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This article was downloaded by: [The Aga Khan University]On: 15 December 2014, At: 23:21Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Education as ChangePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/redc20
Student teachers’ perceptions aboutthe curriculum content: A case of anormal university in ChinaSyed Manzar-Abbas a & Lijie Lu ba College of Education Science , Northeast Normal University ,Changchun , Chinab College of Education Science , Northeast Normal University ,Changchun , ChinaPublished online: 17 Apr 2013.
To cite this article: Syed Manzar-Abbas & Lijie Lu (2013) Student teachers’ perceptions about thecurriculum content: A case of a normal university in China, Education as Change, 17:1, 37-52, DOI:10.1080/16823206.2013.773933
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Education As Change, Volume 17, No. 1, July 2013, pp. 37–52
ISSN: Print 1682-3206, Online 1947-9417© 2013 The University of JohannesburgDOI: 10.1080/16823206.2013.773933
Student teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum content: A case of a normal university in China
Syed Manzar-AbbasPhD Candidate in the College of Education ScienceNortheast Normal University, Changchun, China
Lijie LuCollege of Education ScienceNortheast Normal University, Changchun, China.
Abstract
The study was administered to explore the perceptions of university students about the content selected for undergraduate-postgraduate programmes by teacher education institutions in China. The perceptions of student teachers were found out about clarity of curricular goals, content selection and organization, and the theory-practice proportion. A mixed method study design was used to investigate the problem. There were 177 randomly selected participants: 88 males and 89 females. The participants were ignorant of curricular goals. The curriculum was not according to the students’ level of maturity. The majority of the student teachers responded that the content was not compatible with their level of interest, and they suggested a dire need for the improvement of current content. Most of the students agreed that the focus of the content was more on theory. There is a need to improve the content of teacher education institutions according to levels of interest and maturity of student teachers. There is also a need to shift the focus of content from theory to practice.
Keywords: Students’ perceptions, teacher education institutions, mixed method, content selection
Introduction
At present the importance of effective teaching is increasing day by day (Darling-Hammond 2006). Effective teaching needs effective teachers. It is obvious that the better teachers have a significant role in affecting the learners’ achievement (Education Commission of States 2007). But where do these teachers come from? Definitely, the answer is from the better teacher education system. The teacher education is more future-oriented than that of education itself (Zhao 2010) because quality teachers can be trained through quality teacher education (Shahid 2003).
Researchers are agreed on how we can prepare good teachers (Smith 2005). A lot of literature describes the content and elements of a good teacher education programme and curriculum (Darling-Hammond 2006; Kennedy 2005; Korthagen 2004). There is also agreement between the researchers and educators that ‘quality makes a significant difference in children’s learning and in overall school effectiveness’ (Cochrane-Smith and Zeichner 2005:40). According to Zeichner (2006), the pedagogical knowledge, standards, and the real field experience play a pivotal role in the preparation of better teachers. Together they make a good teacher education curriculum. So if we want to develop a quality teacher education curriculum, we need to follow the guidelines suggested by the researchers.
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Content is the major part of every curriculum whatever the design or model of curriculum may be (Ornstein and Hunkins 1993:278). The content is a vital component of the curriculum. That is why, sometimes, just the content knowledge provided to the students is taken as curriculum. The methodologies and experiences are selected on the basis of selected content. What is the content? Unesco is explicit: ‘Learning content is the material (knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) to be studied or learned’ (Unesco 2006; 2010:23). Ornstein and Hunkins (1993:280) define content as: ‘Curriculum content – is a compendium of facts, concepts, generalizations principles, and theories similar to disciplined knowledge’. There is a difference between the knowledge and content of a curriculum. This difference is described by the Ornstein and Hunkins (1993:280) as follows:
School content does incorporate methods of processing information. But, knowledge, whether disciplined, like chemistry, or non-disciplined, like environmental education, is concerned with the advancement of understanding and exploration of unknown areas. In contrast, content and processes arranged in school subjects don’t provide students with opportunities for advancing the realm of knowledge, but rather opportunities for discovering knowledge that is new to them but known by scholars and practitioners outside of school. School content, then, is distinguished from knowledge by its purpose.
