Assessing Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Vertical and Horizontal Coherence in University Teacher Education

• In Event: Assessing and Supporting College Students' Cognitive Capacities

Abstract

Coherence is a fruitful guiding theme to enhancing teacher education through intertwining domains (subject science, subject didactics, educational science) and phases of teacher education. The creation of coherent teaching-/learning opportunities has positive effects on teacher candidates’ attitudes, motivation, perceived increase in competencies, and knowledge growth. Yet, the mere creation of coherent teaching-/learning opportunities won`t support this development, if teacher candidates do not perceive connections as being coherent. This study investigated whether an assumed theoretical model of vertical and horizontal coherence fits obtained data well for teacher candidates from various disciplines and study phases. Data displayed good item characteristics, yet an overall test of model fit showed that our statistical model fits well only for participants with a further study progress.

Authors

• Katharina Anna Hellmann, University of Education - Freiburg

• Jan Henning-Kahmann, University of Education - Freiburg