School of Education
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Item Encounters with mentor teachers: first-year students’ experiences on teaching practice.(2020) Moosa, M.; Rembach, L.Teaching practice is a compulsory, legislated component of initial teacher education programmes in South Africa. During this experience, preservice teachers engage with their mentor teachers. By exploring first-year students’ experiences with their mentor teachers during their first teaching practice, we argue that mentorship is a vital component of teaching practice in order for first-year students to grow and develop their teaching skills and their professional development. The theoretical framework chosen underpins the mentorship processes based on Hagger and Macintyre’s work, this enabled a multi-dimensional analysis and account of mentorship. Four hundred and twelve first-year students participated in this study and the data were analysed by means of an open coding method. The results were that 376 (91%) of participants reported that they felt unsupported and powerless during teaching practice, because of negative engagements and experiences with mentor teachers. These findings have implications for the preparation of preservice teachers in other contexts too.Item From learner to teacher: Personal experiences, beliefs and attitudes about bullying victimisation(2020) Moosa, M.Research shows that first-year pre-service teachers enter initial teacher education programmes with certain beliefs in place about schooling. This paper explores first-year pre-service teachers' experiences of, beliefs and attitudes about bullying. Social Learning Theory and Theory of Planned Behaviour are used to shed light on bullying as a learned behaviour and the impact this could have on how pre-service teacher will handle incidents at school. Three hundred and five first-year pre-service teachers participated in a mixed-methods research study. Multiple-choice and open-ended questionnaires were collated and analysed. The paper argues that pre-service teachers use their personal experiences, beliefs and attitudes about bullying victimisation to make decisions on how to assist learners. The findings of this research indicate that more than half of this cohort has witnessed bullying at school at some point. They did nothing about it because of fear, inadequate reporting systems at schools and lack of action been taken by teachers. Should they witness bullying in schools as teachers they might opt to take the same approach if they are not adequately prepared. Nonetheless, they are willing to use their experiences of bullying to become proactive teachers and stop the cycle of bullying. Keywords: Pre-service teachers; bullying; violence; victimology; bystanders; Social Learning Theory; Theory of Planned Behaviour.Item Why teaching? Perspectives from First-Year South African Pre-Service teachers.(2020) Moosa, M.South African initial teacher education institutes are currently experiencing an annual increase in admissions of first-year students. In addition, the increasing attrition rate of newly qualified teachers is of concern globally. This begs the question of why students are opting for teaching as a profession. This study focuses on reasons why first-year students have opted to study teaching at a South African University. The theoretical lens used is linked to the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Five hundred and eighty first year students participated in a mixed methods research study. Data was analysed by using theories of career motivation categories namely altruistic, extrinsic and intrinsic reasons. The findings indicate that more than half (60%) of the participants were motivated to do teaching for altruistic reasons, followed by almost a quarter (23%) choosing teaching for extrinsic reasons and lastly 17% opting to become teachers for intrinsic reason. This paper argues that it would be prudent for initial teacher education institutes to understand students’ rationale for selected teaching to support them to complete their qualification and remain in the profession.Item Supporting student teachers through their first attempts at teaching: Possibilities and limitations afforded by school-based and campus based models of support.(2014) Rusznyak, L.; Moosa, M.Student teachers' first attempt at teaching a lesson is a crucial step in their professional development. This paper compares the potential pedagogical learning opportunities and limitations afforded by school-based and campus-based support programmes that are designed to support student teachers in their early attempts at teaching. We use a qualitative analysis of interviews with university lecturers and a quantitative analysis of written feedback provided to student teachers within each of these models. The analysis of our data shows that during the school-based model, students receive retrospective feedback on many diverse issues relating to their lesson, particularly their management of learners. In contrast, the campus-based model offers student teachers an explicit opportunity to work collaboratively on the management of the content knowledge for their first lesson. The campus-based model, despite its numerous limitations, offers possibilities for developing students' understanding of teaching as a complex cognitive practice from their early attempts at teaching.Item Supporting the academic success of first-year students in South Africa: A study of the epistemological access they acquired through a lecture and text(2017) Rusznyak, L.; Dison, L.; Moosa, M.; Poo, M.Much is at stake with regard to academic success of first-year students in higher education. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study which looks at shifts in students’ understanding of a concept through a systematic sequence of learning opportunities in a university-based course. While 89% of participants could satisfactorily identify criteria of the concept following an introductory lecture, only 41% could adequately articulate their understanding of that concept. One third of the participants did not read the prescribed text. For students who did the reading, lectures and the provision of reading materials provided sufficient opportunities for half of them satisfactorily to comprehend the requisite concepts. Consolidation in a follow-up session is necessary to provide additional opportunities for students adequately to comprehend a concept.