Investigating changes in pedagogical knowledge and skills from pre-service to the initial year of teaching

This study examined the levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills as perceived by student teachers who were enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma in Education program at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, from the beginning of their initial teacher preparation program to the end of their first year of teaching. Their perceptions were assessed using the Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills in Teaching (PKST) survey which comprised six factors, namely, Student Learning, Lesson Planning, Instructional Support, Accomodating Diversity, Classroom Management, and Care and Concern. A sample of 812 student teachers participated in the study. The MANOVA conducted showed that there were significant increases in both their pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in all six factors from the start of their initial teacher preparation (ITP) program till the end of their first year of teaching. However, between the exit from the program to the end of the first year of teaching, they only perceived that their level of pedagogical knowledge in classroom management and care and concern continued to increase significantly. In the case of self-perceived skills, their level increased significantly between entry and exit of the program for all factors, except for care and concern, while the increase between the exit and first year of teaching was significant for all six factors. These results may have implications for preservice teacher education and this will be discussed in this article.     

Out-group value incongruence and intergroup attitude: The roles of common identity and multiculturalism

This research was designed to examine the moderation roles of common social identity and multiculturalism on the established relationship between Mainland Chinese's perceived value incongruence with Hong Kong Chinese and their negative attitude towards Hong Kong Chinese. A survey study was conducted among 202 college students in Mainland China and the results showed Mainland Chinese's value incongruence with Hong Kong Chinese significantly predicted their negative intergroup attitude. In addition, the results also revealed that among participants with high identification with the super-ordinate Chinese national group, this negative relation was significantly weaker than those with low Chinese identification. In addition, among participants with high multiculturalism endorsement, the relation between value incongruence and intergroup attitude was significantly weaker than those with low level of multiculturalism. Implications of this research and future directions were discussed based on these findings.