The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has not only caused fear and uncertainty in the education systems across the globe, but it brought about a fundamental paradigm shift in the mode of teaching and learning. Higher education drastically transitioned to remote/ online delivery even for the students who had enrolled for face-to-face mode of teaching and learning. The paper is premised in the context of a developing country that such a drastic change could have widened the digital divide between students from privileged homes and those from disadvantaged families as students did not receive adequate technological training and to even acquire the necessary electronic devices. Consequently, the study sought to establish the levels of adaptation to remote teaching and learning by university students herein referred to as pre-service teachers. Following a quantitative research design, an online questionnaire survey was administered to 157 pre-service teachers enrolled in a Life Sciences Methodology module at a South African university. Data was analysed using SPSS version 26 and descriptive statistics, exploratory analysis of the questionnaire constructs and One-Way ANOVA tests were conducted to compare pre-service teachers` perceptions, experiences and preparedness. The results showed that the disparities and inequalities that exist in different South African contexts in which pre-service teachers hail from, dictated their levels of adaptations to remote teaching and learning. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds were less adapted as they struggled more when it comes to acquisition of electronic gadgets and connectivity to facilitate remote learning compared to those from advantaged backgrounds. This study affirms the call for education institutions and governments to rethink ways of closing the gap between the poor and the rich in education in terms of resource and other support mechanisms.
Pre-service teachers’ preparedness and confidence levels to teach is a topical subject in higher education. Previous studies have commented on the role of teacher in-service training in preparing teachers for provision of meaningful classroom experiences to their learners, but many researchers regard pre-service teacher development as the cornerstone. Whilst teacher competence can be measured in terms of different variables e.g. pedagogy, knowledge of the curriculum, technological knowledge etc., the present study focused on teacher competency in terms of Life Sciences subject matter knowledge (SMK). The study was framed by pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The study sought to answer the research question: How do preservice teachers perceive their levels of preparedness and confidence in teaching high school Life Sciences topics at the end of their four years of professional development? In a qualitative study, a total of 77 pre-service teachers enrolled for the Methodology and Practicum Life Sciences course at a university in South Africa participated in the study. Each participant was tasked to identify topic(s)/concept(s) in Life Sciences they felt challenged to teach, provide a critical analysis of the reasons for that and map the way forward to overcome the challenges. This task was meant to provide the pre-service teachers with an opportunity to reflect and at the same time evaluate the goals of the learning programme they had gone through. Pre-service teachers’ perspectives show their attitudes, values and beliefs based on their personal experiences which therefore help them to interpret their teaching practices. The qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The findings showed that whilst pre-service teachers were competent to teach other topics, the majority felt that they were not fully prepared and hence lacked confidence to teach the history of life on earth and plant and animal tissues in grade 10; excretion in animals particularly the functions of the nephron in grade 11; and evolution and genetics in grade 12. Different reasons were proffered for the lack of preparedness to teach these topics. The participants regarded some of these topics as difficult and complex e.g. genetics. Evolution was considered to be antagonistic to the participants’ and learners’ cultural and religious belief systems. Hence the participants had negative attitudes towards them. Some of the pre-service teachers indicated that they lacked interest in some of the topics particularly the history of life on earth which they considered to be more aligned to Geography, a subject they did not like. As remedies for their shortcomings in the content, the pre-service teachers planned to co-teach these topics with colleagues, and others planned to enrol for content enrichment programmes. These findings have implications for teacher professional development programmes.
"Teachers Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) has been found to be important for meaningful teaching and learning of any subject. Over the years research has focused more on English second language learners’ CALP needs and less on the teachers. Because teachers are the cornerstones who drive the process of teaching and learning in the classrooms, their proficiency in the language of teaching and learning are vital. In the South African context, English is regarded as the official language of teaching and learning from grade 4 onwards despite that both teachers and learners come from diverse linguistic backgrounds where English is a second or third language. Underpinned by the socio-cultural theory as the theoretical framework, the paper reports on a study that determined both in-service and pre-service teachers’ perceived CALP needs when teaching Natural Sciences in multicultural township schools. In a qualitative research approach 12 teachers were randomly selected who comprised of six in-service teachers and six final year pre-service teachers enrolled for a Natural Sciences course at a University in South Africa. Each teacher was interviewed once using a semi-structured interview schedule which allowed them to freely express their perceived CALP needs. The data was analysed using a constant comparative method. Findings from the analysis of data showed that teachers experienced many challenges when teaching Natural Sciences using English, a language different from their home languages and those of their learners. They indicated that because science is a unique language on its own they struggle to spell, pronounce, understand and most importantly to explain to the learners using English. The teachers indicated their little to non-exposure to English other than in the classrooms compared to their home languages. Whilst some of the teachers perceived English as an important language due to its universality, they however indicated that code switching to own home language and those of the learners was inevitable when it comes to meaningfully explain some scientific concepts and processes in a way that learners would comprehend. However, others acknowledged the challenges of using code switching in the linguistic diverse classroom environments. Most teachers suggested training workshops intended to develop them with skills to identify appropriate terms and expressions, and explain complex scientific concepts in English. These findings have implications on both pre-service and in-service teacher professional development programmes."
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