Teacher candidates’ perceptions of opportunities to develop core practices in a teacher education program

Abstract

The challenge of integrating theory and practice in the curriculum of initial teacher training is an important issue in the research agenda in this field. The results of a questionnaire on perceptions of students in relation to opportunities for the development of high leverage practices in their education programs are discussed. The instrument was designed with the purpose of monitoring a process of curriculum redesign aimed at putting practice as the core of the training process and to look for evidence for adjustment of the change process. The instrument was applied to 1,294 students of disciplinary, methods and field experience courses and asked their perception about coherence and opportunities to different approximations to practice in the courses. The results between courses are compared. Less than half of students (percentage ≤ 50%) indicated having opportunities to rehearse high leverage practices in methods and field experience courses at the university.