An Analytical Study of Perceived Pedagogical Competencies of Prospective Teachers in the light of National Professional Standards for Teachers

Abstract

Every year, a substantial number of prospective teachers are trained in Pakistan. As they immediately begin teaching in schools, prospective teachers spend a lot of time learning about and comprehending the teaching context, and this is when pedagogical competences begin to take shape. The recent focus of the research was on perceived pedagogical competencies of prospective teachers in the public sector universities of Punjab Province. The proposed study was aimed to assess the perceived level of pedagogical competencies of prospective teachers in the light of National Professional Standards for teachers. The study was descriptive in nature and survey method was used to collect data. A self-reported scale derived from three pedagogical competencies of NPSTs (Subject matter knowledge, Instructional planning and strategies and Assessment). The study was delimited to these three standards only due to time restraints. All prospective teachers at Punjab's public sector universities made up the study's population. To gather data, a simple random sampling technique was used. Thirty six male and seventy two female prospective teachers constituted the sample of the study. Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the data. It is concluded that male and female prospective teachers perceived high level of Instructional Planning & Strategies competencies. Likewise it was concluded that prospective teachers have lower scores in Assessment competencies as compared to subject matter & knowledge competencies.