Teacher educators’ views vis-à-vis their practices on facilitating learning to teach

educators ’ views vis-à -vis their practices


Background of the Study
Teaching young people to be critical, creative, and independent thinkers who can question and participate in societal expectations or norms could possibly be the function of quality education (Biesta, 2015). Quality teaching greatly determines the quality of citizens, societies, and nations. As asserted by studies, the quality of a nation depends upon the quality of its citizens and the quality of its citizens depends not exclusively, but in a critical measure, upon the quality of their education, which in turn, is determined by the quality of their teacher" (OECD, 2009(OECD, , 2012. In particular, the contribution of quality education becomes vital at the primary level; because studies confirmed that life experiences at the stage of primary education have enduring effects that are difficult to overcome in later stages of development (Asfaw, 2015;Egne, 2015). By implication, teaching potential teachers of this level to inspire rather than simply to talk about their conceptual and pedagogical knowledge of their subjects needs to ensure the proper views of learning to teach and also practicing accordingly.
Among the views or perspectives that avail contemporarily in the discourses of teacher education, applied science approach has been considered as a major aspect of the professionalization process that involves preparing teachers based on dominant theoretical knowledge, followed by microteaching accompanied by feedback on their use of the skills (Korthagen, 2016). However, it considers teachers as technicians. Applied science approach became prominent until replaced by the performance-based or competency-based (CBTE) model. CBTE was also called the "technical-rationality model" in which concrete, observable behavioral criteria could serve as a basis for the training of novices (Burke, 2005). A collection of disconnected courses presented with little connection to practice; the fact that a good teacher cannot be described solely in terms of isolated competencies; and its rigidity (Hunt et al., 2010) rendered it insufficient. Humanistic-based teacher education (HBTE), also known as teacher identity, is a model of teacher education in which the central role is reserved for personal growth and the dignity of the individual teacher (Rodgers & Scott, 2008).
To the need to clearly delineate a process for learning to teach and set a standard for effective teaching, a kind of model that emphasizes reflective teaching, known as the realistic model, was proposed (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005;Darling-Hammond, 2006a;Weimer, 2006). According to this model, teacher development is conceptualized as an ongoing process of developing one's own insights into teaching through the interaction between personal reflection and theoretical notions under the guidance of an expert. To connect learning with real-world issues, reflective teaching plays its greatest role in teacher preparation. Reflection is another element of the theme of pedagogical practical works, which is included in the arena of reasoning in pedagogy.
As stated by Hollins (2015), pedagogy has three approaches, which include behaviorist, constructivist, and liberationist. In behaviorist pedagogy, sometimes called traditionalist pedagogy, the teacher should be the sole authority figure, which results in the domestication and dehumanization of students and stimulates oppressive attitudes in society (Abda, 2017;Dewey in Tadesse, 2010). The constructivist, sometimes described as a progressive teaching style, is based on the notion that learners come ready to learn and the teacher must build activities to facilitate their learning. The third approach, liberationist, is a transformative pedagogy in which value is placed on having the teacher as a learner and the class discovering subjects together. It uses collaborative critical inquiry to enable students to analyze, interpret, and understand the social realities of their own lives and those of their communities in order to make useful, lasting changes (Egne, 2021).
Professional knowledge of teaching, also known as a knowledge base for teachers, is the knowledge required by teachers to help their students learn effectively. As Shulman and Shulman (2007) defined it, the knowledge base for teaching includes content (subject) knowledge, pedagogical skills, and pedagogical content knowledge, among the other categories. While content knowledge refers to the "what" of teaching or the knowledge of the subject matter of a specific field, pedagogical knowledge refers to the "how" of teaching and is a special reference to those broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organization of the subject matter. Similarly, pedagogical content knowledge is practical knowledge that represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics are organized and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners. While a lack of knowledge and skills may limit what teachers can do, having them does not guarantee their wise use (Feiman-Nemser, 2014). In other words, teachers must know not only what to teach but also how to teach topics in ways that learners can understand. According to some studies, PCK includes knowledge of general pedagogy, knowledge of the subject matter, knowledge of the students and any potential misconceptions, knowledge of curricula, and knowledge of environmental contexts like knowledge of technology. These studies criticize Shulman and Shulman's (2007) PCK conception as being compartmentalized and static and suggest additional notions of PCK (Cochran et al., 2014).

