Correspondences and Differentiation in the Teaching Concerns of Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

In their discussion of student–teacher development, Burn et al. (2003) comment that a general tendency observable in various studies highlights a well-defined pattern in pre-service teachers’ teaching concerns. Initially, these concerns demonstrate a focus on oneself in terms of one’s affectivity and roles performed, and it is only later on that trainees shift their attention towards teaching (methodology and tasks), before finally focusing on the pupils, learning processes and learner achievement. Also, Pigge and Marso (1997) conclude in their study that self-concerns diminished with the gradual development of teaching expertise, the growth of self-confidence and as a consequence teaching success. The study presented here uses reflective focused-diary writing performed by EFL pre-service teachers during their one-year school placements, the purpose of which was to observe, among other things, the shift of trainees’ concerns in their identification of critical incidents at different stages of their teaching practice. The observations and comments relate to anticipated changes in concerns, expressed across time from My beginnings, In the middle to Towards the end stages of the trainees’ diary writing. The analysis of critical incidents identified by the trainees demonstrated the shift in their classroom concerns, which was seen as moving from misbehavior to more focus on the effectiveness of one’s teaching and students’ performance and ways of facilitating them by appropriate planning strategies and classroom management. This article reports on one part of a larger study of the pre-service teachers’ development (Gabryś-Barker 2011).