Strategies for encouraging behavioural and cognitive engagement of pre-service student-teachers in Bhutan: an action research case study

This action research enquiry interrogates my own teaching practices in the context of new cultures of pedagogy in Bhutan. Teaching at the tertiary level for the last 11 years, I have realised that student engagement, particularly behavioural and cognitive engagement, has not been satisfactory. This motivated me to undertake an action enquiry to improve my teaching to engage student-teachers more in their own learning. The analysis of baseline survey data collected from a class of 29 final-year Bachelor of Education Primary pre-service student-teachers in a curriculum studies module confirmed three areas of concern about my capacity to encourage student engagement: lack of open communication in my classes, lack of care and concern, and inability to provide active learning opportunities. I implemented intervention strategies in my teaching to address these concerns. Ongoing data about the effectiveness of the intervention strategies were collected through observations of lessons by a critical friend and by maintaining a self-reflective diary. Post-intervention data were gathered using the same questionnaire, through interviews conducted by a critical friend with four randomly selected student-teachers and research diaries. I have noticed measurable improvement in all three areas of concern that facilitated enhancement of both behavioural and cognitive engagements of student-teachers. However, I also realise that there is still room for improvement in the areas of motivating students to change their mindset about activity-based teaching and the need for me to show more interest in their personal and professional problems.