The content is selected and organized through a rigorous process. The problem of content selection is not only because of scarcity, it may also be because of availability of a large amount of content (Lanier 1984). The researchers and experts have suggested some principles that should be followed while selecting the content. Ornstein and Hunkins (1993:281–282) have suggested the following selection criteria for the content: significance, self-sufficiency, validity, interest, utility, learnability, feasibility. More or less same kind of criteria are proposed by the Flinders University: significance, validity, relevance, utility, interest, and learning ability (Selecting content 2011). Geis (1996 n.d.) has given also the same criteria:
1. Fit with your course learning goals, 2) Have importance in the discipline, 3) Be based on or related to research, 4) Appeal to student interests, 5) Not overlap excessively with student past experience or knowledge, 6) Be multi-functional (help teach more than one concept, skill, or problem), 7) Stimulate search for meaning, 8) Encourage further investigation, and 9) Show interrelationships amongst concepts (Center for teaching excellence, Selecting Content, n.d.).
The organization means the order of content when presenting in a book or to the students. For the organization of content two major principles have been propagated by the researchers: psychological and logical (Ornstein & Hunkins 1993:280). A logical principle determines that the order of content according to the need of subject, while the psychological principle determines the order of the content according to the needs of learners that is easy to difficult, whole to part, concrete to abstract. Lanier (1984) has endorsed his fifth guideline for organizing the content that the content should move from familiar (known) to unfamiliar (unknown) that is also a principle of organization (what does this mean?). Some of the researchers endorse other two principles for the content organization: scope and sequence. When we talk about scope the time plays the vital role in delimiting the breadth and depth of the subject matter. The other factor that influences scope is integration. Integration means the content should be well connected with the previous knowledge of students (Selecting content n.d.).
No curriculum is for ever and every curriculum needs change. For instance, the knowledge is being created everyday, so to validate the curriculum it should be changed and open to change always. Oliva (1992:45) rightly says that ‘curriculum change is inevitable and desirable’. Even some of the curriculum developers have the idea that curriculum development is a continuous process. In her axioms (axiom 7) about curriculum, Oliva (1992) declares curriculum development as an ongoing process (ibid.). Guiding us about the starting point for curriculum development in her tenth axiom, she suggests that we should start the process of curriculum development by assessing the current status of curriculum.
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Student teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum content: A case of a normal university in China
Cultural revolution and education
Since the time of civil war between Nationalist Party (Guomindang) and CCP (China Communist Party) during 1945–1949, the CCP started propagating its ideology to the teachers over the areas under its control (Ko & Adamson 2011). Educators and education faced severe circumstances during anti-rightist struggle in 1957, the Cultural Revolution (CR) 1966–76, and criticised Lin Biao and the Confucius movement in 1973. Among all these, CR was the vital factor, which influenced the education system overall. It started in 1966 and remained till 1976 for 11 years (Meng & Gregory 2002a). Meng and Gregory (2002b) divide this period into four stages. (see table )
Table 1 Four phases of CR
Phases Features
1966 to 1968 i. Schools and universities remained closed. ii. Primary students remained at homes. iii. Other school and university students met once a day for political activities.
1968-69 to 1972 i. Primary and junior high schools opened. ii. No formal curriculum was followed. iii. Senior High Schools and universities remained closed
1972 to 1977 i. The senior high schools and universities reopened. ii. Formal curriculum resumed in schools. iii. Factory and farm work still remained vital component of curriculum. iii. Parents’ position or occupation was admission criteria in universities.
1977 to 1981 i. Revolution ended in 1977. Universities started their normal routines restarting entrance exam for admission in 1977.
iii. The candidates older than 25 years were banned for admission to universities in 1981.
(based on the information of Meng and Gregory 2002a, 2002b)
The CR gave a sense of egalitarianism and a sense of education to the villagers. There was a significant increase in the number of schools, enrolment, and industrial units particularly in the villages and generally at national level. It laid an educational and economic infrastructure for future development (Han 2001; Huang 1990). During the CR special focus was given to practical skills, which were useful in daily life. In the wake of reforms graduate came to villages, and they played a vital role in educational and economic development of the villages and, hence, of the country (Han 2001). Discarding feudal ideas, giving a sense of egalitarianism to the masses, and connecting curriculum and teaching to the life and society were some good points of CR (Wan 2001).
Except for these advantages, the reforms of CR provided the other extreme of the continuum (Wan 2001). The scholars criticize CR as moribund for progress (Zhou 1996) and disastrous for education (Mosher 1983) especially educational quality (Peppr 1996). The preference of political fidelity over academic performance, giving all focus to practice and neglecting theory altogether, rejecting some good values of society such as cooperation, industriousness, and respect for teachers and elders in the name of Confucianism, executing the intelligentsia for mentioning political opposition, and snatching critical thinking power from the students, were some outcomes of the cultural revolution (Wan 2001).
