An investigation into the development of pre-service teachers in a guidance training programme and its implications for their guidance role in schools

Abstract

This study investigates the development of pre-service teachers with reference to the core conditions of counselling in a guidance training programme, which is a part of a pre-service new B.Ed, module. It aims to make some suggestions for effective preparation of the pre-service teachers to play their guidance role in Hong Kong primary schools. Qualitative rather than quantitative research approach was used. The sample was a class of 37 pre-service teachers. Among them, 16 student teachers with some seemed to be very aware of, others largely ignorant about the guidance role of teacher were selected for in-depth interviews to chart their development. Their responses for handling of two different cases of pupils' problems in the interview schedule were analyzed. Classroom assessment technique for the whole class of student teachers was used to get feedback and to monitor the progress of the programme. The results of the study show that student teachers had increased awareness and understanding of the guidance role of teachers during the training programme. They also developed their abilities in handling pupils' problems in terms of attitude towards pupil, feeling for pupil and counselling strategies and skills. Nearly all of them had progress in each of these three areas in different contexts of pupils' problems. However, they had greater progress in case 1 of an anxious pupil (with emotional difficulties) than in case 2 of an angry pupil (with emotional and behavioural difficulties). Moreover, bias towards pupils existed in both cases. Six different groups with different progress were identified among the 16 student teachers. The themes / patterns for change in attitudes, feeling and skills were explored. They were suspension of judgment and empathetic understanding. From their learning experiences, the training methodology that help them most were watching videos, case study and newspaper cutting, understanding theories, lecturing and interacting with the lecturer, group discussion, role play and doing ranking in multi-response exercise. These were in descending order of reported frequency. The results of the present study have implications for policy setting and implementation of Whole School Approach to guidance in schools and teacher education programme. At the end, a model is proposed for removing or minimizing bias of teachers towards pupils in teacher education. This is very important for effective guidance and counselling.