Knowledgeable learning and conceptual change: Value adding to teacher training

Abstract

This report concerns the use of pre and post responses to an online questionnaire as evidence of knowledgeable learning by education students at a regional Australian university. Factor analysis was used to reveal conceptual changes in the students' thinking about classroom management across a unit of learning they had undertaken. These changes primarily involved movement from an authoritarian, rule-based management approach, toward a more differentiated, inclusive approach to management. The implications these changes have for unit delivery, as well as for validation of the engagement process, are discussed, and recommendations made concerning ongoing research and the design of online learning.