Students' perceptions of the effectiveness of pre-service technology courses

Abstract

The merger of the Auckland College of Education with the University of Auckland led to the development of new teacher education programme qualifications. Technology education was given less time within these programmes. In the period 2006-2008 this challenge was being faced and there was also the need to prepare student teachers for the current 1995 technology curriculum which they would be expected to follow on practicum, and the revised 2007 curriculum which they would be using early in their teaching careers. As previous research of beginning teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of their programme in preparing them to teach technology had played a significant part in refining the previous technology education courses, the technology education staff were interested to find out how effective the new courses were. The object of this research was to investigate student perceptions of their knowledge of the 2007 curriculum, and their level of confidence in teaching technology. Participants completed an anonymous questionnaire at the end of their university programme, and self selected students were also interviewed. This paper discusses the