The educational preparation of student teachers: does it make a difference?

High quality of education is, in large part, the consequence of effective teachers. Teacher effectiveness is an important topic in the field of educational research. Several studies have indicated a large range of activities teachers can undertake to improve their students’ outcomes. Since education is a good start to learn about the job, a number of scholars state that teacher education programs have a major influence on teacher quality. Not only the skills of a beginning teacher, also his/ her professional development later in their career isinfluenced by the pre-service teacher education program. However, little is known about the contribution pre-service teacher education programs make to teacher effectiveness. The aim of this study is to provide insights into specific features of pre-service teacher education programs that significantly contribute to effective teaching once the students start their career as a teacher. Findings are reported from a study among 304 beginning teachers at secondary schools who completed their pre-service teacher education programs at 6 different universities in The Netherlands. A Monte Carlo based permutation test wasperformed to estimate the effects of differences between pre-service teacher education programs on several indicators of effective teaching. Differences between teacher education programs are discussed. Directions for further research as well as suggestions for policy makers are provided