THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERTISE - A NEO-PIAGETIAN PERSPECTIVE ON STUDENT-TEACHERS REPRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM OF ADAPTING INSTRUCTION TO INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES AMONG LEARNERS

How student teachers represent the real life teaching problem of adapt ing their instruction to individual differences among learners and how their representation changes over the course of the practicum experie nce is explored. The extent to which Case's (1985, 1991) neo-Piagetian conceptual framework may describe the development of these student te achers' ability to represent this real life teaching problem was also examined. The non-random sample consisted of 39 intermediate level stu dent teachers who completed three sets of questionnaires prior to and during the fourth and ninth weeks of the practicum experience. Twelve faculty supervisors also completed rating forms and observations on th e student teachers they supervised during the same weeks. Student teac hers' responses were rated according to the levels of problem represen tation derived from Case's neo-Piagetian theory of intellectual develo pment. Faculty supervisors' rating forms and observations provided a m eans of assessing whether student teachers translated their representa tions into action. An additional variable of interest to the study inc luded the nature of the individual differences noted by student teache rs. Results indicate that (1) student teachers' level of problem repre sentation and description of the problem increased in complexity over the course of the practicum experience; (2) Case's neo-Piagetian conce ptual framework may provide a useful theoretical tool for describing t he development of student teachers' ability to represent the individua l differences teaching problem.