Page 69 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Pre-service teacher inquiry in implemented and attained curriculum
skills). The other answers show differences in opinions between teacher educators
and pre-service teachers: Participants from both groups frequently mention the
structure of the teaching–learning trajectory in their answers to these open questions.
However, one-third of teacher educators identify this as a strong point and more than
40% of pre-service teachers identify it as a weak point. Teacher educators and pre-
service teachers also disagree with regard to inquiry habit of mind: 16% of pre-service 3 teachers identify it as a strong point, whereas 10% of teacher educators state it should
be improved.
Teacher educators also mention topics other than pre-service teachers. Teacher
educators mention integrating research and inquiry in all subjects (e.g., math, science, art, pedagogy); some of them identify it as a strong point (11%), whereas others seek improvements in this integration (16%). Furthermore, some identify miscellaneous points such as internal communication about pre-service teacher inquiry as a weak point, and mention research knowledge of teachers in primary schools as a weakness. Some other teacher educators note tension between the form of assessment in the capstone activity and the nature of inquiry as stance.
Pre-service teachers regard the quality of supervisors as important, identifying it as both a strong (31%) and a weak point (31%) depending on their own experience with a supervisor.
Again, we compared the survey findings with focus group findings. In six of the eight student focus groups, pre-service teachers do not recognize the teaching– learning trajectory; they perceive that they are required to conduct research only in the final part of their teacher education and that they lack preparation. They perceive that they received almost no feedback about their inquiry competencies or writing skills prior to their capstone projects:
In the educational structure of the program, I missed some things.... We heard that cycle all the time, but it was made practically unusable for me, so I had to do that myself.... I learned the most this year (year 4). (PST_G2)
However, teacher educators perceive a balanced teaching–learning trajectory, from the first year to graduation, as described by the program:
If you look at the design of pre-service inquiry in the study program, you see that the teaching–learning trajectory has been designed in such a way that it has a logical connection everywhere with the rest of the program: sometimes with the educational theme, sometimes with a subject like math. (TE_G5)
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