Preservice teachers’ perspectives about coherence in their teacher education program

While different countries have inherited different methods of teacher preparation, all countries aim for coherent programs, i.e. university-based courses are aligned with classroom practice. Yet, most published empirical research is based on data from western countries and focuses on a single feature of coherence (e.g., coherence between campus and internships). Our study examines a Malaysian teacher education university’s effort to increase program coherence, investigating 446 preservice teachers’ perceptions of various features of coherence. The preservice teachers represent six different specialist areas in the Bachelor of Education. Across these areas, the program was generally perceived as coherent. Observed differences between the areas, potentially stem from a dissonance among teacher educators about how to integrate theory and practice. Change efforts require time to implement and teacher educators discuss their beliefs about coherent teacher education to ensure coherent practices and to enable their preservice teachers to create a coherent understanding of teaching.