Coherence in Initial Class Teacher Education in Croatia – Student Teachers’ Perspective

Since 2005/2006, class teachers in Croatia have been educated in five-year integrated university study programmes (300 ECTS, MA level). The rationale behind this was the growing complexity of the class teacher's role. A more coherent curriculum was aimed for in order to avoid fragmentation between subject-matter content knowledge, pedagogical-content knowledge, and general pedagogical knowledge. Considering that the perspectives of students and of experts developing the programme can differ significantly, this paper analyses the student teacher perspective on the coherence of different parts of the study programme. The participants (N = 75) were students in their final semester of the programme for class teachers at the University of Zagreb. The questionnaire used in the research was previously developed within the Erasmus+ project ConnecTEd. From the observed components of coherence, students perceived the connections between content taught within particular courses as highest, and teacher educators’ knowledge of the programme contents in its entirety as lowest. Further, students did not recognise university-based courses and school-based teaching practice as being sufficiently coherent. The results indicate the need for improvement of the existing programme, starting with the inclusion of all stakeholders in the development of a common vision on learning, teaching, and aims of teacher education.