EVALUATION OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ READINESS TO TEACH: A

CASE STUDY OF A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

By

Rachel Gugu Ntombimpela Mkhasibe

UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

In the Department of

Curriculum and Instructional Studies

Supervisor: Prof M. C. Maphalala

May 2018
 DECLARATION

STUDENT NUMBER: 19830562

I, Rachel Gugu Ntombimpela Mkhasibe, declare that the thesis entitled: Evaluation of
pre- service teachers’ readiness: A case study of a South African University, is my
own work and that all sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and
acknowledged by means of complete references.

Signature Mrs. R. G. N. Mkhasibe Date: 28 February 2018

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to my amiable supervisor, Professor M.C.

Maphalala for his invaluable patience, constructive criticism, academic guidance,
enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifices made which greatly inspired and motivated me to
complete this study. My gratitude also goes to the following people: my professional
statistician Peter Ocholla, my professional editor Dr Berrington Ntombela, my
professional technical editor Admire Chibisa as well as my dedicated researcher
assistant, Mfundo Manyoni. Without you I would not have finished this journey. My
earnest gratitude also goes to the University of Zululand for funding this research. I
am indebted to the Department of Basic Education, in Pietermaritzburg for granting me
approval to carry out my fieldwork in the selected schools.

I am also indebted to my siblings, Zandile and Zine; my nephews Lindani, Nkululeko,

Zamani, Mlu, Yizanovuyo, Mfana and Bhu; my nieces, Londiwe and Nontobeko as well
as my brother-in law, Grant Hastibeer for being my pillars in times of hardships. I also
wish to thank my in-laws for giving me space to pursue my dream, Sgubudu!

I warmly acknowledge the friendship, support, motivation and advice of the following
people, Nkhensani Maluleke, Chinaza Uleanya, Sunday Olaniran, Professor Sitwala
Imenda, Nontobeko Khumalo, Ntombi Khumalo, Dr Pravina Pillay, Dr Hlengiwe
Mhlongo, Dr Samantha Govender, Sthembiso Mbatha, Popy Ndwandwe, Sandra
Jacobs and Sphamandla Ncube. I am also indebted to my colleagues, Mike Mngomezulu,
Dudu Luvuno, Mayoyo Ndaba, Dr Misiwe Mzimela and Herman Viljoen, who in
different ways assisted me to pursue my studies.

Above all, I thank my Lord God who is always guiding and giving me strength in
whatever I do. My Lord, I thank You for Your everlasting mercy.

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 DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my husband Mthenjwa Mkhasibe, my parents, Absalom (Dick)

and Thembeni Matilda (MaMthalane) Khumalo, who taught me the value of integrity,
honesty, uprightness and hard work; my siblings, Nduna, Four and Nomkhosi for their
undying support. You will always be in my heart. May your souls rest in peace.

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 ABSTRACT

In an effort to understand why there is a general outcry about the poor quality of teachers
who are produced by many institutions of higher learning, despite the practice teaching
which is highly emphasised and offered to all pre-service teachers who intend to become
teachers; this study sought to evaluate the pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. The
expectation in education is that pre-service teachers should complete their studies having
been adequately prepared to teach. On the contrary, most of them exit the programme
underequipped to teach. Within the qualitative methodology, a case study of a South
African University was used. Sixteen third year B.Ed. pre-service teachers who were
placed in uMkhanyakude and King Cetshwayo districts were purposively selected and
observed during their practice teaching period. They were also interviewed and
documents which consisted of their files as well as university supervisors’ reports
were analysed after practice teaching. Furthermore, sixteen subject mentors were
interviewed because they spend adequate time with the pre-service teachers in schools
during practice teaching session. The findings revealed, among others, that although
the pre-service teachers displayed appropriate professionalism in schools, most of them
lacked content knowledge as well as pedagogical skills. However, subject mentors
portrayed them as being outstanding in content and pedagogy. Another finding was that
the pre-service teachers did not have adequate competence on lesson presentation and
development. They also lacked confidence in maintaining order in their classrooms.
Because of the above mentioned findings, this study therefore suggests, among other
things, the need for the institution of higher learning to revisit the curriculum of pre-
service teachers and involve the partner schools during the redesigning of pre-service
teachers’ curriculum to strengthen the confidence of both pre-service teachers and
subject mentors. It also posits that pre-service teachers should be provided with
sufficient teaching practice session in order to be well equipped with all activities
that are rendered in schools from the beginning to the end of the school period.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
Declaration………………………………………………………………. i
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………… ii
Dedication………………………………………………………………... iii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………... iv
Table of contents………………………………………………………… v
List of tables……………………………………………………………... viii
List of figures……………………………………………………………. viii
Appendices………………………............................................................. ix
Acronyms………………………………………………………………...
Acronyms………………………………………………………………….

CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION

1.1 Background of the study………………………………………… 1
1.2 Problem statement………………………………………………... 8
1.3 Research objectives………………………………………………. 9
1.4 Intended contribution to the body of knowledge………………… 10
1.5 Scope and delimitation of the study……………………………… 10
1.6 Operational definition of terms…………………………………... 11
1.7 Summary of research methodology……………………………… 11
1.8 Structure of the study…………………………………………….. 11
1.9 Summary…………………………………………………………. 12

CHAPATER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………. 13
2.2 Literature review…………………………………………………. 13
2.2.1 Theoretical framework…………………………………………… 13
2.3 Empirical studies on pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach…… 18
2.4 The importance of practice teaching and skills development for
pre-service teachers………………………………………………. 23
2.5 New components added to teacher education……………………. 27
2.6 What is readiness in pre-service teacher training ……………….. 28
2.7 The elements associated with readiness and commitment of pre-service
teachers…………………………………………………………….. 29

2.8 Evaluation of readiness to teach of pre-service teachers………… 30

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2.9 Pedagogical skills and content knowledge in pre-service teachers… 33

2.10 Pre-service teachers’ readiness for the teaching profession……….. 40

2.11 Pre-service teachers and classroom management ……………….. . 52

2.12 Factors promoting pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach………. 56

2.12.1 Environmental factors...................................................................... 65

2.12.2 Psychological factors...................................................................... 66
2.12.3 Economic factors............................................................................ 67
2.12.4 Social factors................................................................................... 68

2.13 Responsibilities of subject mentors and their perceptions of pre-service

teachers …………………………………………………………. . .63

2.14 Pre-service teachers ’perception of practice teaching ……………. .64

2.15 The importance of redesigning teacher education……………….. 66

2.16 Pre-service teachers’ perception of practice teaching..................... 67
Summary………………………………………………………….

CHAPTER THREE :RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………… 67
3.2 Research paradigm……………………………………………….. 67
3.3 Research design………………………………………………….. 68
3.4 Population………………………………………………………... 71
3.5 Sample and Sampling procedure………………………………… 71
sample………………………………….
3.6 Instruments and Data collection procedure……………………. 74
3.6.1 Observation………………………………………………………. 75
3.6.2 Semi Structured Interviews………………………………………. 77
3.6.3 Focus group interviews…………………………………………... 79
3.6.4 Document analysis……………………………………………….. 81
3.7 Data analysis……………………………………………………... 83
3.7.1 Observation schedule…………………………………………….. 84
3.7.2 Interview schedule……………………………………………….. 85
3.7.3 Focus group interview schedule………………………………….. 85
3.7.4 Document analysis……………………………………………….. 85
3.9 Ethical and safety considerations………………………………… 86
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3.10 Trustworthiness, cross checking and dependability……………. 87
3.11 Summary……………………………………………………….. 88

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………. 89
4.2 Coding of the participants………………………………………… 93
4.3 Themes…………………………………………………………… 90
4.4 Summary…………………………………………………………. 103

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE

RESULTS
5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………. 104
5.2 Characteristics of the participants: pre-service teachers and
subject mentors…………………………………………………... 105
5.3 Discussion data from the in-depth observation, interviews and document
analysis........................................................... 105
5.3.1 Themes ............................................................................................... 105
5.4 Summary……………………………………………………….. 122

CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS BY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

AND CORRESPONDING QUESTION
6.1 Introduction………………………………………………………. 123
6.2 Summary of findings by research objective and corresponding question
............................................................................................................ 124
6.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 126
6.4 Limitations of the study...................................................................... 127
6.5 The following conceptual model is perceived in this study as
suitable for improving pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach...... 127
6.6 Recommendations............................................................................. 129
6.7 Recommendations for further research............................................ 131
References................................................................................ 132

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 LIST OF TABLES

3.1 Research paradigms ............................................................................ 68

3.2 Characteristics of qualitative research ................................................ 70

LIST OF FIGURES

2.6 Mezirow’s 10 shapes of transformative learning theory................. 15

6.1 Proposed model for improving pre-service teachers’ readiness to
teach................................................................................................ 127

