Falling Before Running: Perceptions of Preservice Teacher Education Programs as Predictors for Future Teacher Attrition

• In Event: Roundtable Session 59
  In Roundtable Session: Should I Stay or Should I Leave? Factors of Induction Decision-Making

Abstract

Can experiences in preservice teacher education programs give indications of future teacher attrition rates? This study explores the hypothesis that student trainees have impressions of their training even after short classroom professional placements and that they can eventually establish associative relationships between trends trainees identified as being beneficial/detrimental in training and how they coincide with attrition.
This study designs a questionnaire to answer three short-term research questions. First, what are trainee perceptions of their preservice teacher education program? Second, what underlying factors, identified through factor analysis, may contribute to perceptions of how the program affects feelings of teacher quality and preparedness? And third, which factors, as determined through regression analysis, show promise in predicting feelings of preparedness?

Author

• Dino Sossi, Teachers College, Columbia University