scholarly journals Online Baseline Assessment in Mathematics: Initial Teacher Education Entry-Level Student Performance

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Folake Modupe Adelabu ◽  
Jogymol Alex
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Baseline Assessment ◽  
Ongoing Research

This article describes a part of an online and technological intervention at a rural South African Higher Education Institution focused at improving the mathematical knowledge of first-year Senior Phase and Further Education Training (SP& FET) Bachelor of Education student teachers. As part of the interventions in an ICT integrated Mathematics Education and Research Centre, the student teachers were subjected to write an online baseline assessment on the content knowledge in Grade 7 mathematics, which is the first year in Senior Phase in South African Schools. A total of 193 student teachers wrote the online baseline test with 20 items in an invigilated computer laboratory environment. The test items were from the online Computer Aided Mathematics Instruction (CAMI) program which is aligned to the Grade 7 CAPS curriculum of South Africa. The data were analysed by the CAMI system and were further analysed using Microsoft Excel 2016. The result of the test showed an average performance of 38,67% (Variance: 0,66% and SD: 0,81%). This sheds light into the disturbingly limited mathematics subject content knowledge the student teachers enter the HEI with. The programme structure of the Senior Phase mathematics content module of the HEI was also analysed. The authors of this paper recommend that student teachers need to be thoroughly engaged in learning the content during their training as future mathematics teachers. This paper contributes to the ongoing research on ITE programmes at HEIs that prepare teachers for their mathematics teaching role in the senior Phase classrooms.   Received: 21 September 2021 / Accepted: 11 December 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

scholarly journals Online supplementary mathematics tuition in a first-year childhood teacher education programme

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Fonseca ◽  
Nadine Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
First Year ◽  
Intervention Programme ◽  
Common Content

This study reports on an intervention that was aimed at improving the content knowledge of first-year intermediate-phase education students at a South African university. The study gives some insight into preservice teachers’ perceptions of an online programme for the development of mathematics common content knowledge for teachers of mathematics in the intermediate grades. The effectiveness of the intervention programme was analysed according to Shapiro’s evaluation criteria for intervention research. The findings show that there has been a positive shift in preservice teachers’ common content knowledge but that there is much room for further development. The student teachers found the programme to be of great benefit with regard to the development of their mathematics knowledge as well as their confidence as future teachers of mathematics. The findings highlighted their disturbingly limited knowledge of mathematics content knowledge and pointed to the responsibility of teacher education departments at universities to implement sufficient maths content courses that will address the status quo of poor mathematics teaching in South African primary schools. The authors conclude that the students need to spend much more time on ‘catching up’ before they become teachers.

scholarly journals Students’ understanding of geometry terminology through the lens of Van Hiele theory

Pythagoras ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jogymol Alex ◽  
Kuttickattu J. Mammen
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
First Year ◽  
Policy Statement ◽  
Van Hiele ◽  
Van Hiele Theory ◽  
Multiple Choice Questionnaire ◽  
Combination Approach

After a long six-year lapse, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement introduced in 2012 included geometry as part of the South African Grade 12 Mathematics Paper 2. The first cohort of matriculation students wrote Paper 2 in 2014. This article reports on the understanding of geometry terminology with which a group of 154 first-year mathematics education students entered a rural South African university in 2015; 126 volunteered to be part of the study. Responses to a 60-item multiple-choice questionnaire (30 verbally presented and 30 visually presented items) in geometry terminology provided the data for the study. A concept’s verbal description should be associated with its correct visual image. Van Hiele theory provided the lens for the study. An overall percentage mean score of 64% obtained in the test indicated that the majority of the students had a fairly good knowledge of basic geometry terminology. The students obtained a percentage mean score of 68% on visually presented items against that of 59% on verbally presented items implying a lower level thinking as per Van Hiele theory. The findings of this study imply a combination approach using visual and verbal representations to enhance conceptual understanding in geometry. This has to be complemented and supplemented through scaffolding to fill student teachers’ content gap.

scholarly journals Troublesome tools: How can Wikipedia editing enhance student teachers’ digital skills?

