Transitions in Research Postgraduate Students' Teaching and Learning Profiles In a Training Course

Abstract

Teacher-training courses for research postgraduate students (RPgs) in higher education provide the necessary preparation to teach effectively. Examining RPgs’ conceptions of teaching and learning longitudinally provides insight regarding the development of their beliefs over the course and may help to describe their long-term changes. As variable-centred analysis approaches are limited to describing the mean of an entire class, a person-centred analysis offers a description of existing latent groups. A longitudinal person-centred analysis examined participants (N=137) of a short training course at an Asian-Pacific research-intensive university by responding to two instruments (measuring teacher-focused and studentfocused approaches to teaching, and surface and deep approaches to learning) at the beginning and end of the course. Latent Profile Transition Analysis examined the profiles of groups at both time-points and tested for movement between them, suggesting four groups at both time-points. Two groups (Teacher Focused, Student Focused) indicated an inclination towards specific teaching and learning approaches, while the other two (Low Quantity, High Quantity) groups were undifferentiated in approaches. Significant increases were observed in deep learning approach for Low Quantity, High Quantity and Student Focused groups, and in student-focused teaching approach for High Quantity and Student Focused groups. These results suggest development in these adaptive conceptions occur more readily for participants who already identified with them initially. Movement between groups was limited to transitions between Low Quantity and High Quantity, indicating that a short course might be insufficient to change the overall conceptions of participants. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.