Student Teacher Role Expectations: An Exploratory Study of the Impress of Lecturers and Teachers on Student Teachers' Role Conceptions

Abstract

This exploratory and primarily descriptive study replicated and built upon an earlier study of the author by investigating aspects of the perceived normative world of student teachers at a New South Wales (Australia) college of advanced education. A major purpose of the study was to assess the 'impress' of lecturers and practising teachers on students' perceptions of the primary teacher role. The data gathered also yielded measures of consensus and conflict on role norms amongst students and their significant others, measures of student teacher idealism about their future role, measures of the accuracy of students' role perceptions, a measure of the prevailing climate of opinion about perennially important role behaviours, and measures of the direction and nature of changes in preferred role style during practice teaching, and in student role norms over training. ... The present study confirmed the findings of the initial investigation. By the end of training students had moved strongly toward embracing what they perceived to be the norms held for the primary teacher role by their lecturers and away from those they perceived were held by the teachers they were about to join in the school system. Thus the growing identification with lecturers during training was not accompanied by a similar growth in identification with teachers. Consensus on role norms for all respondent groups was apparently low for teacher/pupil and teacher/parent relationships, and potential conflict between final-year students and teachers high. To a degree, this latter reflected students' misperceptions of teachers' views. However, there were notable actual differences in role norms held by teachers and by teacher educators. That these patterns of student teacher role perception might be more widespread was suggested by a replication of part of the study at another training college where very similar results were obtained.