The Affective vs. the Academic: A Quantitative Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Expected Impact on their Future Students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pre-service teachers (PSTs) often enter teacher preparation programs with firm expectations of their future classrooms. However, the exact nature of their expectations remains relatively unexplored. Though previous research has identified that pre-service teachers expect to impact student outcomes, few studies have explored the ways in which PSTs expect these outcomes to fall into either affective/relational or academic/intellectual domains. This study uses the inspiration/content dichotomy (I/CD) framework to determine the extent to which PSTs expect to foster affective outcomes over academic outcomes. A quantitative survey sent to 112 pre-service teachers confirms an overall emphasis on affective outcomes and reveals significant differences according to program type (undergraduate or graduate) and desired teaching level (e.g., elementary or secondary). The results of this survey have implications for teacher preparation programs seeking to respond to PSTs’ expectations of teaching.