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The following were among the outcomes of the cultural revolution on the education system in China:
• The teachers were tortured and politicized. Bogus cases were made against 140 000 cadres and teachers and more than 53 000 scientists and engineers during CR (Cleverly 1985:177).
• The institutions were closed and abused for political activities. • The curriculum was used as a tool for political purposes. The practical aspect was given more
emphasis unduly. • The students were made indulged in the politics and the education of students was disrupted
particularly the high school students were influenced more.• The merit was only political fidelity or party position of the parents during revolution.• The quantity increased with the decline in quality.• There might be a positive effect in villages but negative impact in urban areas.Gu and Li (1991) quote from the speech of a member of the Gang of Four, Zhang Chunqiao, to the National Conference on Education in 1971: ‘ … teachers are natural foes of the working class, therefore they should be shot should be left stinking in the political field, messy in mind, idle in work and bitter in life’ (as cited by Ko & Adamson 2011).
Teacher education in China
China’s teacher education started from the establishment of Shanghai Nanyang Normal School for the first time in Qing Dynasty (Chen and Mu 2010). China has been focusing on modernization since the late 1970s in an effort to catch up with the West (Li 2006). It is well known that Confucian values place a high emphasis on education and that teachers have a special place in Chinese thought (Xu 2006). With an increasing demand for qualified teachers, the national government is trying to upgrade the level of teacher training institutes from secondary level or junior college level to four-year college level. In addition, in recent years some comprehensive universities have been encouraged to undertake teacher education. It proves that teacher education and its reform are a high priority in China (China Ministry of Education & State Commission of Education 1996; China Ministry of Education and Training 1999; Wu 2007; Xie, 2001; Ye 2006; Zou 2008).
Still teacher education in China is separate from other institutions and is centralized (Chen and Mu 2010). Three kinds of programmes in China are responsible for teacher training: junior college, undergraduate and master’s programmes. Even though these differ in their objectives and content, they have almost the same structure in their curricula. There are some compulsory modules and the other elective ones, which consist of four areas: general courses, major courses, education courses, and practicals (Chai 2001; Chen 2004; Li 2004; Wong 2002, 2003). Song (2008) also describes the same areas but excluding the practicals. Recently, teacher education is the focus of Chinese government with a focus of professional development of teachers by improving their qualifications and a movement to give teachers due respect in the society (Li 1999).
General courses consist of two modules comprising almost 55 credits and 960 hours; compulsory courses 41 credits with 800 hours and elective courses consist of ten credits with 160 hours. Altogether the major courses comprise 59% of credits and 54% of total hours. Education courses comprise (both compulsory and elective) 17 credits and 272 hours, which make up 12% of total credits and total hours. And the practical courses including teaching practice, education investigation, thesis, and practicals, comprise less than 6% of total hours and 4% of total credits (Chen and Mu 2010).
Even the current teacher education programme has also more or less same components, especially at undergraduate level. All the subjects have similar proportions as mentioned above. For instance, in mathematics teacher education, ‘general education courses account for about 27% of the total hours,
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Student teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum content: A case of a normal university in China
with major courses 58%, education courses 10% and practical courses 5%’ (ibid.). Song (2008), citing Li (1999), says that proportions of teaching time for general, subject matter (major), and education courses are, on average, 21%, 72% and 7%, respectively.
The teacher education curriculum in China is based on subject (major) specialization. The student teachers have to teach the same subject their whole life (Song 2008). But the researchers think that pedagogical knowledge, standards, and fieldwork are core components of teacher preparation programmes (Zeichner 2006). The Chinese teacher education curriculum is based predominantly on major (Song 2007; 2008; Chen and Mu 2010).
