Teacher Education for Transformation: The Case of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa (CIE, 2002, 73 p.): Chapter 6: Student teachers’ expectations and experiences of the HDE programme: 6.9 Summary

Teacher Education for Transformation: The Case of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa (CIE, 2002, 73 p.)

(introduction...)

Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER)

List of Acronyms

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Rationale

1.2 The aim of the study

1.3 Sources of data

Chapter 2: The Institutional location of the HDE Programme

(introduction...)

2.1 The University of the Western Cape

2.2 The Faculty of Education

Chapter 3: The curriculum of the HDE programme

(introduction...)

3.1 Conceptualisation and organisation

3.2 Education Theory

3.3 Teaching styles and methods

3.4 Teaching resources and course materials

3.5 Language of instruction

3.6 Teaching Practice

3.7 Assessment

3.8 Quality Assurance

3.9 Conclusion

Chapter 4: Experiences and views of lecturers

(introduction...)

4.1 Biographical information of lecturers who were interviewed

4.2 Perceptions of the job

4.3 Teaching

4.4 Experiences of teaching on the HDE course

4.5 Assessment

4.6 Curriculum development

4.7 Teaching Practice

4.8 Ideas on teaching

4.9 Teacher education policy

Chapter 5: The student teachers on the HDE programme

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Biographical information of student teachers interviewed

5.3 Biographical information of student teachers who completed the entry questionnaire

5.4 Financing of studies at UWC

5.5 Academic history of students

5.6 Previous teaching experience

5.7 Method subjects

5.8 Motivation for studying to become a teacher

5.9 Reasons for studying HDE at UWC

5.10 Summary

Chapter 6: Student teachers’ expectations and experiences of the HDE programme

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Organisation of HDE course

6.3 Teaching Practice

6.4 Expectations regarding the course

6.5 Exam preparation

6.6 Views of students about the HDE course

6.7 Levels of confidence at the end of the course

6.8 Future plans and preferences

6.9 Summary

Chapter 7: Conclusion and discussion

(introduction...)

7.1 Students’ life histories

7.2 Language and learning

7.3 Curriculum design

7.4 Teaching Practice

7.5 Recruitment of students

7.6 Follow up research

References

6.9 Summary

The student teachers rated most components of the course highly and felt that it was helpful in preparing them to be good teachers. Some problems appeared to have been experienced relating to understanding the theory lectures, which are most probably related to language issues. Students also mentioned problems with resources that they needed for teaching, particularly in some of the schools that they did their practice teaching in.

Suggestions for improvement included that more time should be spent on all the major components of the course. This seems to suggest that most students needed to have more training before going out to teach. However, the levels of confidence at the end of the course were quite high, particularly relating to the preparation of lessons, subject content and the methodology. Students were less confident with regard to the theory, which underlines the fact that some of them appear to have difficulty understanding the theory classes.

Generally, lecturers were viewed as showing expertise in their subject areas and being fair in their assessment of the students’ work. Theory lecturers were, however, sometimes perceived as being distant and not very caring. This could be due to the fact that there are a large number of different lecturers teaching on the theory course and that students do not have much direct and personal contact with them due to the large classes.

Many of the students appear to be using the HDE course as a stepping stone to further studies, and do not plan to teach immediately after the course. This could be related to the realities of retrenchment and the difficulties in finding a teaching job rather than the fact that they did not want to be teachers. Worrying, however, is the fact that some students appear to be doing the course because they could not get into other courses or because this was the only way they could study. Encouraging, however, is that the majority of the students show a strong sense of social responsibility and educational commitment and like teaching.