Impact on Student Teachers' Conception of Learning and Teaching from Studying a Course in Educational Psychology

Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 41, Issue 2, 2013, pages 218-231.

This study investigates changes in the conceptions of learning and teaching among undergraduate student teachers.

The authors used a qualitative content analysis of essays using metaphors to describe learning and teaching written by 256 students at the beginning and end of an educational psychology course.

It was found that there was an increase in the share of students that see learning and teaching from a cognitive-constructivist perspective.
Furthermore, the findings revealed a decrease in the share that see learning and teaching from a behaviourist perspective by the end of the course.

In addition, the study showed that the coherence in the nature of the metaphors describing learning and teaching increased by the end of the course.
However, there was practically no increase in the number of essays describing learning from a socio-constructivist perspective.