

The first few years in the teaching profession are usually demanding. Although initial teacher education forms an essential foundation for teachers’ work, it cannot fully prepare new teachers for the complexities of working life. This study focuses on investigating the need for professional development support among newly qualified teachers to determine what their professional learning needs are and how these needs differ among teachers from four different countries: Finland, the United Kingdom (England), Portugal and Belgium (Flanders). The research data was collected via a questionnaire from 314 teachers, each with less than five years of teaching experience, and both closed and open-ended questions were included. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis to identify the latent variables associated with their needs. Answers to the open-ended questions were used to gain deeper insight into the newly qualified teachers’ situation. The results indicate that new teachers need support, especially regarding conflict situations and in differentiating their teaching. In addition, when analysing the profiles of eight support-need latent variables, all of the teachers in the different countries viewed supporting students’ holistic development as the most important area. Although the results of this study cannot be generalised, they provide an important overview of new teachers’ learning needs that should be taken into account when planning and organising support for them. (DIPF/Orig.)

Pre-service home economics teachers’ attitudes on selected aspects of practical teaching

This paper presents the results of a study conducted among pre-service home economics teachers from the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana with different levels of practical experience in teaching. The pre-service Home Economics teachers in the 3rd year of their studies had just completed their first class of teaching experience in contrast to the pre-service teachers from the 4th year of their faculty studies, who had conducted more teaching lessons. The results showed that the 4th-year pre-service teachers had fewer doubts and problems concerning the planning and conducting of a lesson. They also statistically significantly agreed that they are sufficiently prepared to teach than the 3rd-year pre-service teachers are. The results showed that the majority of the pre-service teachers agreed that the feedback from their colleagues was helpful for their professional development. The results suggest the importance of practical teaching experience in the context of professional development and the intention to continue a career in education. However, the results also revealed some critical points in the teacher’s development of competency. The results suggest problems related to the application of theoretical knowledge on the children’s development in practice and pro problems related to classroom management in specific situations. (DIPF/Orig.)

Unterricht aus Sicht der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Subjektive Theorien zur Unterrichtsgestaltung und ihre Veränderung durch ein Training zu neuen Unterrichtsmethoden

Guter Schulunterricht bildet eine wichtige Basis für die Entwicklung unserer Gesellschaft. Ein zentraler Aspekt guten Unterrichts ist das Wissen und Denken der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. In dieser Arbeit werden dazu die subjektiven Theorien zur Unterrichtsgestaltung erforscht. Dabei wird auch überprüft, welche Effekte ein Training auf die Veränderung dieser Unterrichtstheorien hat. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die untersuchten Lehrkräfte sehr differenzierte Vorstellungen davon haben, wie sie im Unterricht vorgehen. Diese Vorstellungen lassen sich als subjektive Theorien rekonstruieren, die ähnlich wie wissenschaftliche Theorien aufgebaut sind und vergleichbare Funktionen erfüllen. Diese subjektiven Theorien stimmen auch inhaltlich in vielen Punkten mit wissenschaftlichen Theorien überein. Es ist daher kaum verwunderlich, dass Trainingsprogramme, die von einem defizitären Wissen bei Lehrkräften ausgehen, nur geringe Effekte aufweisen. Fazit: Lehrerinnen und Lehrer sind klüger als mancher Wissenschaftler (und vielleicht auch die Öffentlichkeit) denkt! Der Autor verdeutlicht, dass wir in Zukunft mehr auf den Erfahrungsschatz der Lehrkräfte schauen und diesen als Fundus wissenschaftlicher Theorienbildung nutzen sollten. (DIPF/Orig.)

Do teacher stereotypes about school tracks function as expectations at the collective level and do they relate to the perception of obstacles in the classroom and to teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs?

The effects of individual teacher expectations have been the subject of intensive research. Results indicate that teachers use their expectations to adapt their interactions with their students to some degree (as summarized in a review by Jussim & Harber, 2005). This can in turn lead to expectancy-confirming student developments. While there are studies on the Pygmalion effect on individual students, there is only little research on teacher judgements of whole classes and schools. Our study aims to extend the perspective of teacher judgements at the collective level to stereotypes within the context of school tracking. The content and structure of teachers’ school track stereotypes are investigated as well as the question of whether these stereotypical judgements are related to teachers’ perception of obstacles to their teaching and their teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Cross-sectional data on 341 teachers at two different school types from the Panel Study at the Research School „Education and Capabilities“ in North Rhine-Westphalia (PARS) (see Bos et al., 2016) were used for two purposes: First, the structure of teachers’ stereotypes was identified via an exploratory factor analysis. Second, in follow-up regression analyses, the stereotype dimensions extracted were used to predict teachers’ perceptions of obstacles to their classroom work and their individual and collective teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Results showed that – after controlling for the average cognitive abilities and the average cultural capital of the students – teacher stereotypes were indeed related to perceived obstacles concerning their classroom work and their self-efficacy beliefs. After a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the present research, the article closes with a short proposal of a future research framework for collective Pygmalion effects. (DIPF/Orig.)