Statement of the Problem
As discussed above, teachers are the most important school-based factor influencing student learning (Barber & Mourshed, 2009;Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012;Mugambi, 2015;Strong, 2011). Teacher educators also influence student teachers' achievement, teaching effectiveness, teacher attrition, and school collegiality in schools (Barber & Mourshed, 2010;Chong & Ho, 2009;Danielson, 2007;Hargreaves & Fullan 2012;Hattie, 2008). Consequently it requires the teacher educators to have proper views of learning to teach and practice accordingly in their pedagogy.
In this regards, there is a move from the conventional theory-to-practice approach of teacher preparation to the integrated and reflective approach, known as the realistic approach (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005;Darling-Hammond, 2006a). The former views have been criticized for being characterized by fragmented and weak pedagogy, lack of coherence among courses (and between courses) and field experiences, as well as scarce of a set of organizing themes, shared standards, and clear goals. Contrary, the later views conceptualized teacher development as an ongoing process of developing one's own insights into teaching through the interaction between personal reflection and theoretical notions under the guidance of an expert (Feiman-Nemser, 2008;Weimer, 2006;Zeichner, 2006). Studies serve as evidence that reasoning through reflection is crucial to the practice of education as a pedagogical strategy and a professional development tool to support teachers in acquiring higher order thinking ability to apply newly learned material to challenging classrooms (quality teaching) (Kuswandono, 2012). In this process, learners relate new knowledge to prior understanding, think in both abstract and conceptual terms, apply specific strategies to novel tasks, and understand their own thinking and learning strategies. It also provides learners with an opportunity to correct misconceptions and fill in gaps by helping them to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it, boosting critical thinking skills, encouraging them to think about their own thinking (meta-cognition), and helping students prepare for assignments and examinations (Melis et al., 2007). Above all, it helps to build a shared identity and collective intelligence garnered over time in a collective critical inquiry known as "communities of practice." Thus, teacher preparation needs to be viewed and also practiced from perspectives that consider learning to teach in an integrated approach rather than to stick on a single perspective. To put it in its shortest form, the realistic approach goes from practice to theory.
Consequently, while some teacher educators view teacher education pedagogy as a traditional theory-into-practice approach in which student-teachers learn the theory first and then apply it, others view knowledge as situated and strongly interwoven with experience and emotion (Korthagen et al., 2006). Some teacher education programs also incorporate a hybrid set of approaches as different components of the program, with the idea that the most important thing is the surfacing of assumptions and purposes for teacher education in order to build an informed conversation. On the other hand, teaching about teaching must make the pedagogical reasoning that underpins high-quality practice clear, explicit, and meaningful to teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2006b;Korthagen, 2016;Loughran, 2007). In essence, then, the pedagogy of teacher education illustrates the importance of moving beyond technicist views of the practice of teaching and making the tacit dimensions of knowledge of practice explicit and meaningful in learning about teaching (Loughran, 2007). Accordingly, the pedagogy of teacher education requires teacher educators to explicitly "unpack" for student-teachers the pedagogical expertise that allows examination of practice to push beyond the technical while still responding to the need to develop and display appropriate attitudes, knowledge, and skills for teaching itself.
Based on these perspectives of learning, views of learning to teach can be framed as either learner-centered or teacher-led learning, depending on the level of learners' choice, activeness, and use of power. The former, constructive or learner-centered approach calls for greater student engagement and opens up opportunities for students to participate in shaping their learning experiences more fully and constructing their own knowledge structures. In the latter, behaviorist or teacher-led approach, the teacher should be the sole authority figure and lead the lesson (Pritchard & Woollard, 2010).
