Teacher Education Pedagogy: The conceptions and Practices of Teacher Educators in the Southern Regions of Ethiopia
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Date
2024
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In order to establish a standard for successful pedagogy in teacher education, this study explores the relationship between teacher educators' conceptions of pedagogy and their likely practices. The study investigates the rationale for the pedagogical practices of the teacher-educators, with a particular emphasis on Copenhagen's classification of realistic pedagogical conceptions as application of theory and realistic as well as the practice as constructionist and transmission approaches. Constructionist and realistic approaches promote active practice and reflection, whereas the application of theory and transmission approaches focus on pedagogues that concentrate on imparting mere theoretical knowledge through transmission, expecting student teachers to apply it during their teaching. The study employed a convergent, parallel mixed-methods design and a pragmatic paradigm. The study employed questionnaires to collect data from 243 teacher educators. Moreover, 5 teacher educators and 13 student teachers were interviewed, and 6 classroom observations were carried out on 4 teacher educators.The quantitative data was analyzed using percentages, Wilcox on signed rank, and Spear man's rho correlation tests, while the qualitative data was analyzed using thematic and narrative analysis approaches.The findings indicated that teacher educators in the southern regions use a transmission or content-oriented approach in their pedagogy as a result of their application of theory conceptions to their pedagogy. It was also discovered that contextual factors had a major impact on the teacher educators' pedagogy. Based on these, teacher educators should have the conception of realistic approaches to deliver inspiring pedagogy, which is characterized by continually evolving, reflexive, and experiential teaching, as part of adequate professional competence and value. It is also critical to design professional development activities that assist teacher educators in reevaluating their perspectives and methods of teaching on learning to teach. Furthermore, policy directives that attempt to alter teaching conceptions and practices should take individual and institutional levels of teacher preparation into account.
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Teacher Education Pedagogy