Features of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of School Mathematics Teachers in Zimbabwe (original) (raw)
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Based on theoretical overviews covering feedback and partners in teaching practice, this paper reports on a cohort of South African third year B.Ed. student teachers' impressions of feedback during a specific period of teaching practice by means of a quantitative study. By focusing on feedback on lesson presentations, 82 randomly sampled student teachers shared their impressions of feedback provided by supervisor teachers and university lecturers. Although the findings suggest that student teachers experience feedback of university lecturers as of higher quality than feedback provided by supervisor teachers, much must still be done to improve feedback practices during teaching practice periods.
Professional Development as a Process of Change: Some Reflections on Mathematics Teacher Development
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Based on theoretical overviews covering feedback and partners in teaching practice, this paper reports on a cohort of South African third year B.Ed. student teachers' impressions of feedback during a specific period of teaching practice by means of a quantitative study. By focusing on feedback on lesson presentations, 82 randomly sampled student teachers shared their impressions of feedback provided by supervisor teachers and university lecturers. Although the findings suggest that student teachers experience feedback of university lecturers as of higher quality than feedback provided by supervisor teachers, much must still be done to improve feedback practices during teaching practice periods.
Advances in the Provision of Mathematics Teacher Professional Development in Botswana
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Based on theoretical overviews covering feedback and partners in teaching practice, this paper reports on a cohort of South African third year B.Ed. student teachers' impressions of feedback during a specific period of teaching practice by means of a quantitative study. By focusing on feedback on lesson presentations, 82 randomly sampled student teachers shared their impressions of feedback provided by supervisor teachers and university lecturers. Although the findings suggest that student teachers experience feedback of university lecturers as of higher quality than feedback provided by supervisor teachers, much must still be done to improve feedback practices during teaching practice periods.
New Reforms to Improve Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers in Morocco
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, 2015
Based on theoretical overviews covering feedback and partners in teaching practice, this paper reports on a cohort of South African third year B.Ed. student teachers' impressions of feedback during a specific period of teaching practice by means of a quantitative study. By focusing on feedback on lesson presentations, 82 randomly sampled student teachers shared their impressions of feedback provided by supervisor teachers and university lecturers. Although the findings suggest that student teachers experience feedback of university lecturers as of higher quality than feedback provided by supervisor teachers, much must still be done to improve feedback practices during teaching practice periods.
Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science
The purpose of the study is to re-emphasis the importance of feedback and show how it could be used to improve instruction and learner performance in mathematics. The study adopted action research design that resulted in the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data through observation checklists, self administered questionnaires and in-depth interviews. A sample of grade 6 newly qualified mathematics educators from Johannesburg west schools was randomly selected for the study. The data was analyzed through the thematic approach. The study established that the educators observed did not provide immediate feedback. Planning or preparation was not informed by the feedback from previous lessons. Errors that were indicators of misconceptions were not identified and corrected in their marking. Furthermore, teachers did not move around to probe and discuss with individual learners how they got their answers. Feedback was largely by educators, yet Farai et al.; JESBS, 24(1): 1-13, 2018; Article no.JESBS.36269 2 its purpose was to inform instruction. The educators employed the talking method that was not child centered. The use of the traditional chalk and talk method did not take into cognizance other approaches that could capture learners' interests. The study established that there was a need for effective mentoring and in-class training for newly qualified mathematics educators who had acquired their teaching qualifications through open distance learning. There was a methodological gap that could have resulted from lack of mentoring during teaching practice. Furthermore schools did not fully support newly qualified educators due to the fact that some of the heads of departments for sciences had not specialized in mathematics. The study also found that the newly qualified educators delayed feedback due to too much work load as some of them were teaching too many subject areas. The study recommended intensive mentoring and coaching of both new and experienced educators during teaching practice so that they could share the right practices at the school level.The study further recommends that teachers should value the learners' work and effort by giving prompt, corrective and immediate feedback. Officials who design annual teaching plans should leave enough time for feedback and revision. Congestion in the primary school curriculum contradicts the value of feedback and self regulation. The annual teaching plan should provide enough time for teachers to elaborate on concepts that are not well understood by learners towards the end of each term.
The Role of Feedback in Teacher Professional Development
EIKI Journal of Effective Teaching Methods, 2023
This paper examines how professional development (PD) facilitators obtain feedback about the effectiveness of sessions they facilitate, and to what extent feedback is an integral part of their planning. Three professional development facilitators with varying degrees of experience served as participants in this study. One-on-one semi-structured interviews was used to collect data, and the data were analyzed utilizing an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA). The findings showed that the participants obtained feedback from teachers using different methods before, during, and after their professional development sessions. The facilitators used feed-back to plan and check the effectiveness of their sessions, and feedback was an integral part of their professional development work.
