Dr Steven S. Sexton University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand Education, Research & Development 6th International Conference 4–8 September 2015 Elenite Holiday Village, Bulgaria www.sciencebg.net

1. Dr Steven S. Sexton
University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
STUDENT TEACHERS LEARNING TO THINK,
KNOW, FEEL AND ACT LIKE A TEACHER:
THE IMPACT OF A MASTER OF TEACHING
AND LEARNING PROGRAMME

2. • The present paper reports on one new Initial Teacher
Education initiative in New Zealand designed to help raise
the standards and profile of teachers in New Zealand.
• The Master of Teaching and Learning (MTchgLn) is a one-
year, course-taught Master’s level degree programme for
both Primary (Years 1-8) and Secondary (Years 7-13)
teachers.

3. PROGRAMME IDEOLOGY:
• Realistic Teacher Education (Korthagen,
Kessels, Kosters, Lagerwerf, & Wubbels, 2008;
Korthagen, Loughran, & Russell, 2006)
• Reflexive Teachers (Cunliffe, 2004)
• Adaptive Experts (Temperley, 2013)

4. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
• 114 days at University, 112 days in school setting
• University: programme designed to support and
facilitate students in school setting as teachers.
• School Setting: 2 days/week for first 20 weeks of the
school year and then a 7-week block of sustained
teaching practice. Shift to a new school setting for 4
weeks of 2 days/week then a 3-week block of sustained
teaching and then finish the year back at 2 days/week.

5. RESEARCH IN REALISTIC TEACHER EDUCATION
• To help determine the affect of this programme
on student teachers’ efficacy beliefs and
concerns, two surveys are being used:
• Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Long Form)
(Tschannen-Moran & Calvert, 2013)
• Concerns About Teaching (Smith, Corkery,
Buckley, & Clavert, 2013)

6. THE PROGRAMME’S PHASES:
• Phase 1 – began the programme with three weeks of a block course that
required student teachers to explicitly explore their own schooling past and
what it meant to them in how they now see the role of the student, teacher,
teaching and school.
• Phase 2- began the two days a week cycle of student teachers putting into
the practice the theory of the course and then bringing their teaching practice
back to the course. This phase required student teachers to provide reflexive
narratives of events, what they meant, how they felt and what they were
going to do about them.
• Phase 3 – began the first sustained teaching block (7 weeks) where student
teachers were required to explicitly identify how they were adapting their
teaching practice based on what was happening in the class.

7. STUDY
• Surveys were administered at the beginning of the
programme to determine student teachers’ initial Sense of
Efficacy and Concerns (before any experience of course
content or actual school-based settings).
• Surveys were administered for a second time after their
first 10-weeks of school setting (corresponding to the first
term of the New Zealand school year).

8. • Student teachers were invited (but not required to
attend) regularly scheduled focus group sessions about
their experiences in both the programme and school-
based settings.
• These sessions were weekly on Fridays, their school-
based teaching experiences were Wednesdays and
Thursdays.
• Out of the 26 student teachers in this programme (16
secondary and 10 primary), 23 regularly attended these
sessions.

9. 1 - 4.93
2 - 5
3 - 5.38
4 - 5.28
5 - 5.62
6 - 5.69
7 - 5.52
8 - 4.31
9 - 4.86
10 - 4.79
11 - 4.55
12 - 4.83
13 - 2.76
14 - 4.41
15 - 5.76
16 - 4.97
17 - 4.34
1 - 4.93
2 – 5
3 - 5.38
4 - 5.28
5 – 5.62
6 – 5.69
7 – 5.52
8 – 4.31
9 – 4.86
10 – 4.79
11 – 4.55
12 – 4.83
13 – 2.76
14 – 4.41
15 – 5.76
16 – 4.97
17 – 4.34

10. 1 – 7.41
2 – 7.83
3 – 6.97
4 – 7
5 – 8
6 – 8.07
7 – 7.10
8 – 7.38
9 – 7.41
10 – 6.93
11 – 7.28
12 – 7.31
13 – 7.10
14 – 7.69
15 – 6.83
16 – 6.76
17 – 6.79
18 – 7.24
19 – 5.93
20 – 7.45
21 – 6.86
22 – 6.69
23 – 7.03
24 – 7.45

