The Influence of Student Teachers on the Perspectives of Early Childhood Cooperating Teachers Regarding Early Reading Instruction

Y

19

Student Teachers; Early Childhood Education; Cooperating Teachers; Reading Instruction; Early Reading; Influences; Student Teacher Attitudes; Context Effect; Teacher Attitudes; Questionnaires; Followup Studies; Phonics; Whole Language Approach; Teaching Experience; Teacher Education Programs; Kindergarten; Correlation; Scores; Foreign Countries; Semi Structured Interviews; Statistical Analysis

10.1080/1359866X.2014.934198

1359-866X

Much attention has been given to the impact of cooperative teachers on the pedagogical behaviour of student teachers. In many cases, however, cooperating teachers gain as much from the student teacher as the student teacher acquires from them. This study was designed to elicit answers to the following two questions: (1) What are the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction in the Jordanian context? and (2) Does the perspectives of early childhood cooperating teachers engaging in early reading instruction change as a result of working with student teachers? The study targeted a sample of 25 cooperating teachers and 28 student teachers who participated in the study by completing a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews were also conducted with 13 cooperating teachers. Results of this study indicate that cooperating teachers endorse the phonics method more than the whole language (WL) approach. Unlike past research, the results of this study revealed that (1) the student teaching experience had no effect on the perspective of cooperating teachers regarding early reading instruction and (2) the perspectives of cooperating teachers do not become similar to those of their student teachers who were WL-oriented. The results have implications for early childhood teacher education programmes and professional development for kindergarten teachers.

As Provided

60

2015

EJ1059860