The Development of Student Teachers' Professional Identity.

This study focuses on student teachers' perceptions of their professional identity.
The respondents are students enrolled in a three-year course in secondary
education teaching at bachelor level. Questionnaires were filled out by first-year,
second-year and third-year students from two colleges. The questionnaire included
four scales: commitment to teaching, professional orientation, task orientation and
self-efficacy. In the first five months of the first-year course, a shift in students'
task orientation was observed: students developed a more pupil-centred view on
teaching. Practical experience with classroom teaching again caused a shift:
students focused less on the subject matter, on maintaining order in the classroom,
on the long-term educational qualification targets and self-efficacy decreased.
Students with work placement experience developed a more 'realistic' view of
learning and teaching compared to students without this experience. A final
important difference in professional identity is based on students' gender: while
male students tend to attach more importance to discipline in the classroom, their
female counterparts focus more on student involvement.