The literature has enumerated the problems and challenges being faced by Chinese teacher education today (Guo 1996; 2005; Li 1999; Paine 1990; Zhang 1995). One of the problems identified by the researchers is the test-oriented (Zhou 2002; Guo 1996) dimension of curriculum and instruction. The prospective teachers can equip the children with test-taking skills but they are incapable of making pupils to identify and cope with environmental changes (Song 2008). It also has a reason. The national entrance exam has influenced the entire education system (Li and Chen 2002; Guo 2002). In Chinese life exams are given much importance and sometimes, and are considered as destiny makers of any individual. It is said in Chinese, ‘一考定终生 (yi kao ding zhong sheng)’, which means ‘the test decides the fate of one’s life’ (Song 2007). This attitude is responsible for the development of a narrow curriculum and a dull kind of training (Liu 2002). An accepted assumption of prospective teachers to take teaching as an instinctive quality rather than a learnable skill, and this also creates a problematic situation, because they think if one is not a born teacher then formal teacher education can not make him/her a good teacher (Guo 1996). The other group thinks that any person can teach with the help of only knowledge and experience (Song 2007). The other problem relates to the focus of teacher education programme, which gives undue importance and place only to the subject matter and ignores the pedagogy and field experience (Li 1999; Paine 1990; Zhang 1995). The practical aspect has been ignored altogether and practicals have been given an ignorable time period, which is a hindrance in preparing quality teachers (Guo 1996; 2005). The teachers who take pedagogy courses themselves are not trained in the field, which implies less importance for methodology courses in Chinese teacher education (Guo and Pungur 2008). That is why the teachers entering the classrooms of Chinese schools lack practical experience and skills (Guo 2005). So, there is a need to change the focus of teacher-centered to an interactive teacher education programme (Paine 1990).
The researchers think that student teachers should not only be the executors of teaching but they should be reflective practitioners, researchers and innovators (Song 2008), but current curriculum is unable to produce innovative thinkers (Zhou 2002; Guo 1996). In order to cope with the demands of the day, the curriculum focus should be shifted from ‘disciplinary thinking’ to ‘system thinking’ (Song 2008), which means the graduate teachers should be able to think ‘systemically and simultaneously’ and should be responsible for their actions (Harkins 2007:6).
Song (2007:22–23) contends that the old curriculum is not capable of preparing the prospective teachers for the following aspects:
1. Change of learners,2. improved educational technology at school,3. change of demands from employers, 4. society’s intensive concern about national and global issues like responsible citizenry, etc. and 5. the interconnectedness or globalization of the nation’s economic, social and political life with other
parts of the world.
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Context of the study
The university in which this research has been done is situated in the northeast region of China. This university was also the recipient of the project 211, which was initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education, China. The number 211 has two logical and meaningful parts ‘21’ and ‘1’ where 21 denotes the century and 1 means the 100 institutions1, (China’s University and College Admission System [CUAS], University list of Project 211, n.d.). The main purpose of the project was to train ‘high-level professional manpower to implement the national strategy for social and economic development’2 (China Education Centre, project 211, n.d.). This project was a part of the ninth five-year plan with the main components: 1) the improvement of overall institutional capacity, 2) the development of key disciplinary areas, and 3) the development of the public service system of higher education3, (China Education and Research Network, Project 211: A brief introduction (II), Main components of the project, n.d.).
There are two reasons for choosing this university. First, the researchers work in the same university so the investigation was easy and suitable for them. Second, the investigated university is a typical normal university. This university has an above-average ranking among the normal universities in China.
The researcher chose the student teachers as participants of the study. The literature in the field of educational reforms in China is scarce (Xu and Connelly 2009), and the voice of student teachers is almost missing in the literature over the topic of teacher education curriculum. So this study is an endeavour to fill the gap. Oliva recommended that the students of high school or above are mature enough to give their opinion about the curriculum (1992:110). She also admitted that they can help and affect the decisions of curriculum developers (ibid.). The perceptions of students can help the curriculum experts to know how they perceive the curriculum (Oliva 1992:112). The perceptions of students will not only provide the feedback about the current curriculum but also they can be taken as a baseline for a needs assessment in developing new curriculum content or in improving the current one. So in this study the researcher tried to discern the perception of university students about the curriculum content according to selection and organization criteria already established by the researchers and curriculum experts. Although the participants belong to master’s and undergraduate education classes , the focus of the study is undergraduate curriculum.
Purpose and objectives of the study
The purpose of the study was to further understand the curriculum offered in the teacher education institutions in China in particular, and to comprehend the situation of teacher education system in general. The objectives of the study were to assess the university students’ perceptions about:
• The clarity of objectives for the selected content in the teacher education institutions.• The diversity of courses to fulfill the individual needs of students in teacher education institution.• The selection and organization of curriculum content in teacher education institutions.• Their satisfaction about the proportion of theory and practice in the curriculum.+ Methods
Participants and procedure
A mixed methods study design was adopted. The scope of the study encompassed the master’s and undergraduate programmes of the education department. As a whole, 177 participants were selected randomly from the master’s and the undergraduate classes. The number of male participants was 88 (49.7%) while that of female participants was 89 (50.3%). The master’s class participants were all
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Student teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum content: A case of a normal university in China
females while from the undergraduate students there were 45 females and 88 males. The participants of focused groups were not included in this total number. There were 133 participants included from the undergraduate classes and 44 from the master’s class. The undergraduate programme in this university was for four years and the master’s programme was for two years (in some cases three years). The study was conducted at a time point when exams were conducted, and hence, the final year students from both the master’s and the undergraduate classes were not available. Thus, the students of the first, second, and the third years were selected from the undergraduate classes and only first-year students from the master’s class. At first, 45 students were selected from each year of both the classes resulting in a total of 180 participants, to whom the survey had been distributed. Three of the participants did not respond: one from the master’s class and two from the undergraduate class. In total, 177 participants responded to the survey with a response rate of 98%.
