The purpose of this study is to reveal how education practitioners perceive the characteristics of coaching teachers in elementary education practice, and to reveal the effect of the task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness of coaching teachers...
The purpose of this study is to reveal how education practitioners perceive the characteristics of coaching teachers in elementary education practice, and to reveal the effect of the task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness of coaching teachers on the teaching efficacy.
The research questions set up for this purpose are as follows.
First, How can coaching teachers be categorized according to task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness in elementary education practice?
Second, how does the coaching teacher's task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness affect the student teacher’s teaching efficacy?
To solve this problem, 373 university students in the second semester of the second, third and fourth grade who were attending elementary education practice and experienced teaching in education practice were conducted in quantitative research using the survey through the Internet community.
The main findings are as follows.
First, it was possible to divide the coaching teacher into four types: "integrated type", "task type", "relational type" and "easy-going attitude type", according to the task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness of the coaching teacher recognized by the educational trainees in the elementary education practice. Among the four types, 'integrated' coaching teachers with high task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness accounted for 80% of the total cases, and when comparing the teaching efficacy among groups, the teaching efficacy of the student teachers guided by the ‘integrated’ coaching teachers was higher at statistically significant levels than other groups, especially in the 'easy-going attitude type' of groups with both task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness low.
Second, the task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness of a coaching teacher in an elementary education practice influenced the effectiveness of education trainees at statistically significant levels. In the overall model of teaching efficacy, task-centeredness affected the standardization factor at p<.001 level with .209 and relationship-centeredness affected the standardization factor at p<.01 level with .113. I divided the teaching efficacy according to the phase of the classes; class-planning efficacy, class-execution efficacy, and class-assesment efficacy, and analyzed them by the sub-factor. At this time, task-centeredness affected all three sub-factors at the p<.001 level, and the standardization factor for which the class-planning efficacy was .167, class-execution efficacy was .186, and class-assesment efficacy was .214. Relationship-centeredness affected two sub-factors at the p<.05 level, and the standardization factor for which the class-planning efficacy was .100, the class-execution efficacy was .117. The coaching teacher's relationship-centeredness did not affect the class-assesment efficacy at a significant level.
Based on the results of the study, the discussion focused on the selection of coaching teachers in the current elementary education practice, and the two characteristics of coaching teachers that affect the teaching efficacy.
In the former case, it was revealed that the teaching practice is well managed by coaching teachers with high task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness, recognizing the importance of the role of coaching teachers in elementary school training institutions.
In the latter case, both the task-centeredness and relationship-centeredness of the coaching teacher have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the class and are characteristics that can positively affect the perception of the class by the trainees. Although task-centeredness shows a higher influence in significance and standardization factors than relationship-centeredness, it is difficult to say that task-centeredness is more important in class-based efficiency than relationship-centeredness, noting that the peer-rearing factors, mediating the characteristics of the coaching teacher, can be closely related to relationship-centeredness.
Based on the above findings and discussions, the following conclusions were drawn:
First, care should be taken in setting up practical coaching teachers so that trainees can have greater efficacy in the classes they experience in elementary education practice. Eighty percent of the coaching teachers were highly task oriented and relationship oriented, but 20 percent of the student teachers were guided by teachers who were not, which could lead to disadvantages in terms of their sense of effectiveness. Accordingly, it is necessary to change the selection of practical education teachers and to manage them further after selection.
Second, coaching teachers should realize that it is very important for them to guide and build good relationships with their students in education practice. Coaching teachers need to be aware that their coaching is playing a big role in fostering student teachers, given that coaching teachers whose two characteristics are both high have a significant impact on the teaching efficacy. It was also confirmed through prior research on why co-teacher factors have the greatest influence among independent and background spokespersons.