Student teachers' perceptions of self-competence in and emotions/stress about teaching in initial teacher education

Abstract

This study focuses upon identifying and classifying prospective teachers' perceptions of self-competence in teaching after a four-year university course on primary education and the relationship between their personal well-being, views, emotions and stress about teaching and their teaching competencies during their undergraduate school teaching practice. Data collection was obtained by questionnaires from two cohorts of final-year student teachers in a Greek university department of primary education (n = 170). The findings revealed that prospective teachers rated their general teaching skills above moderate levels indicating that they felt just competent to start teaching, their personal well-being was not strongly affected by the teaching itself and did not indicate high levels of stress. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion about developing positive teaching experiences and effective teaching competencies for prospective teachers. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.