Establishing a Nuanced Phenomenographic Argument for the Prospective Teachers’ Conceptions of Teaching

Abstract

The related literature implies that phenomenographic arguments on teaching conception are primarily developed for in-service teachers or university educators. There is also an ongoing tenet among educational phenomenographers that instructors’ conceptions of teaching are inquired into by discriminating teacher-centered and student-centered modes of teaching from each other. In addressing these two issues, first, the present study established a phenomenographic argument regarding prospective teachers’ (PTs) experience-based conceptions of the teaching phenomenon. Second, the current study considers teaching phenomenon in a broader sense within five hierarchical categories: monological, dialogical, dialectical, adaptive-pragmatic, and reflective. A phenomenographic research was conducted to comprehend 39 senior PTs’ teaching conceptions. It is concluded that the PTs mainly experienced and reported three focused dimensions of the phenomenon: monological, dialogical, and dialectical. However, two more sophisticated dimensions, adaptive-pragmatic and reflective teaching, were absent in the PTs’ experienced-based conceptions. Finally, suggestions are offered for educators who considerably fluctuate the PTs’ experiential cognition of the instruction and related conceptions of enacted teaching.