The pedagogical concept of students of teacher education faculty

Abstract

The paper presents and analyses the results of the research dealing with the pedagogical concept - as a type of pedagogical beliefs - related to the way in which students, pre-service teachers, interpret the educational process that they learn about during their studies and observe, analyse and create during their practice. The aim of the conducted research was to determine the intensity of the dimensions of students' pedagogical concept with respect to gender, the type of finished secondary school and the year of studies. Research participants were 480 students of the Teacher Education Faculty of the University of Belgrade. There were no significant differences in the intensity of the dimensions of the pedagogical concept between students of different genders or with respect to the type of finished secondary school. The results have indicated that the intensity of the child- centred dimension of the pedagogical concept is significantly different at the beginning and at the end of studies, and that it declines, but the decline is not linear. It has been shown that child- centred pedagogical beliefs are more intensive in the students at the beginning of studies than in the students of the final year of studies. The concluding part provides the suggestions related to the way in which theoretical contents and the modalities of teaching methods at teacher education faculties might actively support the processes of construction and reconstruction of students' pedagogical concept.