Among the total participants, the ages ranged between 19 and 21 years (50%), which comprised 88 students, while 72 participants were aged between 22 and 24 years, which comprised almost 41% of total and was the second largest age group. Hence we can say that more than 90% of the participants belonged to 19–24 age group. This age can be considered mature enough to understand educational problems and respond appropriately. Because the investigation was about education problems and the participants also belonged to the education department, they were aware of the technicalities and seriousness of the problem. Among the remaining participants 15 (8.5%) were between 25-27 years and that of only two participants were between 28 and 30 years. And they were even more mature and experienced than the above mentioned.
Measurements
A mixed method design was exercised for the study to provide a balance between the constructivist and positivist extremes (Tolan 2008) at one hand, and to permit the researchers triangulating the results collected by both the approaches and ensuring that the study is made more rigorous. Quantitative data was collected by administering a questionnaire and qualitative data was gathered by adopting a focus group technique.
The research instrument for collecting qualitative data was the focus group. Four focus group discussions were conducted with the participants of the study. Because only first-year students were included from the master’s class, just one focus group was held with them, while with the undergraduate students, three focus group discussions were administered; one each with the fresh students, sophomores, and the juniors. Every focus group consisted of six to eight participants.
All the ethical considerations in the research had been taken into account while doing the research. The focus group discussions were held with the help of a master’s student from the education class. On the basis of her proficiency in English and her major subject, she was deemed suitable for interpretation during discussions. The participants were told to express their ideas freely and openly. They were convinced that different people’s ideas may be diverse but at the same time every person’s idea may be correct in its own place and context. The participants were also asked to keep the different ideas of discussion. They were told that their discussions would be recorded for study purposes.
The researchers recorded every discussion. After every discussion the recordings were transcribed and translated into English. General themes were identified from the data and codes were assigned to the information. After coding, the data were analyzed systematically and findings and conclusions were drawn.
Questionnaires are widely used for study purposes (McMillan 2004; Fraenkel & Wallen 2000). Their administration is very easy and they are easy to understand by the respondents (McMillan 2004:157). For
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these reasons the researchers administered self-tailored questionnaires for the study. The Likert Scale form of the questionnaire was employed for its aptness during the study. At first, the scale was piloted and then refined according to the feedback of pilot testing. The last draft, consisting of 16 items (with one open-ended question) was finalized for the study. The five points rating scale was used. The options for the statements were: strongly disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree, and strongly agree. The reliability of the instrument was 0.72 alpha.
The total items in the scale were 16 when it was finalized for administration (excluding questions about demographic information). After finalization, the scale was translated into Chinese for the requirement of the study and the convenience of the subjects of the study. After translation of the questionnaire, it was further verified by two other Chinese experts and was delivered to the participants for their response.
The questionnaire was administered by the researchers themselves with the help of some of Chinese friends. The researchers were able to do the job smoothly and the presence of the friends was helped in communicating with the participants. All the questionnaires were collected by the researchers within one week. Only three respondents, one from the master’s class and two from the undergraduate classes, did not respond.
When the data collection process was completed, the data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. The five options were reduced to only three options: disagree, uncertain, and agree. The data were analyzed at two levels: a) at the overall level; b) at the gender level.
Results
Quantitative findings
Most of the respondents (41.3%) had the view that the students did not know about learning objectives. Among participants 33.4% agreed that the students knew the curricular objectives. A majority of the respondents 57% were agreed that learning objectives were compatible with the national policy goals. Most of the students (44%) remained uncertain that the objectives were achievable during the prescribed duration of time, 30% agreed while the 26% disagreed. Mostly the students (39%) agreed that the objectives were clear and understandable. More than half of the participants (54.2%) responded that the content was according to the goals of different courses offered by the university.