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-346
Author(s):  
Hilde Brox
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Digital Competence ◽  
Teacher Education Student ◽  
Collaborative Tool ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Digitale ferdigheter i skole og høyere utdanning tolkes ofte som evnen til å utnytte digitale verktøy i læringsarbeid. Artikkelen argumenterer for at lærerutdanningen også bør fokusere på digital teknologi som tema i tillegg til å betrakte teknologi som hjelpemiddel for å oppnå læring i de ulike fagene. I det følgende beskrives et undervisningsopplegg i samfunnsfag hvor første års lærerstudenter settes til å skrive en fagrelatert artikkel på Wikipedia. Gjennom ulike typer data analyseres hvilke innsikter som åpner seg for studentene når de selv skaper innhold de hittil bare har forholdt seg til som konsumenter. Artikkelen peker på at studentene gjør en rekke vesentlige oppdagelser underveis, men at det fortsatt er sider ved denne type kunnskapsproduksjon de ikke helt forstår. Artikkelen argumenterer for at opplegget likevel har sin berettigelse fordi det gir studentene en sjelden anledning til å tematisere viktige sider av digital teknologi på en måte som er både relevant og gjennomførbar innenfor de faglige rammene i lærerutdanningen.Nøkkelord: digital kompetanse, lærerutdanning, lærerstudenter, Wikipedia, wiki, digitale verktøy, digitale ferdigheterAbstractIn schools and in higher education, we often understand digital skills as the ability to use various digital tools for learning. The article argues that in addition to viewing technology as means to acquire subject-related learning, teacher education also needs to include an explicit focus on technology as a topic in itself. This article presents a Wikipedia editing assignment in Social Science for a group of first-year student teachers. A range of data are used to analyze some of the self-reported insights that open up to the students when they themselves become contributors of content they normally deal with exclusively as consumers. The study shows that although the students make a series of discoveries after becoming editors, they do not fully comprehend all the complexities of a massively collaborative tool like Wikipedia. The article argues that the assignment nevertheless provides the students with a significant and rare opportunity to address the use of digital technology, in a way that is both relevant and feasible within the frames of subject teaching and of teacher education.Keywords: professional digital competence, teacher education, student teachers, Wikipedia, wikis, digital tools, digital skills

scholarly journals A Finnish model of teacher education informs a South African one: A teaching school as a pedagogical laboratory

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Loukomies ◽  
Nadine Petersen ◽  
Jari Lavonen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
African Context

In this study, we examined student teachers’ learning during their teaching placement period in Finland and South Africa. The setting of the inquiry in both countries was a ‘teaching’ school, affiliated to a university teacher education programme. The teaching school is also referred to as an educational innovation that was transferred from the Finnish context to the South African context. Data were collected through an interview protocol. The findings show that the students, like many of their counterparts in different parts of the world, focused on teaching tools and methods as well as classroom management as a gateway to their teaching career. The extended teaching placement period at both the university teaching schools was expected to yield some findings about the intersection of teaching practice and its supporting theories because of the close collaboration of the schools and the universities. Some of the findings satisfied this expectation while other parts did not, confirming that initial teacher education may be regarded as a platform for learning to be teachers, but it has its own limits even in a pedagogical ‘laboratory’. The transfer of the educational innovation was regarded as successful.

scholarly journals Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sene Van Heerden ◽  
Yusuf Sayed ◽  
Zahraa McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Initial Development ◽  
Pedagogic Content Knowledge

Background: It is widely accepted that the quality of schools depends on the quality of teachers. Understanding what occurs while learning to teach is an important pursuit for acquiring a sense of the quality of teachers. The initial development of teachers is a critical point from which to activate such understanding.Aim: This study, therefore, examines the ways in which pedagogic content knowledge is developed within experiences that relate to initial teacher education programmes. Pedagogic content knowledge is a concept describing a form of knowledge related to transmitting subject matter knowledge to learners.Setting: A qualitative study was conducted with a cohort of participants in the final year of a bachelor’s degree programme.Methods: Data generation ensued from focus group discussions, complemented by questionnaire data. The study analysed data categorised according to themes.Results: Findings demonstrate that the participants found their initial teacher education programme to have had positive and negative influences with regard to the development of pedagogic content knowledge. Administrative duties, adapting to school contexts, relationships with people of influence (such as lecturers during initial teacher education and mentor teachers), teaching practice (which had the most profound influence on classroom practice) and professional knowledge and skills as taught during initial teacher education were all factors that had an impact on participants’ experiences in developing their pedagogic content knowledge.Conclusion: This paper argues for the need to rethink the structure of initial teacher education programmes in order to better facilitate the development of pedagogic content knowledge.

