Using authentic representations of practice in teacher education: Do direct instructional and problem-based approaches really produce different effects?

This paper investigates the effects of different instructional approaches (problem-based vs. direct instructional) on student teachers' analysis of practice when using authentic representations of practice in teacher education. We assigned 638 student teachers from 21 equivalent teacher educati...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jürgen Schneider, Marc Kleinknecht, Thorsten Bohl, Sebastian Kuntze, Markus Rehm, Marcus Syring
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273988
Description
Summary:This paper investigates the effects of different instructional approaches (problem-based vs. direct instructional) on student teachers' analysis of practice when using authentic representations of practice in teacher education. We assigned 638 student teachers from 21 equivalent teacher education courses to one of the two conditions. Students' analyses of practice were evaluated on selective attention, reflective thought, and theory-practice integrations in a pre-post-design. In line with inconsistent findings from prior research, we were able to produce evidence for equivalent effects of the instructional approaches on all dependent variables using Bayesian data analyses. As called for in a review on the topic, we additionally explored the role of the instructors administering the field study interventions. Findings revealed that a positive attitude toward the instructional approach the instructors administered was related to more theory-practice integrations in the students' analyses.
ISSN:1932-6203