Less than fifty per cent of the respondents (48.6%) had the view that the content could be covered in the specified time duration. Most of the participants (54.6%) agreed that courses’ content was compatible with the goals of courses. About 40.7% replied that the content selected was not according to the interest of the students. A large number of students (54.8%) gave the opinion that the content was difficult as compared with the maturation level of the students. About the statements: ‘Content is relevant to the current need of teaching profession’, and ‘Content provides sufficient activities for developing teaching skills’. A reasonable number of students (39%) opined that the content was not according to the modern needs and trends of the teaching profession.
About the questions related to the organization of the content, most of the students agreed that the content was according to the principles of organization. More than fifty percent respondents (53%) responded that the content was organized from an easy concept to a difficult one. Almost the same number of participants replied that the content was organized from a concrete to an abstract concept. Only a few number of participants opposed the statements; 15.3% and 19.2%, respectively.
The large number of participants (51.4%) had opinion that the most part of the content was theoretical.
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Student teachers’ perceptions about the curriculum content: A case of a normal university in China
A large number of students (42.4%) opined that the current content needs a lot of improvement, which showed that they were not satisfied with the current content offered to them.
When responding to the open question, the most frequent responses suggested that the content should be more practical. The frequency of the suggestions for increasing the proportion of practical activities was 22. And the second most frequent suggestion was about the variety of courses. The participants suggested that there should be a large variety of courses so that they could select the courses of their own choice.
Gender wise analysis depicted that male and female participants had a difference of opinion about two statements. The majority of the respondents (both male (47.7%) and female (40.4%)) were uncertain. But those agreeing that objectives were attainable in the specified time duration were male (32%) participants, and this was more than those who disagreed (20%), while the number of disagreeing female participants (31.5%) outnumbered agreeing females (28%). The other point of disagreement between the male and female participants was about whether content was according to the modern needs and trends of teaching profession. The majority of male participants (40.9%) remained uncertain but the number of agreeing male participants (30.7%) was more than that of disagreeing ones (28.4%).
To find the significant difference between genders and classes t-test was applied using SPSS 17. As far as the genders are concerned, no significant differences were found between the genders. In the case of difference between the classes, the participants of both the classes had difference of opinions on two items; ‘objectives are achievable in specified time duration’ and ‘content is difficult’ (table 1).
Table 2 T-test showing class-wise significant differences
Items Class N Mean Std. Deviation
t p
Objectives are achievable in specified time duration
Master 44 2.82 .843
2.1* .037
Bachelor 133 3.13 .848
Content is DIFFICULT Master 44 3.07 .900
2.5** .014
Bachelor 133 3.48 .974
* shows the difference is significant at alpha level .05**shows the difference is significant at alpha level .01
The table shows that master’s students are less satisfied with the achievement of objectives in a specified time, with a mean score 2.8 and a standard deviation .84. And bachelor student teachers were more satisfied with a 3.13 mean score and a standard deviation .85. The difference was significant (t=2.1; p=.04) at alpha level .05. On the item of difficulty bachelor student teachers thought that content was difficult (M=3.5; SD=.97), and master’s student teachers were almost uncertain (M=3.07; SD=.9), and the difference between both the classes was significant at alpha level .01 (t=2.5; p=.01).
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Qualitative findings
Objectives Clarity: There is no clarity about the objectives of different subjects.
We have a little bit awareness about the objectives but have no clear understanding. If we are given an assignment to teach a person, perhaps, he will not understand anything in the result of our teaching. The teacher has given us a rough idea of objective in the first lesson on very first day. (Response of a focused group)
It was found that the students are even ignorant of the importance of the knowledge about the goals. They thought that it is same whether they know or do not know about the goals.
Whether we know the objective or don’t know it is same for us because the teaching of teacher is not clear to us and we are also not serious for classes because we don’t care about it. I think the teachers have only general rough understanding of objectives and not clear about every objective of curriculum. (Response of a focused group)
Even views given by one of the respondents were the most interesting:
To know about the objectives is not the responsibility of students, rather it is the responsibility of the teachers and some of the teachers themselves not clear about the objectives. (Response of a focused group)
Content Selection: The selection of content is not according to the psychological needs of the students. The prospective teachers thought that this content was too difficult for them to grasp the meanings and to understand them.
Some of the content is really hard for us especially there are a lot of theories and it is too difficult to understand the theories; so boring and burdensome, really boring. I think there should be fewer theories because too many theories make the course too much boring. (Response of a focused group)
Scarcity of choices for selecting courses: More choices for selections fulfill the individual needs of the students. As we know, psychologically every student is an individual personality and his/her psychological needs are also different, so we should provide as many choices to the students as we can.
