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Article
Author(s)
Silvanos Chirume
Full-Text PDF XML 782 Views
DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2017.10.003
Affiliation(s)
Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), Harare, Zimbabwe
ABSTRACT
Teacher development through
the conventional and Zimbabwe integrated teacher education course (ZINTEC) colleges has gone through
several models since independence in 1980. Teacher shortages in many schools and
poor student results continued to be the order of the day. When the government of Zimbabwe
introduced the education capacity development programme for teachers in 2014, Zimbabwe
Open University (ZOU), as the only university mandated to offer open and distance
learning (ODL), introduced within its Faculty of Arts and Education, and the Department of Teacher
Development. Would ZOU be able to produce
equally-trained or even better teachers than other
colleges or universities? In light of this background,
this study sought to investigate the challenges faced by ZOU students and their mentors and
supervisors during teaching practice (TP). Of the
postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) intake 13 students who
had come to the Midlands Regional Campus to write their examinations, 50 were randomly sampled and asked to fill in open-ended
questionnaires. Twelve mentors stationed at some schools in Gokwe District where TP visits
were carried out and 10 TP supervisors at the Midlands Regional Campus filled
in similar questionnaires. By quantifying similar responses, emerging patterns and
themes were noted. The major conclusions were that the TP period was too short,
school based mentors needed training, lecturers spent more time on rushed assessment
than supervision and
ZOU had to provide sufficient human and material resources and logistics in order
to enhance viability and sustainability of TP mentoring and supervision. It is recommended
that the challenges faced and solutions offered by the respondents be used to initiate
further debate and insights towards coming up with a new teacher-training model
for ODL.
KEYWORDS
teacher development, mentoring, supervision, teaching practice (TP) challenges, viability and sustainability of TP, teacher-training model for open and distance learning (ODL)
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