FINAL YEAR STUDENT TEACHERS\u27 ACTUAL AND IDEAL PERCEPTIONS OF CERTAIN TEACHING BEHAVIORS AND THEIR MODIFICATION THROUGH STUDENT TEACHING

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a supervisory approach for improving the communication process and the quality of assistance given to students during student teaching. Including elements of Hilgard\u27s (1965) learning theory and Festinger\u27s (1957) cognitive dissonance theory, the procedures focused on student teachers\u27 perceptions of their ACTUAL and IDEAL abilities to perform 35 teaching competencies. The success of the approach was assessed by the reduction in the dissonance between ACTUAL and IDEAL perceptions of the 35 competencies before and after student teaching. The assessment was based on data collected from (a) Student Teachers Pre-Post Survey, (b) Cooperating Teacher Questionnaire, (c) College Supervisor Questionnaire, (d) College Supervisors\u27 Lesson Observation Records, and (e) Final Rating Forms. In addition to including cooperating teachers and college supervisors, the study utilized 32 experimental and 30 control elementary school student teachers. Though an analysis of the Lesson Observation Records and the Final Evaluation Forms revealed no significant differences, an analysis of the student survey data revealed a significant difference between the perceptions of the two groups. Moreover, the analysis of the dissonance scores indicated that significant improvements were made by the experimental students in their perceptions of their abilities to perform the target competencies. The data collected for college supervisors and cooperating teachers revealed that supervisors and teachers assigned to the experimental group gave greater emphasis to the target competencies, established better dialogue among themselves, and expressed fewer concerns about student teaching. The findings suggest that the use of target competencies should be encouraged and the training institution and cooperating teachers should; (a) explore ways of training cooperating teachers to provide more effective feedback; (b) determine appropriate ratio of college supervisors to student teachers; and (c) improve the status of student teaching supervision