I am not really interested in some of the courses. For me these are so dull and boring … you asked me why I chose those subjects; actually I have no option. There are only less options to select the courses so I have to select these course, if not what could I do? (Response of a focused group)
Proportion of theory and practice: An appropriate proportion between theory and practice is crucial for a successful teacher education programme, but in the case of this university all the participants had agreed that the practical aspect had been marginalized during the courses. An increased proportion of practice was most frequent suggestion furthered by the survey respondents.
There are lots of boring theories and practical skills are too small. I really don’t like theories; theories are dry and hard to learn. (Response of a focused group)
The respondents recommended that both the number of pedagogy periods and the duration for one period should be increased. They further suggested that the pedagogy period can be divided into two parts: theory and practice.
The courses about how to teach should be ‘duo’ more and the frequency of periods for the practice and pedagogy courses should be increased only once in a week is too short period. Sometimes, when in the simulation, each student can avail opportunity to present for 10 to 15 minutes only once or twice. (Response of a focused group)
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The focused group findings were almost the same as that of the survey with one difference: that during the focused group the students gave more detailed and truer responses. They were blunt in expressing their opinions. For instance, the students were very clear that the objectives were not known to the students and even that some of the teachers might also be unfamiliar with the objectives. They explained that the time was insufficient especially for the pedagogy courses.
Discussion
Mainly, the study found: the students were ignorant of learning objectives, the selection of the content was not according to the psychological needs of the students, especially the difficulty level of the content, lack of balance between theory and practice; the biggest part of the content was theoretical and it lacked appropriate proportions of practice; the content was not according to the modern trends and needs of profession, and hence there is a dire need for the improvement of the current content employed. It is notable that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of male and female candidates.
These findings are crucial for any teacher education institution. If the students do not know the objectives, how can they channelize their efforts to a specified target? Their struggles will be purposeless. The goals not only give direction to the teaching learning process but also indicate the level and extent of goal attainment set by the institution. Among Sadler’s proposals (1989) for the optimal achievement of assessment feedback, one is ‘what good practice is (i.e. the student must possess a concept of the goal or standard being aimed for) [as cited in Nicole & Macfarlane-Dick 2006]’. It implies that the students should be clear about the curricular goals. The assessment is conducted particularly to evaluate the extent to which the curricular goals have been achieved. Students can assess their progress and own the goals if they know about the learning goals (Sadler 1989; Black & Wiliam 1998). If there is difference between students and teachers in understanding the goals, then the students cannot perform well. There is a correlation between student-teacher mismatch and understanding of goals and poor performance of students (Hounsell 1997 as cited by Nicole and Macfarlane-Dick 2006). Hounsell studied the field of undergraduate education. The unclear goals will produce misunderstanding about the concepts. This kind of behaviour expressed by teachers and students might be the result of internal assessment, and by their main focus over the exams, and especially when the exams and the scores become the sole purpose for teachers and learners, then the suggested targets may not be achieved.
The psychology of the students is a guiding principle for the content selection. At the time of content selection, we should keep the interest and mental level of the learners in mind (Hunkins 1993; Geis 1996). During the selection of content, the psychological measure is an important factor, which should be considered. If the content is not interesting, the students will not be motivated to learn it and, hence, they will not target the learning goals. The outdated content questions the validity of the curriculum. And when the learners regard the content outdated and view it uncompetitive to the modern needs of the profession, they will undervalue its importance and might also not be interested in learning it. The students thought that the content was selected by the teacher and if there might be some kind of centralized system for content selection, it would be even better. Responding to the open-ended question, some of the respondents had a view that the content was not according to the modern requirements of profession and the needs of society. The process of curriculum development is continuous and the change in the curriculum is indispensable (Oliva 1992:45). This continuity and ongoing change should be commensurate with modern needs and trends. Student teachers are mature enough and their ‘expectations ought to be met’ (Laursen 2007). Chen and Mu (2010) mention poorly developed content and outdated courses (Song 2007). Zhou (2002) and Guo (1996) have regarded Chinese education as a test-oriented and outdated system, which is unable to produce innovative thinkers. This curriculum is unable to prepare the prospective teachers to compete with the changes and challenges of this era (Song
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2008; 2007). So we can see that this study is congruent with the past studies. But this is the voice of student teachers who are the main stakeholders of a teacher education system.
