Revisiting the curriculum: Insights from pedagogical competence and academic performance of preservice teachers

Abstract

AbstractThe standard of education a country offers its population is a good indicator of its ability to compete on the global stage. The pedagogical proficiency of the teachers could be used to assess the quality of education. On this premise, this descriptive correlational study explored the relationship between academic achievement and the pedagogical competence of 65 randomly selected preservice teachers. A standardized rating scale was used to gather pertinent data. This study concluded that preservice teachers had exceptional pedagogical competence as rated by their cooperating teachers and professors, irrespective of their gender, discipline, or cooperating school of deployment. Apart from teachers’ personalities and classroom management, all other dimensions of pedagogical competence exhibited significantly positive associations among them. Additionally, the profile characteristics of preservice teachers are not strongly linked with their pedagogical competence. On the other hand, the preservice teachers had extremely excellent academic performance, which varies greatly with specialization and cooperating schools. The preservice teachers’ academic performances did not considerably differ and are not influenced by gender. However, there was a markedly unfavorable link between the preservice teachers’ academic performance and their specialization and cooperating schools. Finally, there was a marginally significant association between the preservice teachers’ academic achievement and their pedagogical competence. In order to further strengthen their pedagogical competence in accordance with ASEAN recommendations for K–12 education, preservice teachers may be required to take additional electives in each specialization.

Keywords

• academic performance
• pedagogical competence
• preservice teachers
• student teaching