microLESSONS in teacher education: Examining pre-service teachers’ pedagogical beliefs
Introduction
The study of teachers’ pedagogical beliefs is indeed critical to education. Research studies have shown that teachers with traditional pedagogical beliefs are more likely to employ didactic instructional practices when they become teachers (Niederhauser et al., 1999, Stofflett and Stoddart, 1994). They tend to perceive teaching as a didactic way of disseminating information to students and learning as a passive activity, with students doing minimal task management or holding little responsibility for their own learning (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992). This is contrasted with constructivist pedagogical beliefs where learning is perceived as an active construction and reconstruction of knowledge, and teaching as a process of guiding and facilitating learners in the process of knowledge construction (Cohen, 1988). Even when placed in a technology-rich classroom, teachers with traditional pedagogical beliefs may continue to use technology to support didactic instruction (Becker, 1994, Dexter et al., 1999). Ertmer, Ross, and Gopalakrishnan (2000) highlight that until teachers’ pedagogical beliefs are transformed, they may use technology to disseminate information or as a tutorial aid to reinforce basic skills rather than use it to support students’ thinking process or engage them in solving open-ended problems.
The teacher education program, especially at the pre-service stage, plays a crucial role in facilitating teachers’ transformation in their instructional practices by shifting their pedagogical beliefs. In his study of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their roles in technology-mediated classrooms, Wang (2002) suggests that pre-service teachers who have adopted constructivist instructional approaches may have undergone fundamental shifts in their pedagogical beliefs. He recommends that teacher educators should adopt a constructivist approach towards their own instructional practices in order to facilitate these shifts in beliefs. At the same time, teacher education programs need to ensure that pre-service teachers develop adequate skills to use technology effectively in the classroom. However, successful integration of technology into instructional practices requires more than mastering of technical skills; teacher education programs need to create a meaningful context that allows pre-service teachers to critically examine their own pedagogical beliefs and explore the application of technology in a constructivist learning environment.
Many strategies have been recommended as to how to shift pre-service teachers away from traditional beliefs and guide them in adopting more constructivist instructional practices (Applefield et al., 2001, Muijs and Reynolds, 2002). Based on a case study of a class of 19 pre-service teachers undergoing the microLESSONS series, this paper contributes to the wealth of strategies by examining how participation in the design of constructivist multimedia learning packages changes pre-service teachers’ pedagogical beliefs. The microLESSONS series is a component in the Introduction to Instructional Technology (EED100) course, a core module of the pre-service teacher education program in the National Institute of Education (NIE). It is a 5-lesson series (10 h over five weeks) situated in a 12-lesson module that engages pre-service teachers in designing and developing small units of multimedia packages (microLESSONS) to achieve a set of learning objectives based on constructivist principles. The experience of instructional planning and the design of microLESSONS help pre-service teachers to develop a better understanding of constructivist principles and instructional approaches, and also create opportunities for them to consider different ways of using technology to support learning (Divaharan & Wong, 2003).
Section snippets
Teacher education and the pedagogical beliefs of pre-service teachers
Pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching are well established during what Lortie (1975) terms as the apprenticeship of observation. It occurs over the years as students where they accumulate ideas about what it takes to be an effective teacher and how students ought to behave. Applefield et al. (2001) and Holt-Reynolds (1992) suggest that pre-service teachers who have been taught in a didactic learning environment are likely to hold on to this traditional belief of teaching and learning and
The microLESSONS series: a constructivist learning experience
According to Jonassen (1998), a constructivist learning experience is characterized by the following:
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engagement in an authentic task that encourages knowledge construction;
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opportunities for collaboration;
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tutors who serve as guides and facilitators; and
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a series of scaffolding activities or tools to guide learning or to help learners perform just beyond the limits of their ability.
These characteristics are inherent in the design of the microLESSONS series. Pre-service teachers are first asked to
Research context and methods
A case study approach was adopted to examine pre-service teachers’ changes of pedagogical beliefs from participation in the microLESSONS series. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The quantitative method, using pre- and post-microLESSONS questionnaire surveys, was employed to examine the pedagogical beliefs of teachers before and after the microLESSONS series, and also to select a sample of three pre-service teachers for the interviews. Qualitative methods were employed to
Survey findings: pedagogical beliefs before and after the microLESSONS series
All 19 pre-service teachers participated in the pre- and post-questionnaire surveys. There was only one male pre-service teacher in the class. About three-quarter of them were between the age of 20 and 25, and the majority (89%) had short periods of teaching experience in primary schools as a relief teacher or a contract teacher prior to enrolment in the pre-service teacher education program. Before the microLESSONS series, 12 pre-service teachers felt more comfortable, as a teacher, with
Discussion
Most of the pre-service teachers in the study attended schools where direct instruction and examination dominated the learning environment; where the emphasis was on the efficient transfer of knowledge to students and the replication of basic skills. As a result of these experiences, some of the pre-service teachers held traditional pedagogical beliefs that teaching was a didactic way of transmitting knowledge and learning was a passive activity. They might then employ traditional instructional
Conclusion and future research
The pedagogical beliefs of pre-service teachers are well established by the time they enter the teacher education program. These beliefs are resistant to change and are unlikely to be affected by a short, one-off constructivist-based practical experience provided by the microLESSONS series. Factors that contributed to this could be due to the short period of intervention, the pre-service teachers’ failure to see a need for pedagogical and instructional change, the pre-service teachers’ lack of
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