Pre-Service Teacher’s Perspectives towards Teacher Education Programs: Multiple Case Study Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT          This study aims to investigate problems in the 5-year pre-service teacher education programs  (PTEP) and to study the solution to these problems at the three Rajabhat universities and four schools in the Northeastern region of Thailand as identified by forty pre-service teachers (PST). This study applies a qualitative research approach by using multiple case studies analysis; the setting involves 40 purposive sampling participants that were used to identify participants who had experiences of participation in the program. The study has three parts:(1) Part one identifies the problems found during the implementation of the 5 year program by individual interviews from the 12 PSTs in four main themes; students, instructors, curriculum, and learning management, (2) Part two reveals the four main outcomes concerning the needs by two focus group interviews of the 18 PSTs who attended the program, and (3) Part three deals with the collection of data by in-depth interviews from 4 participants who have graduated and are currently working in four selected high schools. Followed by a presentation of the responses in relation to the four different main aspects from the three universities and four schools; the results outcome could be concluded in three aspects which are as follows: The first aspect involves views on the problems of the program management. The second aspect deals with what is needed to improve the program. And the last aspect of the interview aims to find out from the subjects what should be improved or changed in terms of the implementation of the 5 year teacher education program. The subjects in this research specified two suggestions: Firstly, the university should consistently provide activities which support the teaching profession. Secondly, the university should encourage students to apply this professional learning in quality teaching practice.