Teaching Journeys: Developing inspiration and networks in first year teacher education students.

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1 Teaching Journeys: Developing inspiration and networks in first year teacher education students. Abstract Dr Susan Beltman, School of Education, Curtin University. The Teaching Journeys event aimed to develop a sense of vocational purpose and identity in first year pre-service teachers, and to enhance their experience through providing opportunities for developing multiple networks. Having a sense of purpose and networks are associated with first year student success and retention. Role models can be effective in pointing out how to achieve relevant goals. The half day event included displays of work by final year students, brief presentations by recent graduates and education leaders, and opportunities for questions and informal interactions before and after the presentations and over morning tea. Feedback was obtained through a formal structured survey. First years found the event inspiring and suggestions for improvement included holding the event earlier in the year and opening it to all students. Audience discussion questions will focus on the value and structure of such events. Background This paper outlines an intervention for first year students in three undergraduate Bachelor of Education courses. Teaching Journeys aimed at enhancing the first year experience and developing the professional identity of the students through fostering a sense of belonging to the current cohort of first year education students, to the wider student cohort and staff, and to their future professional community. One important factor in the first year university student experience is to give students a sense of belonging. Sally Kift s (2009) principles of first year curriculum (a definition of which includes co-curricular activities) include the principle of engagement where the curriculum facilitates interactions with peers and staff. Students need to feel part of a profession as well as a community of learners (Nelson, 2010). As pre-service teachers are transformed over the course of their four year program from first year education students to novice professionals, they need to develop a sense of vocational purpose. As Kift (2009) explains: Good first year curriculum design aids transition from a student s previous educational experience to the nature of learning in higher education and their new discipline as part of their lifelong learning journey. Activities such as discussing expectations and investigating what it means to be a professional should help students develop their identity as a teacher. Identity may be thought of as being seen by oneself and by others as a particular sort of person in a particular context at a particular time (Gee, 2000). Recent research has explored teacher identity as it develops across pre-service courses and into the early years of the profession (e.g. Chong & Low, 2009; Hong, 2010, 2012). Developing teacher identity is not just vital for pre-service teachers at the beginning of their course, but maintaining teachers sense of vocation across all career phases is important (Gu & Day, 2007) as successful teaching. Teaching is associated with a strong sense of professional goals and purposes, persistence, professional aspirations, achievement and motivation (p. 1311). 1

2 The identity formation of student teachers is influenced by their personal history, social interactions, and psychological and cultural factors (Lamote and Engels, 2012). Professional identity includes not only perceptions of who they are now, as a pre-service teacher, but also the kind of teacher they want to become. Izadinia (2012) reviewed empirical research on student teachers professional identity and found that teacher identity is not stable, rather it is dynamic and created and recreated during an active process of learning to teach (p.2). Some researchers consider that teacher education programs are the first and perhaps the most important stage in the development of [pre-service teachers ] professional identity (p. 2). Teaching Journeys enabled first year students to hear about the professional journeys of recent graduates and the expectations of future employers. Teaching Journeys was a co-curricular strategy, defined as a supplemental activity outside the classroom (Wilson & Lizzio, 2011). These authors brought together research on first year student experience and achievement and the intervention drew on this work. The satisfaction of commencing students is influenced by a number of factors including a sense of purpose and a sense of connection. Sense of purpose, along with academic achievement, is a key factor in predicting first year student retention, and sense of purpose also is a protective factor for student retention. Teaching Journeys aimed to cultivate a sense of commitment to the teaching profession as having a career pathway is seen to be important for meaningful engagement and persistence. In addition, Wilson and Lizzio (2011) found that students are also more likely to succeed if they develop a social network at university, and the event aimed to promote a range of networks. First year students had the opportunity to view displays of work of final year students and to ask them questions. They were able to mingle informally with the presenters and to ask questions during the formal parts of the event. The mechanism through which a sense of vocational purpose was promoted was in part through role modelling as those who has succeeded in the course and in the profession shared strategies for success. Role models are individuals perceived as being exemplary or worthy of imitation (Yancey, 1998). Teaching Journeys provided opportunities for role modelling in a number of ways. Final year students and graduates were intended to act as role models for the first year students. In the feedback it was found that graduates were also role models for the fourth year students. Role models can be influential in changing behaviours and perceived similarities between the model and the observer can increase effectiveness (Nelson & Norton, 2005). As Lockwood and Kunda (1997, p. 97) found, a role model whose achievements seem attainable can help individuals develop their goals in more practical, task-oriented ways. This is even more important when an individual doubts his or her ability to perform well (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1996). The graduates were intentionally selected from a range of types of professional work settings and comments from the first years in their evaluation forms indicated that they had become aware of a range of career paths open to them. The stated aims of the intervention were: to give students a sense of vocational purpose to enable them to feel part of a profession as well as a community of learners to reflect on their own teaching journey, and be inspired to achieve excellence in whatever professional role they undertake Intervention The Teaching Journeys event was a half day in the final week of Semester 2 (this was in the school holidays) and brought together the following groups: 2

