Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme
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...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AOSIS
2020-08-01
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| Series: | South African Journal of Childhood Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/749 |
| _version_ | 1811272674143371264 |
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| author | Sene van Heerden Yusuf Sayed Zahraa McDonald |
| author_facet | Sene van Heerden Yusuf Sayed Zahraa McDonald |
| author_sort | Sene van Heerden |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:44:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-39839f066ab748adb1fb8abc5e5b39e6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2223-7674 2223-7682 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:44:34Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South African Journal of Childhood Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-39839f066ab748adb1fb8abc5e5b39e62022-12-22T03:13:34ZengAOSISSouth African Journal of Childhood Education2223-76742223-76822020-08-01101e1e910.4102/sajce.v10i1.749387Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programmeSene van Heerden0Yusuf Sayed1Zahraa McDonald2Centre for International Teacher Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa; anc, Education Department, Intermediate Phase, Cornerstone Institute, Cape TownCentre for International Teacher Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa; and, Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, BrightonAli Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; and, Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of Johannesburg, JohannesburgBackground: 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.https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/749teacher educationpedagogic content knowledgestudent teachersclassroom practices |
| spellingShingle | Sene van Heerden Yusuf Sayed Zahraa McDonald Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme South African Journal of Childhood Education teacher education pedagogic content knowledge student teachers classroom practices |
| title | Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme |
| title_full | Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme |
| title_fullStr | Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme |
| title_full_unstemmed | Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme |
| title_short | Student teachers’ views of their experiences in a Bachelor’s programme |
| title_sort | student teachers views of their experiences in a bachelor s programme |
| topic | teacher education pedagogic content knowledge student teachers classroom practices |
| url | https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/749 |
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