Learning to Teach Reading: A Theory-Practice Approach to Psychology Teaching in University Teacher Education

Abstract

The report portrays a theory-practice psychology course on reading education in a German teacher education programme. Having completed a theoretical course phase that is largely based on knowledge from cognitive and educational psychology, pre-service student-teachers applied their acquired knowledge by working with a fifth-grader in five individual reading lessons. During the sessions, students were supported by a mentor and received individual video feedback as well as peer feedback. The students also kept a learning journal to document and reflect on their practical experiences. The results from a small-scale evaluation study suggest that the course format bears a high potential for meaningful learning experiences regarding both general teaching practice and reading instruction.

Students Improve in Reading Comprehension by Learning How to Teach Reading Strategies. An Evidence-based Approach for Teacher Education

“…We conclude that the RT students found the program useful and practicable for fostering reading skills as the majority of them gave the highest social validity ratings. Whereas research by Drechsel et al. (2014) indicated that teaching university students how to teach reading strategies can be useful for one-on-one tutoring, our research took this a step further by providing students with the competence to teach a scientifically based reading instruction program to an entire class in regular lessons.…”

“…In a recent study, Drechsel, Breuning, Thurn, and Basten (2014) instructed university students in teaching fifth graders how to learn from texts. Within this study, the students had the opportunity to teach reading strategies to fifth graders in individual lessons.…”

Using Psychological Tests for Choosing Teacher Candidates

“…Having concrete teaching experiences is an emphasized aspect for psychological training for student teachers. They are advised to be educated with a theory-practice approach with the help of mentor feedback and keeping journals for reflective purposes in order to lessen reality shock they experience, help them build a bridge between theory and practice, and prepare them psychologically for the complexities of real classroom settings (Drechsel, Breunig, Thurn, & Basten, 2014).…”

“…Based on the existing literature, it can be claimed that a growing body of research has contributed to the understanding of psychology in terms of teacher identity (Brown, 2006;Friesen & Besley, 2013), teacher induction (Evelein, Korthagen, & Brekelmans, 2008;Tomlinson, 2008;Drechsel, Breunig, Thurn, & Basten, 2014), teacher beliefs (Smylie, 1988), psychoeducational assessment (Harris & Joy, 2010), teacher burnout (Singh & Billingsley, 1996;Gold & Roth, 2005;Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Cuevas, & Lonsdale, 2014;Alkhateeb, Kraishan & Salah, 2015;De Neve & Devos, 2016), stakeholder involvement (Lee & Nie, 2014;Sağnak, Kuruoz, Polat, & Soylu, 2015;Pur, Liman, & Ali, 2016), psychological capital (Bissessar, 2014), psychological resilience (YokuĢ, 2015), classroom management (Seiz, Voss, & Kunter, 2015), psychological intervention (Maralani, Lavasani, & Hejazi, 2016) and psychodiagnostic activities (Minakhmetova & Pyanova, 2016).…”

“…The statements of the participants who were unsure or had mixed perspectives confirm the findings of Harris and Joy (2010) because the required time and resources should be allocated to carry out counselling and research via psychoeducational assessment. In parallel with Drechsel, Breunig, Thurn and Basten (2014), the participants' perspectives reflect that an effective induction system will become possible only if student teachers are educated and psychologically prepared in line with the complexities of real educational settings and learner characteristics. However, lack of professional support may cause teachers experience various psychological problems like incompetency or burnout.…”