An exploratory investigation into the social and educational backgrounds and attitudes of secondary school teacher trainees and some implications for pre-service teacher training

Abstract

This study examines the social and educational background of the students in the 1976 intake to the Division C teacher training course at Christchurch Teachers College and explores the implications of this for secondary teacher training courses. Recommendations are then made for changes, or changed emphases, within the teachers college programme which appear to be indicated from the findings of the study. A questionnaire was administered to 405 Division C students, (195 females and 210 males or ninety-seven per cent of the 1976 intake) seeking responses to questions covering aspects of their home background, secondary education, university careers, current circumstances, and expectations for a teaching career. The collated results revealed that in most cases the students had experienced domestic security and stability, parental interest in their education, material comfort, academically orientated high schooling, rewards for academic endeavour, a sharing of the authority in their high schools, and participation in numerous sporting, cultural and social organisations. In addition it was found that the students' fathers tended to be in the higher levels of the Elley/Irving Socio-Economic Index for New Zealand. Conversely, the students knew almost nothing about the educational experience of academically less able pupils, nor had they had much contact with Maori and/or Pacific Island people. An interview schedule was designed and administered to a randomly selected sub-sample of 27 students from the 1976 Division C intake. In a series of taped interviews, this explored student attitudes to a number of key issues. These were: attitudes about the major functions of secondary education, and in particular, the aims of secondary education for the academically less-able pupils; student views on the main causes of anti-school pupil behaviour, and most-favoured methods of dealing with such anti-school behaviour; weaknesses and strengths perceived in own teaching ability from teaching section experience; and helpful or deficient areas of the Division C training programme in relation to personal teaching strengths and weaknesses. The combined findings from questionnaire and interviews showed that there were marked areas of student inexperience and/or ignorance resulting from their comparatively narrow social and educational backgrounds; that, in most cases, the students were aware of such areas and often regarded them as potential teaching deficiencies; and that they felt that their training year could be re-organised to provide more effective preparation for classroom realities. In the main, the changed emphases they sought, were towards greater and more closely supervised contact with pupils and towards the development of skills in personal relationships, leadership, and communication. The broad recommendations, arising from this study, seek to redress the areas of inexperience in student background and to recognise major points from the students' personal evaluations of the college programme.