Professional Practice and Inquiry: Preservice Teachers' Experience and Perceived Ability to Inquire Into Practice

• In Event: Teacher Education for the 21st Century: Fostering Growth in Teacher Professionalism and Practice

Abstract

Teacher education literature points us to inquiry-based approaches as a way of forming teachers who are thoughtful, reflective and inquiring. However, there is insufficient research in the area of teacher learning as compared with the outcome (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). Thus, more in-depth research needs to be done globally in order to identify critical components of teacher education programs that prepare teachers to be inquisitive thinkers and researchers.

At The National Institute of Education (NIE) Singapore, a new model of Teacher Education for the 21st century (TE21) (National Institute of Education, 2009) was enrolled and aimed at nurturing autonomous thinking teachers for the 21st century.

In order to achieve this, the e-Portfolio platform was introduced together with the teacher preparation program in 2012, as a tool to facilitate pre-service teachers in the solidification of their teaching philosophy, strengthening of theory-practice link and the aggregation and integration of the knowledges that they have learnt in NIE and their teaching practice. However, recognizing that teacher education today need to produce quality teachers that have the ability to be adaptive and resilient to the challenging education landscape, it is vital that teacher education programs focus on inquiry as a skill and tool to equip teachers to become autonomous thinking teachers who are able to effectively inquire into their own teaching practices.

As such, the Professional Practice and Inquiry (PPI) course was introduced in 2014 to further enhance the quality of teacher education. The PPI course provides a foundation for pre-service teachers to articulate their teaching philosophy, solidify their teacher identity in congruence with NIE’s Graduand Teacher Competences (GTCs) and effectively inquire into their teaching practices.

Self-reported questionnaires were administered to all student teachers enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme at the NIE. Face to face interviews were also conducted to provide a more in-depth analysis of how both the PPI course facilitated their growth and development as teacher professionals with sound teaching philosophy congruent to NIE’s Graduand Teacher Competences (GTCs). Preliminary findings indicate that pre-service teachers viewed the use of the e-Portfolio as a tool beyond mere storage and aggregation of artefacts towards that of the ability to solidify one’s personal instructional philosophy that will impact their classroom practices. They acknowledged the e-Portfolio as a tool to facilitate reflection on their teaching practices and gave them a better understanding of themselves as teachers. However, pre-service teachers enrolled in the PPI course were not only able to solidify one’s instructional philosophy, but were able to effectively inquire into their teaching practices as compared to their previous counterparts. They were also able to articulate their understanding of what constitutes good teaching with reference from the GTCs.

Results from this study will illuminate the applicability of PPI in teacher education specifically on how it develops pre-service teachers’ development into autonomous thinking teacher professionals who are able to effectively inquire into their teaching practices. In addition, implications of findings for practice and further studies will be discussed.

Authors

• Bee Leng Chua, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Woon Chia Liu, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University