Teaching approaches and profile analysis: An exploratory study with trainee history teachers

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the teaching approaches of trainee history teachers in Spain. A non-experimental quantitative design was employed with data being gathered via a questionnaire with a Likert-type scale (1–5). Six hundred forty-six students of master’s degrees in geography and history teacher training from 22 different universities took part in the study, of whom 358 were men (55.41%) and 280 women (43.34%). The analytical process was performed in four phases. In the first of them, the reliability of the measures was estimated (internal consistency, reliability of the individual indicators, and reliability of the construct). In the second phase, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out on the matrix of polychoric correlations between the items. In the third phase, evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was analyzed by way of a confirmatory factor analysis. In the fourth phase, a hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out in order to verify the presence of possible groups and, finally, to ascertain the differences between groups by way of an inferential analysis (ANOVA and Student’s t). No significant differences were detected in the scoring groups within the Conceptual Change/Student-Focused approach (CCSF subscale) according to the sex of the participants. However, there were significant differences in the Information Transmission Teacher-Focused approach (ITT subscale). A cluster analysis reveals significant differences with regard to the sex of future secondary education history teachers in Spain.