Page 132 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Chapter 6
3 General conclusion
Both pre-service teachers and teacher educators endorse the value of pre-service teacher inquiry; in short, for pre-service teachers the added value of pre-service teacher inquiry is empowerment. For many for the first time in their education to become a teacher, they feel empowered in the sense of becoming more aware, having more understanding and control of their teaching practice and a stronger sense of agency. In general, empowered teachers are curious and critical; they have learned not to follow educational fads, methods or school policy slavishly; know how to use and apply research to own educational settings; and want to share findings from practitioner inquiry that aims to improve practice. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between the quality of inquiry and the quality of teaching, which requires further research into underlying factors and processes. Following the curriculum model of Van den Akker (2013), we note room for improvement: the most important purpose of pre-service teacher inquiry in the intended curriculum, an inquiry habit of mind, is only recognised as such by the high achievers. To develop the inquiry stance and produce more inquiry-based working teachers, teacher educators should emphasise the development of an inquiry habit of mind and the alignment between the purpose of pre-service teacher research and teaching activities‒including assessments‒in their communications with students.
4 Discussion
For about ten years, pre-service teacher inquiry has been a compulsory component of the curricula of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands as a result of European agreements. Previously, universities of applied sciences were mainly focused on education, and a research culture was lacking (Geerdink et al., 2015; Griffioen, 2013; Van der Linde et al., 2012). To introduce inquiry in the curricula, the universities of applied sciences copied research teaching activities and forms of assessment from research universities, emphasising the qualification aspect, characterised by assessments of knowledge and skills about conducting research. This approach to pre- service teacher inquiry reached a new height during national accreditation in 2015, which focused on capstone projects. Introducing pre-service inquiry in the teacher education programmes of universities of applied sciences also had downsides, such as a delay in graduation, even for students who showed good teaching skills. Another
130