scholarly journals FORMAÇÃO DOCENTE INICIAL: perfis socioeconômico-cultural, leitor e escritor de alunos do curso de Pedagogia

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Ana Luzia Videira Parisotto ◽  
Michelle Mariana Germani
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Proper Time ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Teacher Education Student ◽  
Time To Build

É importante que a abertura para o transformar-se em professor seja iniciada ainda na graduação que deve propiciar experiências formativas que possibilitem o desenvolvimento de conhecimentos necessários à prática profissional, pois é o momento de se construir uma base para o desempenho profissional futuro. Nessa perspectiva, o objetivo do presente artigo é descrever e analisar o perfil socioeconômico-cultural, de leitura e de escrita do aluno ingressante no curso de Pedagogia, em 2017, por meio da aplicação de um questionário. A pesquisa é de abordagem qualitativa, de caráter descritivo-analítico, cuja amostra contou com 79 estudantes: 36 do turno vespertino e 43 do período noturno. Os dados apontam que os alunos do curso de Pedagogia são predominantemente do sexo feminino, jovens, solteiros, advindos da escola pública e sustentados pela família. Seus pais, em sua maioria, concluíram no máximo o ensino fundamental. O principal meio de acesso à informação desses estudantes é a internet, utilizada principalmente para pesquisas e lazer (bate-papos, redes sociais, jogos ou vídeos). Outro aspecto que ficou bastante claro é que tanto o perfil leitor como o escritor se consolidaram em experiências positivas na infância, seja por estímulo de familiares ou da escola. Considerar a relação entre os perfis apresentados pode ser determinante para a formação de um futuro professor com bom nível cultural, que seja um mediador de leitura e escrita.Palavras-chave: Formação Inicial do Professor. Perfil dos Alunos. Curso de Pedagogia.INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION: socioeconomic-cultural, reading and writing profiles of pedagogy studentsAbstractIt is important that student teachers be open to becoming teachers from the very beginning of undergraduate studies, which in turn should provide them with formative experiences that promote the development of practical professional knowledge, as this is the proper time to build the basis for future professional expertise. From this perspective, this article aims to describe and analyze the socioeconomic-cultural, reading and writing profile of students that entered the Pedagogy program in 2017 by means of a questionnaire. The participants in this qualitative research of a descriptive-analytic nature are 79 student teachers: 36 from the afternoon shift and 43 from the evening shift of the program. The results indicate that the students are mostly female, young adults, single, public school graduates, and financially dependent on their families. Most of their parents have only completed elementary school. Their chief information source is the Internet, which is mainly used for leisure (chat-rooms, social networks, games or videos) and research purposes. Moreover, their reading and writing profile was established during childhood, motivated by either their families or their schools. Getting to know their profiles is fundamental to crafting the education of well-rounded teachers capable of facilitating reading and writing.Keywords: Initial Teacher Education. Student Profile. Pedagogy.FORMACIÓN DOCENTE INICIAL: perfiles socioeconomico-cultural, lectura y escritura de alumnos del curso de PedagogiaResumen Es importante que la apertura para transformarse en profesor sea iniciada aún en el pre-grado que debe propiciar experiencias formativas que posibiliten el desarrollo de conocimientos necesarios a la práctica profesional, pues es el momento de construirse una base para el desempeño profesional futuro. En esa perspectiva, el objetivo del presente artículo es describir y analisar el perfil socioeconómico-cultural, de lectura y escritura del alumno ingresante al curso de Pedagogia, en 2017, por medio de la aplicación de un cuestionario. La investigación es de abordaje cualitativa, de carácter descriptivo-analítico, cuya muestra contó con 79 estudiantes: 36 del turno de dia e 43 del periodo nocturno. Los datos apuntan que los alumnos del curso de Pedagogia son predominantemente del sexo femenino, jóvenes, solteros, provenientes de escuelas públicas y sustentados por su família. Sus padres, en la mayoria, concluyeron máximo la enseñanza primaria. El principal medio de acceso a la información de estos estudiantes es el internet, utilizada principalmente para investigación y distracciones (conversaciones, redes sociales, juegos o videos). Otro aspecto que quedo bastante claro es que tanto el perfil del lector como del escritor se consolidan en experiencias positivas en la infancia, sea por estímulo de familiares o de la escuela. Considerar la relación entre los perfiles presentados puede ser determinante para la formación de un futuro profesor com buen nivel cultural, que sea un mediador de lectura y escritura.

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