How we view our theoretical competency: Early childhood pre-service teachers' self-evaluation of a professional placement experience

Abstract

RECENT EFFORTS TO RENOVATE the teaching of young children have led to a greater emphasis on teachers' theoretical understandings of children and teaching, and how they translate their understandings into practice. This qualitative research analysed and discussed how early childhood pre-service teachers in one Australian university perceived their theoretical competence and how they used this in their pedagogical decision making and adaptations in their professional placement. The paper investigated how the pre-service teachers justified and enacted decisions about which pedagogical and theoretical approaches to use in their classrooms, and how they reconciled potential conflicts and contradictions between their own ideas, pedagogical and theoretical knowledge, and those of their mentor teachers. A framework analysis of rich qualitative data obtained through focus groups in class illuminated the pre-service teachers' theoretical competency, theoretical confidence, theoretical preparation and theoretical reflexivity. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving early childhood pre-service teachers' professional practice.