A continuation of the study which examined the pedagogical practice of an initial teacher education course from the diploma programme in the National Institute of Education and how it contributed to student teachers’ professional growth in terms of pedagogical knowledge and skills, and professional identity as a teacher. This study made use of videographic data of 11 lessons of the course over an entire semester, and end-of-course focus group interviews with the student teachers and the lecturer who conducted the course. The findings have important implications for pedagogical practice in teacher education.
Principal Investigator
Prof. LOW Ee Ling
Co-Principal Investigators
Prof. GOODWIN A. Lin, Assoc. Prof. LAKSHMI Seetha, Assoc. Prof. LIM Kam Ming, Assoc. Prof. NG Pak Tee
Collaborators
Prof. DARLING-HAMMOND Linda, Prof. YEUNG Alexander Seeshing, Assoc. Prof. BEN SAID Selim, Mr. CHEN Zhu, Dr. TEH Laik Woon, Assoc. Prof. TOWNDROW Alexander Phillip
Objectives
- Account for and characterise the development of teachers’ professional competence and identity during ITE and into their early career work
- Study the impact of ITE programmes and subsequent TPL&D on the development of professional competencies and teacher identity, both within NIE’s ITE programmes and for the first 1–2 years of teaching
- Systematic attempt to provide empirical evidence that can inform policy on and practice of both ITE and TPL&D programmes in Singapore
Findings
- Provisions for mentoring beginning teachers are not uniformed across Singapore
- Supportive environment in schools help beginning teachers (BTs) in communicating with parents, and manage stress, time and students
- What BTs appreciate the most:
- Structured mentoring programmes in school
- Assigned mentors
- Protected time for mentoring conversations and lesson observations
Insights and Implications
- Progressively,
- more teachers under the teaching track are equipped under the Teacher Leaders Programme (TLP) to mentor BTs and junior teachers
- more schools assign protected time for mentoring conversations and lesson observations to support BTs
Citation
TBA