scholarly journals Partnerships in mathematics and science teacher preparation in Zimbabwe

Author(s):  
Alois Matorevhu

<p class="ABS-C">Research evidence indicates that collaborative partnerships among stakeholders develop strong sense of ownership, interest and commitment, which promotes successful programme implementation. Research evidence also supports that loose partnerships adversely affect programme implementation.  This study sought to explore the nature of partnerships among teacher education stakeholders in the pre–service Diploma in Education programme, offered at Teachers’ College S which is an associate of the University of Zimbabwe. Interviews with mentor teachers, pre-service teachers on attachment teaching practice/practicum, and head teachers were used to generate and collect data. Findings revealed existence of collaborative partnerships among Teachers’ College S, schools and the University of Zimbabwe. However, most mentor teachers expressed concern on absence of a policy guiding their operations. Recommendations to strengthen collaborative partnerships in pre–service teacher preparation were made.</p>

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-140
Author(s):  
Elena Kovacikova ◽  
Tomas Pechociak

The paper sheds light on the university preparation of future English teachers in Slovakia. Since the requirements for becoming an English teacher differ around the world, the first part of the paper describes and explains the requirements and career development of English teachers in Slovakia. Twelve Slovak faculties provide university preparation of future English teachers, and this research analyses their curricular offer. The courses offered to future English teachers are firstly categorized into linguistic, intercultural, methodological, and literary groups. As teaching practice becomes an essential part of the teacher preparation, the hours devoted to the teaching practice were counted at each institution. The tables and graphs show the sums of the courses and allocated hours. Thus, this paper brings an overview, comparison, and differences in the university preparation of future English teachers in Slovakia. Even though this survey shows only a quantitative point, this research results can be considered as one of the quality indicators in the university preparation of future English teachers in Slovakia


Author(s):  
Annie Penda ◽  
Vincent Penda

This manuscript is a study on special education provision and teacher preparation in universities. The study aimed at establishing the special education provisions in universities, establishing how special teachers are prepared in universities and determine the requirement for learners with disabilities in order not to be left behind. The tools for data collection were the document study, interview schedule and the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using excel sheet and manually. The sample comprised of 30 masters students for special education programme at Kwame Nkrumah University. The findings were that special education provisions incorporated the special child’s needs, national needs, international needs, the university needs, teachers’ needs and technological needs. The study also found that, teachers were prepared by being equipped with knowledge and skills of special education. In order for learners with special needs not to be left behind it was discovered that they needed trained teachers in special education, infrastructure and curriculum modifications, teaching and learning materials and methods tailored to their needs, they needed schools, community, national, international and all stakeholders involvement in their education.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patti Silbert ◽  
Clare Verbeek

South African universities have a crucial role to play in helping reduce inequalities in schooling by preparing teachers for working across diverse school contexts. This article examines a pre-service teacher collaborative support programme generated through a twoyear action research process. The programme was designed to support student teachers and their school-based mentors during Teaching Practice through an existing university-school partnership. Using a qualitative analysis of journal entries and separate focus group discussions with student and mentor teachers we describe students’ and mentors’ responses to the collaborative support programme. The findings of the study suggest that a collaborative support strategy pitched at both the university and school is critical to support student teachers during their pre-service teaching, especially in socially and educationally challenging contexts. Joint responsibility for initial teacher development requires a reconceptualisation of the role of the mentor teacher, and a shift towards the distribution of mentoring functions from a few designated mentor teachers to include a wider range of teachers at the school.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3a) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Nurhayat Çelebi ◽  
Ömer Aydoğdu ◽  
Münevver Yalçınkaya