The government of Ethiopia has development vision of becoming the lower middle-income country by the year 2030 (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2018). Moreover, there is the education sector's aim of "teaching will be developed as a profession of choice" (MoE, 2015, p. 35). In this regard, quality-oriented teacher education of preparing expertise, capable of contributing to the development goal, becomes imperative. Despite the government efforts, education in Ethiopia in general and in the Southern Regions of Ethiopia in particular has been entangled with challenges of not only low quality of outcomes but also persistent high rates of dropout and repetition (Mekonnen, 2007(Mekonnen, , 2008MoE, 2006MoE, , 2021MoE & USAID, 2008;Negash, 2006). Other studies also characterized Ethiopian teacher education pedagogy as a conventional uninspired pedagogy (Abda, 2007;Gemeda & Tynjälä, 2015;Kassa, 2014;MoE, 2015;RTI International & MoE of Ethiopia, 2013;Tesfaye, 2014;Tessema, 2017). This, in turn, inevitably widens the gap between the teachers we train and the teachers we need. On the other hand, teachers' views and beliefs about pedagogy have a direct bearing on the implementation of their pedagogy. It is because our teaching approaches, strategies, and styles reflect our personal view and beliefs. According to Thomas R. Guskey, improvement or positive change in teachers' practice generally resulted after a significant change in teachers' attitudes and beliefs (Guskey, 2002). Other studies also advocate that our teaching perspectives and the consequent view of students' learning have a significant impact on the way we teach (Pratt, 2002) and improve students' learning (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002). This initiated the researchers to quest about teacher educators' pedagogical views and the related practices, as could be one of the reasons behind this kind of pedagogy. As a result of these situations and also since there is hardly any research (or discourse) on the views and practices of learning to teach in the colleges of the Southern Regions of Ethiopia, examining the teacher-educators' views and practices of pedagogy on learning to teach seems significantly found effective teacher educators' pedagogy.
Therefore, in an effort to rethink pedagogy for effective learning to teach, this study attempted to examine teacher educators' views and their practice on how to learn to teach with the intention of gaining insight into beliefs that are held or developed. More specifically, the study considered how teacher educators conceptualize teaching in the colleges of teacher education and what instructional techniques (strategies) they employ when they prepare teachers. Moreover, it is concerned with identifying whether there is any statistically significant relationship between teacher educators' views and their teaching practices.

Objective of the Study
In an effort to rethink pedagogy for effective learning to teach, this study attempted to examine teacher educators' views as well as practice that threats facilitating learning to teach with the intention to have an insight into opinions that are held or developed. Accordingly, this study considered the following research questions: 1. How is learning to teach viewed by the teacher educators in the colleges of the southern regions? 2. What teaching strategies and methods do the teacher educators use in their teaching?
3. How well are the views of learning to teach and the teaching strategies interrelated?

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this study a qual→quan exploratory sequential mixed methods design, grounded in a pragmatic paradigm, was employed as illustrated in Figure 1. This design was chosen since it gives broader perspectives and a fuller account to investigate (Ary et al., 2010;Creswell, 2012). In addition to their independent best advantages, such mixed methods help to expand the scope and breadth of research in a better way by reducing the limitations of single methods and offsetting the weaknesses of either approach alone (synergy) (Driscoll et al., 2007). From three selected colleges by cluster sampling among five colleges found in the southern regions of Ethiopia, 234 teacher educators were selected using stratified random sampling for the survey of questionnaires. Besides, five teacher educators were selected purposively for interviews. While the qualitative data were analyzed thematically, both descriptive as well as inferential analysis techniques were used for the quantitative data. Questionnaires of both open-ended and closed-ended items as well as unstructured interviews were the instruments of the study. Open-ended items were used to gather data from respondents' full freedom to express their opinions. On the other hand, the close-ended items were prepared on a Likert scale of five options ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (5) for views of learning to teach of the teacher educators as well as from "never" (1) to "very often" (5) for practice on learning to teach of the teacher educators. Cronbach's alpha of 0.824 was tested to ensure the internal consistency between items, which meant that the internal consistency between items in the scale was quite high enough to judge the instrument as reliable for the study (Orodho, 2012). Item reliability statistics were also calculated and found the least 0.794, indicating the items were quite reliable. The data gathered through interviews and open-ended questions of the questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted independently using a thematic approach. Presumably, it is suitable to analyze data associated with discernible patterns inherent within participants' experiences, views, conceptions, and intentions as expressed in verbal and written data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). For the quantitative analysis, the data was summarized and presented by using descriptive statistics such as percentages and inferential analysis like Chi-square test to investigate whether the significant difference exists between the views of the learning to teach.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section of the study an attempt was made to indicate the results and discussions of the teacher educators' view on student teachers' learning and their teaching based on the data from the interviews and questionnaires focused on three learning enhancing interventions (themes). The interventions include teacher educators' views on learning to teach; teaching strategies and methods viewed in learning to teach and factors that either inspire or deter teacher educators from holding these perspectives and practices were investigated.

