A Comparative Research On The Effectiveness Of Two Models Of Full-time M.Ed Programs

Under the background of professionalization and advancement of teacher education,it is an international trend to develop teacher education at the postgraduate level,which is also the direction of the development of teacher education in China.With the continuous expansion of the scale of full-time M.Ed program,the quality issue has attracted more and more attention.Since 2009 the implementation of full-time M.Ed program(hereinafter referred to as the“full-time M.Ed students”),most teacher education institutions adopted the traditional model,namely the course learning,teaching practice and thesis writing successively carried in sequence.The first phase is given priority to course learning,and the second phase to teaching practice and thesis writing.Although the consecutive models has achieved some results,it is basically a "module combination".The challenge of integration of theory and practice still exists in teacher education.To this end,teacher education institutions continue to explore ways to effectively improve the quality of teacher education program,and many are trying to promote the integrated models.The integrated models emphasizes the integration of course learning,teaching practice and thesis writing.Then,which is better,consecutive models or integrated models? If there are differences in program results,what are the main reasons? The discussion of these questions is the main goal of this study.Based on Bandura's theory of self-efficacy expectation,the study on feeling of preparedness to teach started in the 1990 s and has been widely used in the field of teacher education.The expectation of self-efficacy refers to the degree of people's confidence in their perception and judgment of the implementation and completion of a certain task or a certain behavior.Therefore,the degree of feeling of preparedness to teach can be understood as the psychological preparation or expectation degree of individual teachers for their own professional quality and ability.This study attempts to explore the effects of different models from the perspective of self-cognition of feeling of preparedness to teach.Feeling of preparedness to teach can influence teachers' level of resilience and commitment,which will further affect their teaching behavior,class management and teaching reform.From this perspective we can distinguish the contribution of each module of teacher education program to teachers' professional knowledge and ability,and also verify the effectiveness of different program models.Therefore,from the perspective of feeling of preparedness to teach,this study took university D as an example to investigate the effect of the integrated models relative to the consecutive models.Based on the above research questions,402 full-time M.Ed students and16 teacher educators of 2016-2018 Period are selected in the quantitative and qualitative mixed method research.Data are collected by questionnaire survey,interview and life story line.In order to clarify the relationship between the feeling of preparedness to teach of full-time M.Ed students and the program model,the research is mainly carried out from two aspects.The first aspect is to look at the feeling of preparedness to teach of full-time M.Ed students under the two models.Based on“National Professional Standards for Middle School Teachers(Trial)”,the dimensions of feeling of preparedness to teach of full-time M.Ed students are divided into professional spirit,professional knowledge and professional ability based on the objectives of the program and the existing literature.The second aspect is to look at the contribution of the two different models to the feeling of preparedness to teach.The modules under each program model are categorized as subject content courses,subject teaching courses,educational theory courses,liberal arts courses,microteaching,teaching observation,teaching practice,and teaching inquiry.The research conclusions are as follows:First,the feeling of preparedness to teach of full-time M.Ed students is at a better development level under the integrated models.The professional spirit and professional ability of full-time M.Ed students are more significant under the integrated model than their peers under the consecutive models.In terms of the preparation of professional knowledge,there is no significant difference between the two models.In terms of the specific dimensions of educational knowledge,the development level of students in the integrated model is slightly better than their peers in the consecutive models.In other words,the integrated models can improve training effect of the teacher education program.Second,There are significant differences in the contribution of each major part of the two modelds to the teaching preparation of full-time M.Ed students.Under the two program models,the contribution of teaching observation,teaching practice,microteaching,subject content courses,subject teaching courses,and educational theory courses are significantly different.Their contribution to readiness is more acknowledged by students in the integrated models.The results of further logistic regression analysis show that teaching observation and teaching practice have the "most important" contribution to the development of feeling of preparedness to teach under the integrated models.Microteaching,subject content courses,subject teaching courses,and educational theory courses have "relatively important" contribution to the development of feeling of preparedness to teach.Therefore,the integrated models has achieved good training results.It can be said that the concept of professional education and lifelong education is the core element,while the design and implementation of teacher training courses with dynamic thinking is the key path,and the effective cooperation between teacher educators is an important guarantee.