The aim of this study was to learn the opinion of the teacher candidates who study pedagogical formation in Karabuk University in 2016-2017 teaching session, as well as mentor teachers and coordinators who lead them during the teaching practices at schools. This research study is mainly based on qualitative techniques. Working group of this study is composed of 155 teacher candidates, 56 mentor teachers and 16 coordinators. Three open-ended questions were given to the teacher candidates, mentors and coordinators for collection of data. The data were evaluated as in the mean of content analysis. According to the findings, teacher candidates expressed that “mentor teachers and coordinators at schools of implementation had a positive and supportive attitude towards them” while some of the candidates were expressing that “mentor teachers are not supportive.” Mentor teachers and coordinators found teacher candidates’ attitudes positive and refined. Mentor teachers and coordinators mentioned negative references about teacher candidates. They said that teacher candidates didn’t use proper teaching methods, techniques and materials when the teacher candidates are teaching, and failed to manage and maintain classroom atmosphere and the intended lesson time. It is considerable that teacher candidates had also mentioned that “they were doing the same mistakes what their coordinators and teachers determined.” As a result, teaching practice schedules should be well arranged in the way of cooperation between the University and the National Ministry of education, which was suggested to the authorities in the Turkish Higher Education Board.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
James Cox

Earlier this year, I received a small grant from the Edinburgh University Development Trust Fund to determine the feasibility of formulating a major research project exploring the religious dimensions within the recent land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe. Since spirit mediums had played such an important role in the first Shona uprising in 1896–97 against colonial occu¬pation (the so-called First Chimurenga) (Parsons, 1985: 50-51) and again in the war of liberation between 1972 and 1979 (the Second Chimurenga) (Lan, 1985), I suspected that these central points of contact between the spirit world and the living communities would be affecting the sometimes militant invasions of white commercial farms that began sporadically in 1998, but became systematic after the constitutional referendum of February 2000. Under the terms of the grant, I went with my colleague, Tabona Shoko of the University of Zimbabwe, in July and August 2004, to two regions of Zimbabwe: Mount Darwin in the northeast, where recent activities by war veterans and spirit mediums had been reported, and to the Mberengwa District, where land resettlement programmes have been widespread. This article reports on my preliminary findings in Mount Darwin, where I sought to determine if evidence could be found to link the role of Traditional Religion, particularly through spirit mediums, to the current land redistribution programme, and, if so, whether increasing levels of political intolerance within Zimbabwean society could be blamed, in part at least, on these customary beliefs and practices


Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Faith Mkwesha

This interview was conducted on 16 May 2009 at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa. Petina Gappah is the third generation of Zimbabwean writers writing from the diaspora. She was born in 1971 in Zambia, and grew up in Zimbabwe during the transitional moment from colonial Rhodesia to independence. She has law degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Graz. She writes in English and also draws on Shona, her first language. She has published a short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), first novel The Book of Memory (2015), and another collection of short stories, Rotten Row (2016).  Gappah’s collection of short stories An Elegy for Easterly (2009) was awarded The Guardian First Book Award in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story form. Gappah was working on her novel The Book of Memory at the time of this interview.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.


Author(s):  
Darshana Sharma

Teaching Practice is widely recognised as the sine-qua-non of any teacher education programme. It is a component in the teacher preparation programme where prospective teachers are provided with an opportunity to put their theoretical studies into practice, get feedback, reflect on practice and consequently further improve their teaching skills. As teaching practice is an important component of a teacher education programme, considerable attention must be given to make it more effective and fruitful. This paper is based on a research study conducted to know pre-service teachers' experiences of the quality of teaching practice and the common concerns they have during teaching practice. On the basis of focussed group discussion a total of five themes were identified, these are (1) usefulness of teaching practice (2) experiences/concerns with pupils' behaviour (3) experiences/concerns with own behaviour (4) experiences/concerns with supervisors' behaviour (5) experiences/concerns with institutional and personal adjustments. The outcome of the focussed group discussion was used to prepare a structured questionnaire. Among other things, the study recommended rigorous practical training in lesson planning, demonstration lessons by teacher educators, simulated teaching before the commencement of practice teaching, school orientation programmes, a separate internship of two weeks and writing a journal by student teachers during teaching practice.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document