Teacher Educators' Views of Learning to Teach
The views of teacher educators on learning to teach were examined by thematic analysis using data from the questionnaire's open-ended questions and from the interviews, as shown in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, the teaching strategies or sub-themes emerged from the codes of the data, which in turn grouped to the more general ones into categories and themes. Based on this, engaging in active, explicit and meaningful practical learning as well as creating supportive learning environments are grouped under constructivist theme. Similarly, the sub-themes direct instruction as well as lecture is grouped under behaviorist theme. To observe the magnitude of each sub-theme and also that of the themes, it was analyzed by the frequency chart, of the data from the open-ended questions of the questionnaires. Considering the total percentages of each implied theme in that learnercentered methods are rated as 69.0%, the teacher-led teaching approach is rated as 16.0% and supportive learning environment 15.0%, the learner-centered approach of view in learning to teaching seams the most widely viewed conception in the pedagogy of teacher education. Moreover, as presented in Table 1, the survey data from Likert-type questions with 10 items that were divided into teacher-led perspectives (the first four items) and learner-centered (the second six items) perspective on learning to teach was analyzed. As displayed in Table 1, the majority of participant teacher educators who took the teacher-led items (items 1, 2, 4, and 6) evident 60.5% agreed with the idea that pre-service teachers learn more when teacher-led methods of instruction are used, whereas 20.0% of the participants disagreed and 19.5% were unsure. Similarly, the widely held number of the participant teacher educators (63.5%) who attempted the learner-centered items (items 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10) rated at least "agreed," while 17.5% of the participants rated at least "disagree" and 19.0% rated "undecided". It was also complemented as displayed in Figure 3. Comparing the percentage of the respondents who attempted the two sets of items, the percentage of the respondents who rated at least "agree" on the learner-centered items increased slightly by 3.0% (63.5%-60.5%=3.0%) than the percentage of the respondents rated at least "agree" on the items of teacher-led teaching approaches. However, by a Chi-square test, the differences of the two views (teacher-led and learner-centered approaches) of the teacher educators in learning to teach were found insignificant in that  2 (1)=0.656 and p=0.418 at α=0.05.
From the interviews data, it was analyzed thematically that student teachers learn best when teaching strategies are framed by making the lesson authentic and giving them enough opportunity to practice by raising their interest by having concern for student teachers of equipping them with knowledge base of teaching; engaging them in active, explicit and meaningful practical works; creating supportive learning environment. They observed also that teacher candidates learn to teach effectively if teaching strategies (categories) are tailored with specific methods that enhance each teacher-candidates' achievement of both practical methods as well as conceptual understandings about teaching. As reflected by the participants, as follows: Although there is no one best method to teach; pre-service teachers learn best by connecting the lesson with their prior knowledge and life experience, making lesson authentic and giving them enough opportunity to practice, helping them learn to teach by themselves and changing assessment from exam-orientedness to performance-orientedness" (PHo 1).
One respondent to the open-ended questions of the questionnaire has also said the following: "The philosophy of teaching and learning held in leaders, teacher educators', and student teachers minds could be one possible challenge. The meaning we attach to teaching and learning should be properly conceptualized. Thus, the assumptions we held behind our actions must be tested." Some other few participant teacher educators, in particular, were able to identify the concept in effective teacher education pedagogy by stating as "they learn to teach from the practice of teaching and other school practices in authentic classrooms and provide feedback on their reflection of their practical teaching experience" (PHo 94). Moreover, they added that "student-teachers in colleges of teacher education can learn to teach through relating what they learned to what they will teach" (PHo 54). Here the participants' view seems that teacher educators can learn best to teach if the pedagogy is framed in both practice and theory of teaching and in an integrated manner. As Melrose et al. (2013) defined, individuals create their own new understandings on the basis of an interaction between what they already know and believe and ideas and knowledge with which they come into contact. As others approved, this view of pedagogy helps to practice teaching and encourages student teachers to develop their own theory of teaching based on the interaction between what they already know, believe, and experience (Melrose et al., 2013).
