Page 13 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

General introduction
influencing pre-service teachers’ affective and cognitive attitudes toward research 1 and developing their research skills (e.g., Aspfors & Eklund, 2017; Maaranen, 2009;
Munthe & Rogne, 2015; Van der Linden, Bakx, Ros, Beijaard, & Vermeulen, 2012). Internationally, attention to research in teacher education has been increasing for
decades, largely because research literacy is assumed to constitute an important foundation for teachers’ professional development (BERA-RSA, 2014; Sachs, 2016). Researchers agree that to meet twenty-first-century education challenges and increase educational quality, pre-service teachers must learn how to conduct research (Aspfors & Eklund, 2017; Hökkä & Eteläpelto, 2014; Menter, 2015), noting that it can give them confidence, skills and knowledge that will empower them as autonomous educators and also may increase their ability to innovate in their professional careers (e.g., Castle, 2006; Dunn et al., 2008; Reis-Jorge, 2005). In the past few years, a considerable number of studies about pre-service teacher research in various countries (e.g., Finland, Norway, Sweden, Romania, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States) have been published (e.g., Aspfors & Eklund, 2017; Cochran-Smith, Barnatt, Friedman, & Pine, 2009; Flores, 2018; Gray, 2013; Ion & Iucu, 2016; Råde, 2019; Ulvik, Riese, & Roness, 2017). However, these studies all focus on the (post-)graduate level at research universities, in which experience with, knowledge of and attitudes toward research are different than at universities of applied sciences. These research universities generally aim to train academics who are able to create new knowledge by using sophisticated and complex research methodology. By contrast, less is known about pre-service teacher research in professional bachelor’s degree programmes (for exceptions, see, Baan, Gaikhorst & Volman, 2019; Munthe & Rogne, 2015; Van der Linde et al., 2012).
In general, research on the effectiveness of teacher education pedagogy is rare. Most research is descriptive, involving one or two programmes, and is not focused on the impact of a specific pedagogy on pre-service teacher or teaching quality (Grossman, 2005; Van Veen 2013; for an exception, see Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005). An abundance of work exists on teacher education and its core practices (e.g., Grossman, Hammerness & McDonald’s, 2009; Korthagen, 2010; Loughran & Hamilton, 2016); however, the effectiveness of these core practices as it relates to the quality of newly qualified teachers is not addressed. Although some studies indicate that pre- service teacher research can contribute to professional development (e.g., Darling- Hammond, Hammerness, Grossman, Rust, & Shulman, 2005), convincing empirical research that shows the effectiveness of specific teacher education pedagogies is still scarce (Van Veen, 2013).
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