3 First year Bachelor of Education Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary students; 2012 Student Peer Mentors who already had a connection with the first years; Final year students who displayed their work as part of a final assessment in that unit; Seven recently graduated students from a range of locations and in different types of work e.g. high needs school, government and private schools, regional and remote locations, and higher degree students. One graduate won the 2011 WA Beginning Teacher of the Year Award and another an Education prize that gave permanency as a teacher. The graduates briefly presented key points from their experiences. They were invited to share what they had been doing since graduation, their current role and its most enjoyable / rewarding aspects, their advice to pre-service educators, and what they envisaged that they would be doing in 5 years time; Five education leaders (2 primary and 2 secondary School Principals, plus the Director of an Early Childhood Centre). They were invited to speak about their current role and its most rewarding aspects, what skills and attributes they would look for in a new graduate, and their advice for pre-service teachers / educators; and University academic staff involved with first year students. [In the conference presentation some of the details above and below will be reduced and examples of some of the advice given by graduates and educational leaders and photographs of the event will be presented]. An opportunity to obtain faculty funding to support first year students prompted the idea for the event and an application was submitted with the assistance and support of the Head of School and other Directors. The event was collaboratively organized with academic and administrative staff and students assisting. Publicity included the development and distribution of a flyer, s to all first years, staff being asked to promote the event, and visits to first year classes. The Unit Coordinator of the Integrated Programming unit organized two classes of Early Childhood and Primary fourth year students doing their final assessment piece to present their resources or teaching program. Mentors assisted on day with general organization and before with packing bags and preparing folders. One staff member organized flyers, letters, catering, venue booking, presenter gifts, certificates and collated feedback sheets. Other staff members took photos and videoed presenters, and set up the computer and microphones on the day. The structure of the event included a welcome and introduction, a series of short presentations by recent graduates, followed by morning tea. A panel of education leaders were to share their views on key questions including what they would look for in a graduate but they all prepared and presented individual power points instead. Before and after the formal presentations and during morning tea students were able to move around stations where current final year students displayed their work. The aim was informal interaction. First years had opportunities to talk to each other as well as other participants, to ask questions and to reflect on their own teaching journey. First year students received small bags that contained a notebook, pen, highlighters etc. plus a personalized folder with the program, feedback sheet and a personalized certificate of attendance. Prizes (e.g. diaries, text books, usb) were given out for those with recent birthday or who could answer questions relating to domains of development etc. and fun questions such as the name of Calvin s toy tiger. Small gifts were given to mentors who helped, to staff who coordinated 4 th years and who did administrative work, and to all presenters. 3

4 Attendees included about eight additional staff members, about 25 students from other years, and about 80 first year students, with 35 completing the survey at the end of the event. The number of first year students attending was disappointing given the publicity efforts but the atmosphere was busy and positive. Impact First year students were asked to complete a simple, short survey immediately after the event with rating scales relating to specific aspects of the event and two open ended questions asking how the event could be improved and for other comments such as the best or worst thing about the event. Informal feedback was also obtained from presenters and others involved. Responses to the survey items appear in Table 1 and it may be seen that the first year students had positive perceptions of the event. Poor OK Great Overall Rating of this event th Years displays were The Curtin Graduates were The panel of leaders was The venue was The catering was Table 1. Responses to Survey Items Responses to the open ended questions were also positive, with the word inspiring appearing frequently. There were suggestions that the event be held earlier in the semester so that it did not conflict with major assignment or exam preparation, and that where the event clashed with classes, that those classes be replaced by attendance at the event. The Head of School also made these suggestions and recommended that it be open to all year groups, a thought echoed by the fourth years and mentors. Staff also thought it should be held earlier in the year. Other feedback from first years suggested that it be made more interactive. That had been the intention but the principals feedback indicated that they realised that they talked too much instead of working as a panel addressing questions which had been the intention. The first years particularly enjoyed hearing from the recent graduates and the recent graduates said they appreciated hearing the principals views. Questions for audience discussion The following questions will form the basis of interactive discussion at the conference presentation. The actual questions used will depend on the nature and size of the audience. Small groups or partner discussion will be used and an effort made to determine the interests of the audience e.g. whether organising generic first year experiences or academics from specific professional courses. 4

5 How important is connecting to the profession for first year students? Apart from developing a sense of professional identity, what other benefits could arise? How can a sense of vocational purpose be integrated into the course curriculum or other aspects of university courses? What roles could academics and non-academics play in such an event? How do you think this event could have been improved? What should be the focus or structure of future similar events? References Chong, S., & Low, E.-l. (2009). Why I want to teach and how I feel about teaching: Formation of teacher identity from pre-service to the beginning teacher phase. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 8(1), Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, Gu, Q. & Day, C. (2007). Teachers resilience: A necessary condition for effectiveness. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(8), Hong, J.Y. (2010). Pre-service and beginning teachers professional identity and its relation to dropping out of the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education 26, doi: /j.tate Izadinia, M. (2012). A review of research on student teachers professional identity. British Educational Research Journal, ifirst Article, doi:org/ / Kift, S. (2009). First year curriculum principles. Retrieved from: Lamote, C. & Engels, N. (2010). The development of student teachers professional identity. European Journal of Teacher Education, 33, Lockwood, P., & Kunda, Z. (1997). Superstars and me: Predicting the impact of role models on the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), Nelson, K. (2010). An institutional approach to the FYE & retention. Presentation at Curtin University, May Nelson, L. D., & Norton, M. I. (2005). From student to superhero: Situational primes shape future helping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1996). Modeling and self-efficacy influences on children's development of self-regulation. In J. Juvonen & K. R. Wentzel (Eds.), Social motivation: Understanding children's school adjustment (pp ). New York: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, K., & Lizzio, A. (2011). Success in First Year: Facilitating the successful orientation, engagement & retention of commencing students. Presentation at Curtin University, June Yancey, A.K. (1998). Building positive self-image in adolescents in foster care: The use of role models in an interactive group approach. Adolescence 33(130),