Student teachers’ perceptions of their school mentors’ interpersonal collegial leadership competencies to develop their work-integrated learning knowledge and skills
- Authors: Mahomed, Carmel Claire
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Educational leadership , Mentoring in education -- South Africa Student teachers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/42548 , vital:36667
- Description: Mentoring is indispensable for the adjustment of student teachers to the demands of the school work-integrated learning environment. Despite the benefits of mentoring to student teachers, a challenge is the inconsistency of the mentoring programmes within and across schools. An additional challenge is the predominance of bureaucratic models of mentoring, which have the potential of perpetuating a hierarchical approach to mentoring if student teachers use mentor teachers who depend on bureaucratic models of mentoring as role models. Therefore, to ensure that student teachers are exposed to a cross-pollination of expertise from all teachers in the schools, this study proposes a collegial approach to mentoring to determine the impact of the collegial competencies of the mentor teachers on the student teachers’ acquisition of work-integrated learning. A case study in a higher education institution was conducted to obtain data regarding the perceptions of two hundred and forty-one student teachers of their mentor teachers’ interpersonal competencies. The student teachers in this study were all in the final year of their initial teacher education qualification. The respondents comprised student teachers from the Foundation Phase, Intermediate Phase, Further Education and Training and Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire. The focus in the questionnaire was on the competencies: interpersonal collegial leadership, communication, empathy, trust, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. The findings revealed that the student teachers’ perceptions of their mentor teachers’ competencies relating to their internal collegial leadership, proficiency in communication, capacity for empathy and ability to establish trust were positive. The mentor teacher competencies of interpersonal collegial leadership, communication, empathy and trust revealed emotional intelligence competencies in their relationships with the student teachers. The findings also revealed that the student teachers' perceptions of their mentor teachers’ competencies relating to content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were positive. The mentor teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge revealed their competencies associated with their cognitive skills (IQ) in the school work-integrated environment. The findings also indicated that, in terms of their interpersonal collegial leadership, the mentor teachers were not inclined to harness the expertise of their colleagues to ensure that there was a collegial approach to mentoring among all the teachers in a school. This might be a reason for the inability of some mentor teachers to shift their paradigms from bureaucratic approaches to mentoring to collegial approaches. The adoption of collegial approaches to mentoring with a focus on competencies associated with both EI and IQ has the potential to impact markedly on the enhancement of the professional development of student teachers.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Adequacy of the postgraduate certificate in education at higher education institutions in the Eastern Cape to develop the work-intergrated learning skills of student teachers
- Authors: Mahomed, Carmel Claire
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Teachers -- Certification -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Rating of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:9521 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1008 , Teachers -- Certification -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Rating of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This study investigated whether the PGCE adequately develops the WIL skills of student teachers. WIL skills have contributed extensively to the effectiveness of the facilitation of teaching and learning in schools. The definitions of WIL in this study refer to the skills required to succeed in practice. The four domains of Danielson provide the WIL skills, namely Preparation and Planning, the School Environment, Instruction and Professional Responsibilities. The study showed that there is a link between the four domains and the capacity of student teachers to integrate the theory they acquire at the HEIs and practice in the schools. The quantitative approach is referred to by Creswell (2005:39) as a type of educational research in which the researcher decides what to study, asks specific narrow questions, collects numeric data, which is numbered data from participants, analyzes these numbers using statistics, and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner. As this study requires numeric data that ask specific questions, two questionnaires were distributed. One questionnaire was directed at school – based mentors and the other at PGCE student teachers. The mentors rated the students’ capacity in the four domains and the students rated themselves on the same items based on the four domains. The research instrument provides insight from school-based mentors with regard to whether there is a balance between the theoretical knowledge provided by HEIs and the WIL skills that student - teachers need. The questionnaires completed by PGCE student teachers provided perspectives from the students with regard to the relevance of their WIL skills for the schools at which they were placed. The hypothesis for this study is: The PGCE makes a significant contribution to the development of the WIL skills of ITE student teachers. Some of Some of the key findings in this study indicated that: • Constant curriculum changes in the schools create uncertainty for student teachers. • Student teachers need assistance to motivate learners to take pride in their work and achievements. • Managing learner behaviour is cause for concern for student teachers. • Language proficiency continues to be problematic in the teaching and learning environment, because it impacts on questioning, discussion techniques and the student teachers’ capacity to explain concepts. • Student teachers need assistance with the pacing of their lessons. • Adjusting their lessons, which requires spontaneity from student teachers is needed. • Opportunities need to be created for student teachers to gain access to the parents of their learners. • Student teachers need to devote more time to the development of reflective skills. • Excessive administrative tasks hamper delivery in the classroom and teacher and learner productivity. The findings strongly suggested that a significant relationship exists between the WIL skills of PGCE students and their effectiveness as facilitators of learning. The findings of the study indicated that the PGCE curriculum needs to incorporate the crucial WIL skills as identified in the four domains. The findings of this study supported the hypothesis that the PGCE makes a significant contribution to the development of the WIL skills of Initial Teacher Education student teachers (ITE).
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- Date Issued: 2009