2.1 Population

In February 1999 a questionnaire was administered to the whole first year cohort of the Diploma in Education Primary (DEP) students. The original intention was to select a small but representative group from the cohort and monitor their experience through the first half of the programme. With this in mind, thirty-two (32) student teachers were initially selected using a stratified sampling technique. However, only twenty-seven agreed to participate in the study. In selecting the sample a number of factors were considered: their COSC grades (to ensure a wide range of performance standards), gender (one -third males and two-thirds females) and the location from which student teachers came (Highlands, lowlands, urban and rural).

These students were asked to write an essay about their perception of good and bad teachers. This data was analysed and the findings reported elsewhere (see Lefoka et al, forthcoming).