A large number of participants were not satisfied with the proportion of theory and practice offered during the courses. This is really an alarming situation. Teaching is a practical profession and, hence, there should be more practical activities than theoretical ones. Of course, theory provides an understanding and knowledge basis to the students but if the knowledge remains only theoretical it cannot produce required skills and competencies. The issue of balance between theory and practice and the link between theory and practice have been major issues in teacher education. The literature suggests that the fragmentation in the theory and practice in teacher education programme entails lesser transfer of theory into practice (Corporaal 1988) and a ‘wash out’ the learned concepts (Zeichner & Tabachnick 1981; Korthagen & Kessels 1999). A large number of prospective teachers think that the theories are irrelevant to the practical field of teaching (Laursen 2007). In many studies there is evidence that practice is more vital in teacher training programmes, and the teachers are less interested in the academic knowledge and research (Zanting et al. 2003; Gore and Gitlin 2004; Hascher et al. 2004). Today there is a dominant view that the theory-practice breach should be finished by the integration of both (Leinhardt et al. 1995; Shin 2006). Not only the international researchers agree with the findings of the study but the indigenous researchers also agree. Some of the researchers are of the view that Chinese teacher education is the most theory-based system. The researchers contend that the focus of the Chinese teacher education is mostly compartmentalized or discipline specialized (Chen & Mu 2010; Song 2008). So the researchers have criticized Chinese teacher education because it focuses on subject matter and ignores practical aspect (Paine 1990; Li 1999; Zhang 1995; Guo & Pungur 2008). Chen and Mu (2010) have the view that in spite of so many reforms, the teacher education is still theory oriented and lacks practical aspects. Even the methodology courses have been given less importance and proportion (Guo & Pungur 2008), and that is why the Chinese novice teachers lack practical experience when enter the classroom, so, now there is a strong need to shift the paradigm from teacher-centered curriculum to interactive teacher education programme (Paine 1990).
The t-test result concludes that there is difference of opinion only over two items: ‘the content is achievable in specified time’ and ‘content is DIFFICULT’. The implication of this information might be a general and an unattainable objective of the master’s programme. So the objectives should be reformulated and made behavioural in nature and should be observable and time bound. The other implication is about undergraduate courses: the participants think that the content at undergraduate level is too difficult. Especially, they think the theories are too boring and difficult to comprehend. The theories should be presented in a more concrete way and should be practice oriented so that the student teacher can easily understand it.
Conclusion and implications
The study findings imply that the selection of the content needs more careful and research-based consideration in the teacher education institutions. The educators and the administration of the institutions should take into account the perceptions and expectations of the candidate teachers. There should be clarity of objectives to the educators and student teachers, and the content should be made more interesting according to the needs of learners. There is a gap between theory and practice and the integration is a must for the development of quality teachers for the better future of the nation.
The findings may have implications for the teacher educators so that they can make sure their students know the objectives of the curriculum. The findings might also be important for the curriculum developers of the teacher education institutions, especially of the undergraduate institutions of teacher education. The leaders of the teacher education institutions may also get information useful for their
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supervision in the process of curriculum development. More research is needed in this area in other contexts and institutions so that it could be established whether it is only the problem of one institution or it is the prevailing problem of the day in China.
In this study the researchers have taken only one case of the School of Education Science in a Normal University. So the findings might not be generalizable to the other normal universities of China. This study was delimited only to the School of Education Sciences of the university; hence, the findings might not be applicable to other schools in the university. Some other tools of research and a large sample may also be used to verify the study.
‘How can the gap, between theory and practice, be met?’ is a crucial question which should be investigated. Some evaluative studies may be conducted to evaluate the programme for the better understanding and improvement of teacher education.
Notes
1 China’s University and College Admission System [CUAS], Retrieved on August 12, 2012. From the website: http://www.cucas.edu.cn/HomePage/majorrankings/2011-11-11/1320974089d2438.shtml)
2 China Education Centre, http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu/ceduproject211.php Accessed on August 12,2012
3 China Education and Research Network, http://www.edu.cn/20010101/21852.shtml Accessed on August, 12.2012
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Miss Wang Yang for her help in conducting focused discussions and for the distribution and collection of questionnaires. She also helped the researchers to translate the questionnaire and also in transcribing and translating focused discussions. Particularly, we acknowledge the help of Wang Xiangfei who helped the researchers in the distribution and collection of questionnaires to and from the undergraduate classes. We also acknowledge the role of Mr. LiBo who managed focused discussions and make the study feasible. The researchers also extend their gratitude to the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) and Ministry of Education (MOE) Pakistan for the financial support to complete the study.
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Corresponding author
Lijie [email protected]
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