According to the transformative perspective, teaching is viewed as a situated, reflective, and collaborative activity requiring teachers' judgment in apprehending events of practice in a user-friendly and facilitated environment. And its modes of knowing are primarily based on reflexivity about teaching and learning processes, rather than delivering declarative knowledge of teaching (Rowan et al., 2019). In addition, learning about teaching requires a view of knowledge as a subject to be created rather than as a subject already created. Studies summarize that "much of what prospective teachers would have to learn in and from practice rather than in preparing to practice" (Freunthal, 1978, as cited in Korthagen et al., 2006). Successful learning occurs as a result of those learners' being able to solve contextual, real-world problems through collaborative exploring, evaluating, manipulating, and integrating available information from an array of sources, as opposed to passively acquiring information from texts selected by the teacher (Kaya & Akdemir, 2016;McLoughlin & Lee, 2008). According to transformative pedagogy, teacher development is conceptualized as collaborative critical inquiry that enables students to analyze, interpret, and understand the social realities of their own lives and those of their communities in order to bring about useful, lasting changes (Egne, 2015).
However, the data from interviews and some open-ended questions on the questionnaire, based on the insisted reflection about the dominant existence of a teacher-led view of teaching in learning to teach, do not support this. The teacher educators' adhered view of a teacher-led method of teaching, due to contextual factors (which will be discussed in the next part), prevented them from implementing the other reformed methods of teaching. As stated by one of the participants, In teacher education, although all approaches have their strengths and shortcomings, it is more advantageous if practical activities are integrated with those of theoretical ones both in classrooms and in catchment schools. This is to say that engaging teacher candidates in practical activities based on the theoretical basis would make the candidate-teachers of better ones. I think modular approach that candidate teachers learn would make them tend to learn theoretically (TEr 2).
Other participants added that student teachers learn best about the teaching profession when an appropriate level of theoretical skills and knowledge is imparted. Hence, they indicated that they learn best when teacher educators impart an appropriate level of theoretical knowledge before practical learning and assessing accordingly (PHo 78; PHa 53; PBo 34). After learning theories through the lecture method in their colleges, student teachers practice what they have learned in schools (TEr 2). This implies that the teacher educators are preparing the student teachers with the traditional method of teaching, whose epistemology views knowledge as an objective entity that exists "out there" external to the knower and whose teaching relies on faculty (textbooks and teachers) as the primary source of learning (Boaler, 2015;Hiebert, 2013).
Nonetheless, this traditional approach to teaching has received a lot of criticism and debate for decades as its epistemology of logical positivism view propagates knowledge as an objective entity that exists "out there" external to and independent of the knower, and its teaching relies on faculty (textbooks and teachers) as the primary source of learning (Hiebert, 2013). In this approach, while teachers are viewed as the knowing experts, the sages on the stage who expound the material, pupils are supposed to take in and accurately report back the information presented by the teacher as the sole information they need to acquire (Bonawitz et al., 2011;Khalid & Azeem, 2012). The researchers extend their explanation about the approach as that, its pedagogy exposes students to the established social facts through the one-way delivery of specially created instructional spaces and media. Also, the students are viewed as tending to perceive the information provided by the teacher as the only information they need to learn. As a one-way channel, the students' involvement in such a teaching strategy is limited to listening and occasionally taking notes if necessary.

Teaching Strategies and Methods Used by Teacher Educators'
Based on the data from interviews and from open ended items of the questionnaires, the prevailing teaching strategies and methods that are characterized the teacher educators' practices were portrayed as follows. Discussions on the major pedagogical strategies (methods and techniques) with the interview participants revealed two major themes-student-centered and teacherled themes, which were formed from the four sub-themes of cooperative learning (group work method), questioning and answering method, guided practice methods, and lecture (traditional) method. They forwarded their ideas on their use of learnercentered methods, instance cooperative learning, so that students can collaborate to optimize both their own and each other's learning. As Johnson and Johnson (2009) summarized, cooperative learning approach is crucial for fostering cooperative interdependence, personal responsibility, in-person communication, learning for all, scholastic success, and social skills of group process. Most significantly, these approaches effectively address the issue of individual differences by taking advantage of students' diverse abilities to improve their cognitive, psychological, and social performance. Participants also mentioned that an effort is made to guarantee participation by using questions and answers to gauge and assess students' subject matter understanding.
