Student teacher perception of teacher education and professional knowledge acquisition, use, and importance in Taiwan

Student teachers who were interns at local schools were recruited as participants in this study to determine the outcome of teacher education and teaching preparedness of student teachers. A total of 422 valid surveys were retrieved at a rate of 74.95% from 11 universities with teacher education program. Subsequently, mean, standard deviation, an independent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance, and exploratory factor analysis were employed. The following conclusions were deduced from this study: (1) The teacher professional knowledge and ability that student teachers learned primarily include reflective thinking, class management, and pedagogical content knowledge that emphasizes what and how to teach. (2) The teacher professional knowledge and ability that student teachers used include instructional design, communicative counseling, and professionalism, indicating that internships are valuable for becoming a teacher. (3) The teacher professional knowledge and ability that student teachers emphasize are teaching commitment, curriculum design, and self-confidence, revealing that fostering community or social resources and teaching confidence must be enhanced. (4) Acquisition, use, and importance of teacher professional knowledge and ability do not differ according to gender, academic background, or location of the internship school. The relativity of reflective thinking with instruction design is the highest, and pedagogical content knowledge and teaching commitment do not differ significantly. (5) The relativities among the three assessments of teacher professional knowledge and ability are all positive. It dedicated thatparticipants had a considerable degree of common knowledge and abilities from framework of education professional curriculum.