The study set out to assess the quality of the DTEP offered by the LCE by examining its strengths and limitations regarding student teachers‟ home and academic background, mode of delivery, entry requirements, course materials, content and pedagogic approach. This was done through analysis of some course documents and materials, interviewing course designers, tutors as well as final year student teachers. DTEP appears to be doing well in some areas and not so well in others. To start with, the programme came as the main answer to qualifying the teachers that were employed as un/under qualified at the pressing demands of UPE and FPE in the early 2000s. DTEP goes beyond teaching primary school content and methodology, onto teaching content aimed at opening doors for further study and thus other careers for its clientele. But there‟s still dire need to convince student teachers that this is good practice and for their benefit and not an unnecessary burden, as they perceive it to be. DTEP also appears to be succeeding in not just changing the negative attitudes and/or perceptions that most of its clientele tend to have at entry point, but also in them actually changing from wrong practices as well. However, the programme is characterized with some serious administrative challenges such as lack of transport which results in late delivery of study materials and irregular school visits. Also the DTEP entry qualifications are very low and yet there‟s no form of bridging course put in place to compensate for this. It as well seems that, though they are the only means of course communication, the DTEP course materials tend to be well written, interactive and thus of a good quality. The revisions of such materials, started late 2009, was completed early 2010. DTEP tutors as well stress to their students the importance of learner centred methods of teaching even though they are not able to demonstrate their use to them most of the time.

This study is essentially a representation of my lived experience of my professional development as a teacher from the moment of my enrollment in a teacher education programme through my initial appointment as a professional teacher and my continued post graduate studies in education while being a teacher. However, I was faced with the challenge that I had no prior experience of the newly adopted Outcomes Based Education system which I will need to operate in when qualified. This drawback made me even more determined to make a success of my career. I therefore decided to engage in a qualitative participatory action research study to ensure that I will continually improve my OBE practices in a scholarly way. The study conveys the challenges I faced as a student teacher in a career path of initial teacher education aggravated by an unfamiliar education dispensation, my subsequent initiation into my career as a professional teacher, and my quest to remain a scholarly practitioner by enrolling for post graduate teacher education studies. I may have found a way in which effective continual professional development in a scholarly way may be available to every teacher besides that of formal post graduate studies. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The aim of the study is to investigate what happens when the experiences and conceptions of physical education (PE) student teachers encounter the value structures of a PE teacher education programme. The starting point for the study are the criticisms that the PE teacher education programme has inadequate links to science, that it finds it difficult to challenge traditional gender patterns, and that the students' experiences of their own sporting activities are more important than the education programme for what knowledge is considered valuable. The study has a cultural sociological and gender theoretical perspective. The analysis has been done with the help of Pierre Bourdieu's concepts as the tools of analysis. The empirical evidence has been collected with the help of several different methods. Quantitative data has been collected with the help of questionnaires which a total of 450 student teachers returned; qualitative data has been collected using: essays written by PE student teachers during their physical education specialisation and in-depth interviews with teacher educators. The results show that today's education is still characterised by many of the traditions, norms and values which historically have been its distinguishing features. The “rules of the game” are generally taken for granted and this is based on a shared conception in the value of the education. In the eyes of the students, the trademark of a good PE teacher is to be good at many different sports, have in-depth knowledge of human biology, and have the “right” personality. They are less interested in pedagogical issues and they would have preferred the whole course to have served them with ready-made solutions and answers. Even if gender and social issues have been part of the education, the gender habitus has changed very little during the programme. The way they see the subject is largely the same as it was before the course, but what appeared to them to be a ”pure” sports subject before the course started has afterwards become more a way of “attaining health through sport”. The study indicates that the dominating values within the PE teacher education seem to be in harmony with the students' habitus which make it difficult to challenge the ”order of things” and  that changes will take time.

The focus of this study is on foundation phase and early childhood teachers’ professional identity formation. This study is about six beginning teachers in their first year of teaching early mathematics, science and technology (MST) in different schools and grade levels. Early childhood settings and primary schools in South Africa have a diverse learner body that increasingly demands of beginning early childhood and foundation phase teachers to continually strive to adapt their teaching and young children’s learning to the different learning environments for effective implementation of the curriculum. A learning identity framework was used to generate and analyse data. The learning identity framework is premised on the assumption that identity and learning are closely linked and that both are influenced by factors internal and external to the individual. Specifically, the study sought to answer the research question of how beginning first year early childhood and foundation phase teachers form, sustain or change their professional teacher identity in the teaching of mathematics, science and technology (MST) in the early years and in different school settings. The study used a phenomenological approach and case study method to explain the professional teacher identity formation process and to illuminate what factors influence this process. The study researched how teacher identities can be narratively constructed on the basis of the lived experiences of the six teachers in different school contexts. Data was generated from different sources for the purpose of triangulation which included visual and written narratives, observations and interviews (open and semi-structured). The analysis and results were based on categories of descriptions of themes. The findings indicate that identity formation is an ongoing process of integration of teachers’ personal and professional histories and initial teacher education and training, alongside issues of school culture and institutional (in-school) support. Those key factors emerge as strong determinants of the kinds and the relative stability or otherwise of professional identities which the six teachers develop in the first year of MST teaching, and thus the kind of reform minded teachers they become. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

The focus of this study is on the Foundation Phase mathematical and pedagogical knowledge construction. This study is about how two lecturers and a number of final year B.Ed. Foundation Phase student teachers construct Foundation Phase mathematical and pedagogical knowledge during the initial teacher education programme. The initial B.Ed. Foundation Phase teacher education provides student teachers with different mathematical knowledge for teaching. A Foundation Phase mathematics pedagogical knowledge construction framework was utilised to generate and analyse data. The Foundation Phase mathematics pedagogical knowledge construction framework is developed with the assumption that the integrated learning knowledge and the process of pedagogical reasoning action is a continuous process. Furthermore, it is assumed that student teachers’ active participation in their learning and paddling through the pedagogical reasoning action process, leads to the construction of Foundation Phase mathematical pedagogical knowledge. The study utilised a qualitative case study design to investigate how two initial teacher education programmes construct Foundation Phase mathematical pedagogical knowledge in their programme to prepare student teachers to teach Foundation Phase mathematics. Data were collected from Foundation Phase mathematics lecturers through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews with final year Foundation Phase student teachers as well as document analysis from the institutions to achieve triangulation. Data analysis and findings were based on themes and categories that emerged. The findings suggest that Foundation Phase mathematical and pedagogical knowledge construction is an interconnected and continuous process that includes different types of knowledge and pedagogical reasoning. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted