Abstract:
This study involved the deployment of a dispositional online survey within an Educational Psychology course that is compulsory for undergraduate teaching students. The study is predicated on the belief that to become excellent practitioners, pre-service teachers must understand their own beliefs and attitudes towards learning. This area is not explicitly addressed in NSW accreditation standards, so may be missed in initial teacher education (ITE) programs. That omission would be amiss, because such metacognitive introspection functions to achieve at least four specific goals.
Firstly, in the immediate context, provision of individual dispositional scores gives ITE students personal connection with theory from educational psychology, making complex and abstract concepts more tangible and relevant. Secondly, students’ insight into their own dispositions towards learning facilitates deeper engagement with university study and builds a sense of agency that may lead some to seek support to actively develop more adaptive dispositions. Thirdly, these insights prepare pre-service teachers to recognise the dispositional attributes of their future students, and to consider how they might influence students’ dispositions for the better. Fourthly, participation in a course activity that is also an authentic research project, pre-service teachers gain direct experience of empirical research, and how it translates into evidence-based practise.
In addition to these benefits, the data generated offers ITE educators rich insight into student cohorts, informing their practice. This paper therefore contributes a novel, data-based approach to creating and maintaining student engagement with ITE and with promoting the dispositions that underpin effective, sustainable teaching and learning.
Firstly, in the immediate context, provision of individual dispositional scores gives ITE students personal connection with theory from educational psychology, making complex and abstract concepts more tangible and relevant. Secondly, students’ insight into their own dispositions towards learning facilitates deeper engagement with university study and builds a sense of agency that may lead some to seek support to actively develop more adaptive dispositions. Thirdly, these insights prepare pre-service teachers to recognise the dispositional attributes of their future students, and to consider how they might influence students’ dispositions for the better. Fourthly, participation in a course activity that is also an authentic research project, pre-service teachers gain direct experience of empirical research, and how it translates into evidence-based practise.
In addition to these benefits, the data generated offers ITE educators rich insight into student cohorts, informing their practice. This paper therefore contributes a novel, data-based approach to creating and maintaining student engagement with ITE and with promoting the dispositions that underpin effective, sustainable teaching and learning.