International Journal of Secondary Education
In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, lifelong professional learning is now a major expectation for mathematics teachers. The study investigated the nature of opportunities for professional learning accessible to mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe, focusing on three themes of range and style of learning provisions, support systems, and monitoring and valuing of the learning. Data were gathered from a sample of 94 mathematics teachers, 4 mathematics inspectors, 10 ministry district officers, 4 ministry provincial officers, 16 school principals, 6 independent professional development providers, and 6 ministry national head office personnel who were all purposively approached on considerations of availability, accessibility, willingness, and being potentially key informants in relation to teacher professional development matters. Structured interviews and a questionnaire were used to elicit informants' experiences of and perspectives on the themes. The main findings were that (a) further teacher professional learning activities came mainly in form of formally orchestrated workshops in the field and programmes in tertiary institutions; and much less in forms such as meetings, discussion groups, exchange visits, and seminars, (b) supportive policy guidelines for such learning existed though not buttressed by adequate material provisions for meaningful functioning, and (c) while the system had no dedicated formal quality monitoring and evaluation schemes specific for continuing professional learning, there were indications of high teacher motivation for exploiting learning opportunities. The findings reveal underutilization of informal uncertified learning platforms such as peer co-learning or e-chat groups, and possible conflicts of expectations and aspirations between continuing professional learning providers and teacher clients in the Zimbabwean system.
Factors Influencing Quality of Feedback in Teaching in Botswana Senior Secondary Schools
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Feedback is a very effective technique in assessment for learning and its absence during teaching rids classroom assessment of its effectiveness in enhancing learning. This study explored the quality of teacher feedback in Gaborone senior secondary schools through determining the extent to which the school culture, the level of students’ achievement, the gender of the teachers, as well as the level of difficulty of the questions that the teachers ask influence the quality of feedback in mathematics classrooms. A questionnaire (α = .78) was used to collect survey data from 306 students in three private and four public senior secondary schools in the city of Gaborone. Data were analyzed using ttest, and ANOVA inferential statistical techniques. The main findings showed that the quality of feedback in mathematics lessons was significantly poor; and the gender of teachers had no significant influence on the quality of feedback. However, the type of school, the level of difficulty of que...
Greener Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2014
The study sought to find out factors affecting teaching practice assessment by lecturers at Morgan Teachers' College. The study also sought to find out the impact of assessment on the professional development of student teachers. The case study design was employed and the questionnaire was used to collect data. A sample of forty-three (43) lecturers out of a population of 90 lecturers participated in this research. The lecturers who participated in this study were preferred because they were involved in the assessment of teaching during teaching practice but did not have experience of teaching in primary school. The SPSS programme was used to analyse the data and produce the frequencies. The study found out that assessments of teaching practice by lecturers were not reliable. Lecturers preferred to assess trainee teachers teach in a subject area in which they had solid content knowledge. The conclusion is that student teachers do not get adequate professional preparation and grounding teaching practice when assessed by lecturers who were non-specialists. The study recommends that college lecturers should be oriented in assessing teaching practice upon appointment. Lecturers should assess students teaching a subject area in which they are knowledgeable in to avoid subjective assessment of teaching practice.
Continuous professional development: Perceptions of secondary school teachers in Zambia
Electronic Journal of Education, Social Economics and Technology, 2022
Teacher professional development (TPD) is not only an ongoing process that contributes towards individual growth of teachers but also an integral element in school improvement. This paper reports the Zambian secondary school teachers’ perceptions of their continuous professional development in teacher engagement in CPD activities, perceived importance of different CPD programs/activities, needs to be focused on future training, and barriers using quantitative data. A selfcreated questionnaire was distributed to 700 conveniently selected secondary school teachers from four schools. The data was examined using descriptive statistics such as frequency of responses, mean scores, and standard deviation, as well as the t-test of independent samples for comparing the perspectives of respondents from different categories. From the findings, teachers were moderately engaged in TPD programs/activities and perceived developing teaching and learning materials as highly important. The impact of their perceptions was evident as there was no significant difference between female and male perceptions about their engagement in teacher CPD programs. Thus, the importance of recognizing and addressing teachers' perceptions of CPD is argued in this study because teachers play an important role in how they learn and how their perceptions impact the changes they make in their teaching practice.