Student teachers' self-perception of personal and professional development regarding the team work

Team work skills are one of the important competencies of modern teachers. Team work includes situations, experiences, skills and psychological processes that can have an important impact on the professional development of student teachers. Teachers develop team work skills in the planning stage, the team teaching stage and the evaluation stage, where they work in a team and learn from experience and team collaboration. An important part of experiential learning is reflective practice, which helps give meaning to the experience, gather knowledge and betters their teaching practice. It is important for student teachers to develop skills of reflective practice during their university years.The goal of this masters thesis was to research the self-perception of progress on team work skills of student teachers. We were also interested in student teachers' self-perception of personal and professional development regarding the team work and the differences between students of different courses. The information was gathered using an inquiry research method regarding self-perception of student teachers' development of team work skills and individual reflections on the experience of team teaching. We used the descriptive causal research method. The research was a combination of quantitative and qualitative research approach. The research sample contained student teachers of different university courses, which were special and rehabilitation pedagogy, logopedia and surdopedagogy, preschool pedagogy and social pedagogy (N = 280). These student teachers were graduate and postgraduate students. This sample of student teachers completed an inquiry regarding their self-perception of development of team work skills after a team teaching exercise and the influence of that experience on their personal and professional development. For the qualitative research approach we used a sample of post graduate student teachers of special and rehabilitation pedagogy (N = 132). They wrote individual reflections on the experience of team teaching as part of a portfolio assignment. The qualitative research focus was on elements of self-perception of personal and professional development during their team teaching exercise. Results show that student teachers' self-perception of progress regarding team work skills development because of experience of team teaching was highest for team work skills regarding analyzing their own experience and relationships with other members of the team. They evaluated their positive inclination towards team work to be highest after the experience of team teaching, which shows the importance of experiential learning. Most student teachers evaluated the team teaching experience as an important one for their education as well as their professional development. We found no significant differences between student teachers of different courses or graduation and post graduation student teachers regarding their self-perception of the development of team work skills under the influence of their team teaching experience. Research of individual reflections on team teaching experience of post graduate student teachers showed their insights, experience and evaluation of team teaching. The findings of this masters thesis will contribute to further research on personal and professional development of student teachers regarding the team work.