Philippine E-Journals

Examining the Social Development of Student-Teachers in a Teacher Education Programme

Cheng May-hung

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Teacher educators have attempted to define professional development or the development of teaching competence among student-teachers within teacher education programmes. This paper has taken the social development of the student-teachers to be the focus and defines social development as one of the areas of learning within a teacher education programme whereby student-teachers construct, define and re-define what it means to be a teacher in a school, Moreover, the process of learning to teach is explained from a socia-cultural view of learning where student-teachers are socialized as novices into the teaching profession. They become new members of the profession and learn the values and norms of the teaching profession. By describing the social development of the student-teachers during the first three years of a four-year teacher education programme, ways of enhancing this development can also be identified. The paper concludes with recommendations to support the social development of student-teachers as part of the learning process.