As they reported, teacher educators typically give them a task or activity to demonstrate in class or labs. They also noted that some teacher educators make their students respond to queries in order to break away from the traditional lecture format. On the other hand, the participants openly admitted that they abundantly implement conventional teacher-led teaching strategies in their classes. As put in the following quote, they tend to apply the methods by which they had learned, and they taught in their teacher education.
To tell the truth, teacher educators use the traditional lecture approach of teaching from the beginning to end. It would be better to give chances for both learners and teachers for practical activities. There are challenges to practice the effective teacher education pedagogy (TEr 2).

The other added:
Teacher educators primarily use lecturing. Some teacher educators use the question-and-answer method of teaching, while others use practical work in laboratory classes. However, most teacher educators employ the traditional method in which student teachers learn theories and then apply them in their practicum (TEr 3).
We usually present the theory of content and show how to apply it at the primary school level. In a practicum, we needed to see how they could apply the theoretical content covered in the theoretical lecture (TEr 5).
More sincerely, others expressed their irritation with the state of implementing pedagogical strategies as that it is the teacher centered lecture method as usual, which is commonly known by the adage "chalk and talk!" (PBo 10, 13, 28, and 36). One of the participants had to express that it would have been better if the pedagogical strategies in the teacher education classes had been theory-practice integrated. Besides, research, scholarship, and experiential learning would result in improving teacher-educators' pedagogical perspectives and practices.
Student centered approach, beyond its immensity for the teacher, is believed good. What side effect it has is that it is time consuming. The time for group formation, and then to discuss and to reflect, the allotted "50 minutes" period will not be enough and therefore, very few teachers, whose subject suits use it (TEr 1).
Participants also gave their understanding in written responses to the open-ended question about their practice. Their responses were categorized under themes, as presented in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4, 164 (53.0%) teacher educators use lecture, 43 (14.0%) direct instruction, 40 (13.0%) group work, 13 (4.0%) guided practice, 10 (3.0%) microteaching, two (1.0%) field/project work, seven (2.0%) questioning and answering, five (2.0%) seminar, three (1.0%) independent works, six (2.0%) reflection, two (1.0%) modeling, three (1.0%) research, three (1.0%) case study, and two (1.0%) portfolio development. While adding up two percentages, those rated as lectures and direct instruction give 67.0%, which meant that teacher-centered pedagogical practices were largely used. Again, adding up the rest also gives 33.0%, which means extent of using learner-centered pedagogical practices such as group work, guided practice, microteaching, field/project work, questioning and answering, seminar, independent works, reflection, modeling, research, case study, and portfolio development is less when compared to that of teacher-centered pedagogical practices. Teacher educators also predominantly use traditional lecture method of teaching. In these strategies, as in previous discussions of current study, student teachers are required to learn theory through a traditional lecture method of teaching in college classrooms and are expected to practice in schools during practicum phases. Furthermore, as shown in Table 2, the survey data of Likert-type questions with 10 items that were split into learner-centered (the first six items) and teacher-led perspectives on learning to teach (the second four items) was analyzed. As shown in Table 2, the majority of the participants (45.8%), on the learner-centered items (item 23, 24, 25, 28, 30, and 31) rated that they practice the learner-centered teaching strategies at most "sometimes" to prepare their teachers. Similarly, 24.5% participants rated "average", while 29.7% rated at least "often". Meanwhile, among the teacher-led items (item 26, 27, 29, and 32) of the questionnaires, 48.8% rated at least "often" for their practice of teacher-led teaching strategies. Similarly, 29.6% participants rated "average", while 21.5% rated that they practice teacher-led teaching strategies at most "sometimes" to prepare their teachers.