11. • Notable findings – Initial survey
• Concerns about teaching:
• Three areas of concern
• Transition from Mentoring Teacher to them in
front of the classroom
• Their values being matching the schools
• Them being accepted within the school
system

12. • Sense of efficacy: High at the start
• Many felt able to get through to the most difficult students
• Many felt able to establish routines to keep activities
running smoothly
• Most thought they were able to craft good questions
• Most thought they were already able to use a variety of
assessments
• Many thought they were able to provide appropriate
challenges for very capable students
• Probably the only unidealistic efficacy issue
• Many had concerns about how to keep a few problem
students from ruining the entire lesson

13. • Survey 2 – Notable shifts in Concerns
• Student teachers began to question their own academic
ability: 4.93 down to 4.27
• Students were not prepared for the transition from
Mentoring teacher in control to them: 4.31 down to 3.55
• Students moved to an even more negative view of
teaching (teaching is free of stress): 2.75 down 2.06
• Students did not see themselves fitting in at schools (their
values matching schools); 4.34 down to 3.79
• However, students were more a part of school: 4.43 up to
4.72

14. • Notable shifts in Efficacy Beliefs
• Less able to get through to difficult students: 7.41 down to 6.21
• Less able to help students who are failing: 7.68 down to 6.72
• Less able to use a variety of assessments: 7.24 down to 6.65
• Less able to respond to defiant students: 6.86 down to 6.10
• Less able to influence students beliefs that they can do well in
school: 8.07 down to 7.21
• Only question that did not drop in efficacy was question 19 – How
well can you keep a few problem students from ruining an entire
lesson: 5.93 stayed at 5.93. Only 6 students scored this the same
on both surveys but the average stayed the same

15. LEARNING TO THINK, FEEL AND ACT LIKE A
TEACHER
• Wyatt (secondary) described how this programme’s design of putting the
theory in practice to have authentic opportunities of practicing the theory
changed his sense of self-as-teacher:
With regard to developing conceptual frameworks of teaching, I have
had to change my entire approach to teaching, learning to construct activities
around learning intentions rather than simply transmitting the knowledge into the
students’ minds via a PowerPoint Presentation. By asking students to write
answers on the board and recording their authentic responses to questions, I
have tried to listen far more attentively to their voices and the language in which
they express their ideas. I no longer see assessment as a means of filtering
students into bright and dumb on the basis of an exam, but rather as an ongoing
form of feedback that motivates learning and provides suggestions along the
way.

16. • Jeremy (secondary) provided an example of how this
programme’s design supported his developing sense of self-as-
teacher:
Establishing the concept of the type of teacher, I want to
be, is something that will remain fluid all throughout my teaching
career and I expect to continue to develop every day I teach. I have
developed a stronger sense of who I am as a teacher but this can
never be fully complete, as I will never stop developing as a
teacher.

17. CONCLUSIONS
• This paper presented on the first year of a three-year
pliot programme programme.
• It is expected that the New Zealand government will
make a formal announcement in the May of 2016 as to
whether this will become the only pathway into Initial
Teacher Education.
• The realistic teacher education component of this
programme combined with its reflexive and adaptive
expert ideologies is having the desired effect.

18. • Student teachers did question themselves and
how they saw teaching.
• The advantage of this programme is that it is
evidence-based practice, but this evidence is
based in their own teaching practice.

19. REFERENCES
• Cunliffe, A. L. (2004). On becoming a critically reflexive practitioner. Journal of Management
Education, 28(4), 407-426. doi: 10.1177/1052562904264440
• Korthagen, F. A. J., Kessels, J., Koster, B., Lagerwerf, B., & Wubbels, T. (2008). Linking practice and
theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher
education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 1020-1041. doi:
10.1016/j.tate.2006.04.022
• Smith, L. F., Corkery, G., Buckley, J., & Calvert, A. (2013). Changes in Secondary School Preservice
Teachers’ Concerns About Teaching in New Zealand. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(1), 60-74.
doi: 10.1177/0022487112449019
• Temperley, H. (2013). Learning to practise: A paper for discussion. Wellington, New Zealand:
Ministry of Education.
• Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing and elusive construct.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 783-805.