Probing curriculum coherence in pre-service teacher education: an exploratory study

Abstract

Despite extensive research on student teachers’ engagement with university coursework, teaching practicums, and research projects in teacher education curriculums, empirical studies on the coherence among these components are lacking (Flores 2018). Coherence refers to the degree to which a curriculum supports, reinforces, and reflects shared goals (Grossman et al. 2008). The emphasis on curriculum coherence reflects an ecological perspective (e.g. Goodnough 2010) on teacher learning. Conceptualising the pre-service teacher education curriculum as a dynamic and situated ecosystem, such a perspective underscores the high degree of coherence among the system components, which can work concertedly to produce cumulative and transformative effects on student teachers’ professional development (Cavanna et al. 2021). This research explores curriculum coherence and its influences on teacher learning in a Hong Kong pre-service language teacher education program. The study attempts to answer: How do student teachers perceive the connections between the university courses, teaching practicum, and research projects in the program?