(N) 2 (S) 3 (A) 4 (O) 5 (VO)
Case studies (teaching pre-service teachers systematically both from particular contexts ( The results in Table 2 are also complemented in Figure 5. This also shows that the teaching strategies and methods used by the teacher educators are dominantly teacher-led strategies such as lecture, modeling, presentation as well as direct instruction. To be more precise, we calculated a Chi-square test by merging the above data into "at most sometimes" ("never" + "sometimes") and "at least often" ("often" + "very often"). Accordingly, as the result of  2 (13.25)>0.0003, at df=1, and α=0.05, the difference is significant. Observing the magnitude of the difference (48.8%-29.7%=19.1%), the teacher-led approach is approximately 19.0% more advanced than the learner-centered. Therefore, the teacher-educators are predominantly practicing the teacher-led strategies. In these strategies, the teacher-educators act as technicist, simply training teachers to replicate a formula for teaching and the student-teachers are required to learn theory through a traditional lecture method of teaching in college classrooms and are expected to practice in schools during the practicum sessions. However, teacher educators' pedagogy should be conceptualized as and practiced from a constructivist perspective that considers a learner-centered approach to teaching and learning. Teaching strategies and methods that should characterize the teacher educators' pedagogy are analyzed as the use of varieties of teaching methods to raise interest, engaging them in active, explicit, and meaningful practical work, concern for student teachers to provide them with a teaching knowledge base, and facilitating a supportive learning environment. It is because, teaching about teaching needs to make the pedagogical reasoning that underpins quality practice clear, explicit, and meaningful for learners, which is fundamentally different from those teachings in general schools in which teachers teach the subject matter only. This helps develop a professional identity among the student teachers (Korthagen, 2016;Loughran, 2007). As put by Starkey (2017), "effective learning" is a kind of learning that considers each student's learning progress (cognitive development), focuses on students' active participation, includes agency in the learning process through explicit teaching, meta-cognitive strategies, the provision of formative feedback, self-regulation, and selfreflection (agentic), and considers the social, cultural, emotional, and personal development needs of the student teachers.
According to studies, "currently, the field of teacher education is undergoing a major shift-a shift away from a predominant focus on specifying the necessary knowledge for teaching toward specifying teaching practices that entail knowledge and doing" (McDonald et al., 2013). As discussed in the preceding parts of the present study, teaching about teaching needs to make the pedagogical reasoning that underpins quality practice clear, explicit, and meaningful for learners, which is fundamentally different from those teachings in general schools in which teachers teach the subject matter only. This helps develop a professional identity among the student teachers (Korthagen, 2016;Loughran, 2007). This is because prospective teachers tend to model and learn from their teachers, educators and schoolteachers.

Correlation of Teacher Educators' Views and Their Practices on Learning to Teach
Based on the above findings about two concepts (views and practices of learning to teach that characterized teacher educators' pedagogy), although the teacher educators have a view of constructivist pedagogy or a learner-centered approach, they openly admitted that they abundantly use the conventional teacher-led teaching strategies. In this case, the teacher educators' practices for preparing their teachers are different from what is expected. We suppose that their practice could be constructivist pedagogy or a learner-centered approach as it was analyzed that constructivist view outweighed the behaviorist views among the teacher educators. To investigate if there was a statistically significant association between teacher educators' practices and their views, a correlation was computed. By the test of the assumption of normality, we used the spearman rho statistics. Accordingly, as shown in Table 3, almost all scales show a positive and statistically significant correlation with each other except the scales between learner-centered views and teacher-led practices (r[234]=0.112, p=0.087). This type of relation was expected, since, in the discussions of the preceding parts of the present study, the teacher educators' views and their practices were not consistent. The positive significant correlation between the views and the practices indicates that the views of learning to teach by the teacher educators were contributors to their practices. This agrees with the data from the interview that was discussed earlier and was started by one of the participants who said that it would have been better if the pedagogical practice in teacher education had been theory-practice integrated one. Similarly, a moderate correlations between learner-centered views and teacher-led views (r[234]=0.525, p=0.00) as well as learner-centered practices and teacher-led practices (r[234]=0.53, p=0.00) show that there is no clear and bold differentiation between the two views and practices among the teacher educators. This is also consistent with the last section analysis of Chi-square test by which the differences of the teacher-led and learner-centered views of the teacher educators in learning to teach found insignificant.
