ROAD TO REDEMPTION: PROMOTING EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE IN PRE-SERVICE COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHERS

Emotional resilience is an under-explored variable in studies of pre-service teachers therefore year on year there are they are ill equipped to manage the valley and mountain top experiences encountered during postgraduate teacher education courses.

As teaching standards become more demanding there is Increased pressure on pre-service teachers to rapidly master the knowledge, understanding and skills required to become new qualified teacher, even more so in subject areas where a shortfall of in-service teachers has been identified. In Computer Science, for example, pre-service teachers grapple with addressing subject knowledge deficits by completing Subject Knowledge Enhancement course before starting post graduate training programmes therefore in effect lengthening the duration of study. Once complete then embark on professional or post graduate study.

Interestingly, since the introduction of Computing as a curriculum subject, in school in England the demographic of applicant on the course has gradually changed. To date there has been a fifty percent increase in male applicants and acceptances to the post graduate teacher training courses. Research has shown that males are more resilience than females however on teacher training courses this appear not to be the case.

Although all students negotiate the academic components of the course successfully, some pre-service teachers especially males struggle to cope with the demands of teaching between fifty and seventy percent of in-service teachers’ timetable for a sustained period up to twelve weeks.

This qualitative study investigates emotional resilience of male and female pre-service teachers and the emotional resilient enhancing interventions that can help pre-service teachers bounce back after failing school placements.