A Study On M.Ed.Student Teacher’s Professional Development Agency In Practicum

The research on teachers’ agency at home and abroad originated in the past five to ten years.It mainly focuses on education reform,classroom teaching and professional development with in-service teachers as the main objects.Teacher agency is regarded as one of the key abilities to promote teachers’ development and education quality.Understanding the characteristic of student teachers’ professional development agency and the main factors that affect the agency can provide important theoretical and practical basis for improving student teachers’ development.This study is based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory,which divides professional development agency into two dimensions:individual agency and environmental agency.The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristic of student teachers’ professional development agency in practicum and the main factors that affect student teachers’ professional development agency.To fulfill these purposes,this study mainly centered on the following three research questions:1)What is the characteristic of student teachers’ professional agency during the teaching practicum?2)What factors(both internal and external)influence student teachers’ professional agency during the teaching practicum?3)How do these factors interact with one another?120 student teachers with Master of Education degree from H normal university were investigated and a combination of questionnaire survey and one-to-one semi-structured interviews were used to collect research data.The main findings were summarized as follows:Generally,student teachers’ professional development agency in practicum is in a medium level,and the level of environmental agency is significantly higher than that of personal agency.Among them,the professional development agency of male student teachers is significantly higher than that of female student teachers.And those with 8-12 independent teaching sessions during educational practice have highest level of agency than others.Support from university supervisor,practicum peers and students can significantly affect the professional development agency,among which practicum peers’ support plays the most significant role.Student teachers’ practicum view also significantly affects their professional development agency.Based on the above research findings,this study puts forward some suggestions for normal university,practicum schools and student teachers respectively with the intention of providing more favorable development conditions for student teachers.