Mentoring and prospects for teacher development - a South African perspective
- Probyn, Margie J, Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J , Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6090 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009744
- Description: School-based mentoring has developed in response to a number of factors pertaining to the pre-service education of student teachers and the in-service professional development of experienced teachers. Traditionally teacher education has consisted of university-based theory with school-based practice, based on an understanding of professional learning as ‘theory into practice’. One of the problems with this model is that theory may come to seem too remote from practice, and that practice appears untheorised by remaining implicit and unproblematised. The one-year teachers’ diploma course offered by the Rhodes University Education Department incorporates a ten-week teaching practice slot. This protracted period has been useful in allowing frequent and consistent contact between university tutors and student teachers, and between mentor teachers and student teachers. Where the system has not been strong is in enabling meaningful collaboration among all three parties. A pilot school-based mentoring programme was thus implemented in 1999, involving English First and Second Language student teachers, the two university tutors and seven mentor teachers. Ongoing evaluative research revealed that the programme was welcomed by all, and that the student teachers in particular gained much in the way of learning to be critically reflexive in a non-threatening environment. However, the research also uncovered areas that need to be developed. Student teachers, for example, need guidance in terms of learning how to talk about teaching; mentor teachers need to develop the confidence and expertise required to open up their practice in a critically constructive context. On the strength of the programme’s success, the Education Department has extended school-based mentoring to all HDE students, and is exploring ways of setting up courses through which other educators (such as EDOs) may receive training in pre- and in-service teacher mentoring.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J , Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6090 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009744
- Description: School-based mentoring has developed in response to a number of factors pertaining to the pre-service education of student teachers and the in-service professional development of experienced teachers. Traditionally teacher education has consisted of university-based theory with school-based practice, based on an understanding of professional learning as ‘theory into practice’. One of the problems with this model is that theory may come to seem too remote from practice, and that practice appears untheorised by remaining implicit and unproblematised. The one-year teachers’ diploma course offered by the Rhodes University Education Department incorporates a ten-week teaching practice slot. This protracted period has been useful in allowing frequent and consistent contact between university tutors and student teachers, and between mentor teachers and student teachers. Where the system has not been strong is in enabling meaningful collaboration among all three parties. A pilot school-based mentoring programme was thus implemented in 1999, involving English First and Second Language student teachers, the two university tutors and seven mentor teachers. Ongoing evaluative research revealed that the programme was welcomed by all, and that the student teachers in particular gained much in the way of learning to be critically reflexive in a non-threatening environment. However, the research also uncovered areas that need to be developed. Student teachers, for example, need guidance in terms of learning how to talk about teaching; mentor teachers need to develop the confidence and expertise required to open up their practice in a critically constructive context. On the strength of the programme’s success, the Education Department has extended school-based mentoring to all HDE students, and is exploring ways of setting up courses through which other educators (such as EDOs) may receive training in pre- and in-service teacher mentoring.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
Teachers Voices: Teachers Reflections on Learning and Teaching through the Medium of English as an Additional Language in South Africa
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/483772 , vital:78798 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050108667731
- Description: This research study explores the perceptions and practice of teachers teaching through the medium of English as an additional language, in township schools in South Africa. Lessons of five 'excellent' teachers, teaching mathematics, accounting, science, business economics and history through the medium of English as an additional language (EAL) were videotaped. The teachers were interviewed about their perceptions of teaching through the medium of EAL and the video recordings provided the basis for stimulated recall as they reflected on their classroom practice. The research points tentatively to a number of broad themes. First, the stress that teachers and students experience in teaching and learning through the medium of a language in which they are not able to communicate freely, with negative consequences for learning. Second, that teachers demonstrated and were able to articulate a wide range of teaching strategies to mediate students' cognitive and affective needs; most notably, a skilful code-switching between English and Xhosa, the mother tongue they have in common. Third, the process of reflection on practice appeared to be a fruitful one, both in terms of eliciting a rich and detailed account of teachers' perceptions and practice, and as a developmental process for the teachers concerned..
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/483772 , vital:78798 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050108667731
- Description: This research study explores the perceptions and practice of teachers teaching through the medium of English as an additional language, in township schools in South Africa. Lessons of five 'excellent' teachers, teaching mathematics, accounting, science, business economics and history through the medium of English as an additional language (EAL) were videotaped. The teachers were interviewed about their perceptions of teaching through the medium of EAL and the video recordings provided the basis for stimulated recall as they reflected on their classroom practice. The research points tentatively to a number of broad themes. First, the stress that teachers and students experience in teaching and learning through the medium of a language in which they are not able to communicate freely, with negative consequences for learning. Second, that teachers demonstrated and were able to articulate a wide range of teaching strategies to mediate students' cognitive and affective needs; most notably, a skilful code-switching between English and Xhosa, the mother tongue they have in common. Third, the process of reflection on practice appeared to be a fruitful one, both in terms of eliciting a rich and detailed account of teachers' perceptions and practice, and as a developmental process for the teachers concerned..
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
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