The results show that teacher educators' views of learning to teach and their practices are positively and significantly related. Moreover, teacher educators with either of their views of learning to teach practice either learner-centered or teacher-led teaching strategies. The correlations vary between 0.112 and 0.53, or 10.0% to 28.0% (Morgan et al., 2004), which points to the fact that, at most 28.0% of variance in practice can be predicted from views of learning to teach of the teacher educators. As the views and the practices moderately correlated, this shows that there is no clear differentiation between the views and practices among the teacher educators. These all indicate that, though the teacher educators' views contributed to their practices, they adhered to the conventional teacher-led views and practices of learning to teach. These are also complemented by the moderately significant correlation between teacher-led and learner-centered views as well as between teacher-led and learner-centered practices. The correlation between the learner-centered views and learner-centered practices (r[234]=0.335, p=0.00) was found to be more significant than the correlation between the teacher-led views and teacher-led practices (r[234]=0.253, p=0.00). This shows that the contribution of learner-centered views found higher than the contribution of teacher-led views to practice. This is also consistent with the finding in the present study that specify though not significant, teacher educators had more a view of learnercentered than teacher-led views in learning to teach.
As discussed above, change in practice occurs gradually and as a result of multiple activities of teachers' professional development rather than as a result of changes in attitude and beliefs. They should have practice-oriented changes in views of learning to teach. Furthermore, the nexus of teacher change in views and in practices described in this article presents a variety of opportunities for future research. As a result, more pressured or learner-centered views of learning to teach accompanied with experience of successful implementation or practice on colleges of teacher education pedagogy is required to effect genuine changes in the views and practices of teacher educators. Although individual variability presents within teacher educators' practices, the results indicate that teacher-led views is correlated more than learner-centered views of the teacher educators on the practice of learning to teach. Consequently, it sounds to conclude that the teacher-led practice of the teacher educators was contributed by their teacher-led views of learning to teach.

Conclusions
As discussed earlier, teacher educators' ideas, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and expertise about the teaching profession make up their pedagogy. In an effort to this, this study attempted to examine teacher educators' views, practice and threats on how to learn to teach with the intention to have an insight into opinions that are held or developed. Based on this, the following points are concluded: .530 ** Note. **Correlation is significant at p< 0.001 level (2-tailed) 1. The difference in the views of teacher educators on both constructivist and behaviorist views of learning to teach is found insignificant. Consequently, the teacher educators have comparable perspectives of both learner-centered and teacherled approaches on learning to teach.
2. Participants admitted that they had abundantly implemented the conventional teacher-led teaching strategies.
3. Among the teaching-interventions that teacher educators used most of the time were lectures, direct instruction, group work, guided practice, microteaching, questioning and answering, seminar, and research are investigated.
4. Research, scholarship, and experiential learning are the other interventions reported that result in improving teachereducators' pedagogical perspectives and practices.
5. The significant and positive correlation found between the views and the practices of the teacher educators indicate the basic areas for intervention. Accordingly, to undergo a major shift -a shift away from a predominant adherence of the conventional teacher-led views and practices to the reformed learner-centered views and practices of learning to teach fostering a change on the teacher-educators views becomes crucial. As observed from the data, at most 28% of variance in practice can be predicted from their views of learning to teach of the teacher educators.

Implications
Colleges of the teacher educations need to develop qualified teachers with the goal of raising future students' performance in the general education system. Moreover, "teaching will be developed as a profession of choice," as stated as the Ethiopian Education Sector's goal (MoE, 2015, p. 35). As part of the strategies of these purposes, after having an insight into teacher educators' approaches to preparing teachers, the following points have been observed from the present study. Therefore, following implications can be listed: 1. Colleges could organize pedagogical training that focused on effective views and practices of learning to teach for the teacher-educators to further develop their teaching. The training programs should be tailored practically to guide student teachers' active learning and processing of the knowledge. It should also be focused on moving the teacher-educators from the "technical" understandings and implementation of their pedagogy towards continually evolving, reflexive, experiential, and inspirational teaching.
2. The interaction of research, scholarship, and experiential learning that would result in improving teacher-educators' pedagogical perspectives and practices to inspire teacher educators to their views and practices needs strategic interventions for teacher education pedagogy. Moreover, group work, guided practice, microteaching, questioning and answering, seminar, and research should be familiarized by the teacher educators as their common teaching strategies. Therefore, policy directives need to foster a close relationship between effective teaching and teacher preparation at both the institutional (colleges, regional education bureaus, and the ministry of education) and individual levels.