The Effect of Gender on the Perception of Pre-Service Teachers towards their Instructors and Students

Year 2020, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 255 - 269, 15.03.2020

Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh , Moath Alomery , Noor Alkaddour

https://doi.org/10.17478/jegys.676882

Abstract

This study examines the attitude of pre-service teachers towards the gender of their instructors and students at schools during the practicum in the city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. This study is motivated by the observation that gender is a salient factor influencing the communicative behaviour of the pre-service teachers during their practicum. For the purpose of this study, twenty pre-service teachers from Al Ain University were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The results reveal that female pre-service teachers prefer female instructors for religious and cultural reasons, and female school students because they are well-disciplined and polite. For male pre-service teachers, the majority had no preference for gender concerning their school students, and they believed they would gain more experience teaching both genders. With regard to the male pre-service teachers’ instructors, the trainees preferred male instructors due to easier communication and convenience. It is recommended that pre-service teachers be allowed to choose their students and instructors based on gender if possible, and consequently they may be allocated on this basis. The study concludes with some recommendations for further research.

Keywords

practicum, communication accommodation theory, pre-service teachers, gender, schools

References

• Agam, R., Tamir, S., & Golan, M. (2015). Gender differences in respect to self-esteem and body image as well as response to adolescents’ school-based prevention programs. Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychiatry, 2(5), 00092. https://doi.org/10.15406/jpcpy.2015.02.00092.
• Altakhaineh, A. R. M., AL-Tkhayneh, K. M., & Rahrouh, H. N. (2019). The Effect of the Gender and Culture of the IELTS Examiner on the Examinees’ Performance on the IELTS Speaking Test in the UAE Context. International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, 19(1), 33-52. https://doi.org/10.33806/ijaes2000.19.1.2.
• Altakhaineh, A., & Alnamer, S. (2018). The Impact of Facebookers’ Posts on Other Users’ Attitudes According to Their Age and Gender: Evidence from Al Ain University of Science and Technology. Social Sciences, 7(8), 128.https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7080128.
• Baek, S. G., & Ham, E. H. (2009). An evaluation study on the educational value of teaching practicum in secondary schools. Asia Pacific Education Review, 10(2), 271-280.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9018-z.
• Basow, R.R. & Byrne, M.V. (1993). Internship expectations and learning goals. Journalism Educator, 47(4), 48-54.
• Birnbaum, A. S., Evenson, K. R., Motl, R. W., Dishman, R. K., Voorhees, C. C., Sallis, J. F., & Dowda, M. (2005). Scale development for perceived school climate for girls' physical activity. American journal of health behavior, 29(3), 250-257.
• Brinkmann, S. (2014). Unstructured and semi-structured. The Oxford handbook of qualitative research, 277-299.
• Caspi, A., Chajut, E., Saporta, K., and Beyth-Marom, R. (2005). The influence of personality on social participation in learning environments. Learning and Individual Differences, 16, 129-144.
• Cook, S., Parker, R. & Pettijohn, C., (2004). The perceptions of interns: A longitudinal case study. Journal of Education for Business, 79, (3), 179-186.
• Cornelius, R. R., Gray, J. M., and Constantinople, A. P. (1990). Student-faculty interaction in the college classroom. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 23(4), 189-197.
• Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. (4th ed). Pearson: Boston.
• Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Next Methods Approaches. Lose Angeles: Sage.
• Dobratz, C. L., Singh, R. P., & Abbey, A. (2014). Using Formal Internships to Improve Entrepreneurship Education Programs. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education; Arden, 17(2), 62–76.
• Donina A. & Luka I. (2014). The compliance of tourism education with industry need in Latvia. European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Special Issue, 303-330.
• Elarde, J. V., & Chong,F.-F. (2012). The Pedagogical Value of “Eduployment”: Information Technology Internships in Rural Areas. In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education (pp. 189–194). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2380552.2380607.
• Espelage, D. & Swearer, S. (2004). Bullying in American schools: A socio-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Fallows, S. & Steven, C. (2000). Building employability skills into the higher education curriculum: A university wide initiative. Education and Training, 42(2), 75-82.
• Fitzpatrick, M. A., Mulac, A., & Dindia, K. (1995). Gender-preferential language use in spouse and stranger interaction. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 14, 18–39.
• Galloway, L., Marks, A., & Chillas, S. (2014). The use of internships to foster employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in the IT sector. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 21(4), 653–667. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-09-2014-0150.
• Gault, J., Leach, E., & Duey, M. (2010). Effects of business internships on job marketability: the employers' perspective. Education+ Training, 52(1), 76-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911011017690.
• Giles, H., & Ogay, T. (2007). Communication Accommodation Theory. In B. B. Whaley & W. Samter (Eds.), Explaining communication: Contemporary theories and exemplars (pp. 293-310). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Hannah, A., & Murachver, T. (1999). Gender and conversational style as predictors of conversational behavior. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18, 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X99018002002.
• Harvey, L. & Bowers-Brown T. (2003). The employability of graduates: cross-country comparisons, paper presented at DfES Research Conference 2003, London, 5 December.
• Herrick, M. A. (1987). The effects of internship experience and participant modelling on the skill development and psychological adjustment rehabilitation education interns (Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1987), Dissertation Abstracts International. 48. 1398A
• Holyoak, L. (2013). Are all internships beneficial learning experiences? An exploratory study. Education + Training, 55(6), 573–583. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-02-2012-0024.
• Hursh, B. A., & Borzak, L. (1979). Toward cognitive development through field studies. The Journal of Higher Education, 50(1), 63-78.
• Jarrah, A., & Almarashdi, H. (2019). Mathematics Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Gifted and Talented Learners in General Education Classrooms in the UAE. Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists, 7(4), 835-847.
• Jaschinski, J. & De Villiers, M. R. (2008). Factors influencing the development of practical skills of interns working in regional hospitals of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. South African Family Practice Journal, 50(1), 70-70d.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20786204.2008.10873676
• Ju, J. (1997). Korean students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of their internship experiences in the hospitality industry in Korea. (UMI No. 1385983).
• Kiser, J., & Partlow, C. (1999). Experiential learning in hospitality education: An exploratorystudy. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 11(23), 70-74.
• Leonard, P., Halford, S., & Bruce, K. (2016). ‘The New Degree?’ Constructing internships in the third sector. Sociology, 50(2), 383-399.
• Noah, L. S., & Olusola, O. A. (2015). Impacts of Pedagogical Agent Gender in an Accessible Learning Environment. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(4), 401-411.https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.18.4.401.
• Petrillose, M.J. & Montgomery, R. (1998). An exploratory study of internship practices in hospitality education and industry's perception of the importance of internships in hospitality curriculum. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 9(4), 46-51.https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.1997.10685352.
• Sadker, D. (2002). An educator’s primer on the gender war. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(3), 235–240.
• Sadker, M., & Sadker, D. (2010). Failing at fairness: How America's schools cheat girls. Simon and Schuster.
• Shoenfelt, E. L., Stone, N. J., & Kottke, J. L. (2013). Internships: An Established Mechanism for Increasing Employability. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 6(1), 24–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/iops.12004.
• Surujlal, J. & Singh, C. (2010). Internship as a mechanism for professional preparation of sport management personnel: An empirical study of students’ perceptions. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 32(2), 117-130.
• Tannen, D. (2001). You just don’t understand: Men and women in conversation. New York: Quill.
• Tatum, H. E., Schwartz, B. M., Schimmoeller, P. A., and Perry. N. (2013) Classroom participation and student-faculty interactions: does gender matter?. The Journal of Higher Education, 84(6), 745-768.