The Socializing Influence of Normative Cohesive Teacher Education on Teachers’ Beliefs about Instructional Choice

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptions held by the teacher education faculty and their teacher learners regarding teachers’ beliefs about instructional choice. Findings show that different conceptions of teachers’ instructional decision‐making were associated with different teacher education designs. In programs where teaching was conceived, for the most part, as an externally regulated profession, teachers had few opportunities to understand, reflect on or align their practice in response to students’ learning needs. In programs where teachers were seen as professional individuals capable of making informed instructional choices, teachers had more opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills to adjust instruction to learners’ diverse needs. Conceptions of instructional choice and sources of guidance in teaching and learning to teach were, on average, disperse across the programs studied, but in constructivist programs, graduates’ views were more likely to move in the direction of their faculty's expectations. I discuss programs’ socialization opportunities that may play a role on teacher education influence.

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