APPENDICES

A. Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach: A case

study of University of South Africa............................ 153
B. Inform consent: Pre-service teachers................................. 158
C. Inform consent for subject mentors..................................... 158
D. Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach: A case
study of University of South Africa (Observation
schedule)............................................................................. 161
E. Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach: A case
study of University of South Africa (Individual
interview)............................................................................ 164
F. Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach: a case
study of University of South Africa (Focus group
interview)............................................................................ 166
G. Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach: a case
study of University of South Africa (Document analysis). 168
H. Permission to conduct research in KZN DoE ………….. 170
I. Ethical clearance................................................................. 172

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 ACRONYMS

B. Ed Bachelor of Education
CAPA Creative and Performance Arts
CAPS Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
ECD Early Childhood Development
ETDP-SETA Education, Training and Development Practices-Sector of
Education and Training
FET Further Education and Training
HESA Higher Education South Africa
Int. and Sen. Intermediate and Senior
LTSM Learning, Teaching and Support Material
NCLB No Child Left Behind
NGO Non-Government Organisation
NEA National Education Association
PCK Pedagogical Content Knowledge
PGCE Post-Graduate Certificate in Education
SACE South African Council for Education
SAQA South African Qualifications Authority
TV Television
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNISA University of South Africa

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 CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The readiness and quality of teachers in education system is the most desired aspect world-
wide. Hence, Smith (2003) avers that pre-service teachers’ readiness to teaching profession is
an essential factor. It is clear that the role of practice teaching to the pre- service teachers’
training cannot be compromised because it is where they interact with the seasoned and
experienced teachers, learners and the school environment as a whole. However, Naylor,
Campbell-Evens and Maloney (2015) declare on a survey which was conducted both
nationally and internationally that initial teacher education preparation does not prepare
adequately graduates for real teaching.

The findings of the study by Kildan, Ibret, Pektas, Aydinozu, Incikabi and Recepoglu (2013)
are in consonance with that of Naylor, Campbell-Evans & Maloney, (2015) when they reveal
that teacher trainees are feeling themselves least competent in curriculum and pedagogical
content knowledge (PCK). According to them, PCK includes knowing what teaching
approaches best suit the content and how elements of the content can be arranged for better
teaching.

Education is the main pillar of every society. If a society does not realise the importance of
education, that society may not experience progress. Hence Naylor, et al. (2015) stress that
for every society to experience development; the educational sector must be intact. In this
regard, Kildan, et al. (2013) point out that education designs societies. This is also confirmed
by Roth and Swail (2000:1) when they opine that in the United States, in order to design a
progressive society, the Congress has enacted new legislation to serve as watchdog teacher
preparation across the nation.

The above assertions are also supported by Du Plessis (1985:3) when he states that “The
quality of a nation depends upon the quality of its citizens. The quality of its citizens depends
not exclusively, but in critical measure upon the quality of their education. The quality of
their education depends more than upon any factor, upon the quality of their teachers. The
1
quality of the teachers depends largely upon the quality of their own education”. This means
that each and every nation has to invest immensely on its education in order to produce
teachers of a high quality.

Evidently, learning to teach is a complex exercise because teachers are the responsible agents
in education in schools, performing multifaceted tasks (Buang & Bahari, 2011). Therefore,
pre-service teachers have to be involved in different roles and responsibilities during their
teaching practice in order to learn how to perform different tasks of a teacher. Their
different roles and responsibilities include the following: being ready to deal with the
diversity of learners, curriculum policy, the school and classrooms’ environment (Naylor,
et al., 2015; Hudson & Hudson, 2007). Thus, Tomlinson (1995:15) regards teaching as a
“complex but ‘open’ skill, in which teachers are required to apply their skills to new
situations. It is because of these above assertions that different researchers give different
descriptions of the situation which the pre-service teachers come across during their practice
teaching and even during their first years of teaching.

Clark and Byrnes (2012) and Hochberg, Desimone, Porter, Polikoff, Schwartz and Johnson,
(2015) describe this situation as the “trial and fire” and also refer to it as “sink or swim”.
Furthermore, Clark and Byrnes (2012) describe it as an emotional roller coaster filled with
nerves, exhilaration and uncertainty. The situation which the pre- service teachers find
themselves makes some of them fail to survive the adaptation period. That is the reason
why Nenty, Moyo and Phuthi (2015) opine that the teaching profession has lost its
recognition, respect, reverence, relevance and dignity due to several factors ranging from
pedagogy to content.

It has become a questionable issue that some teachers who know how to teach, unfortunately
find it difficult knowing what to teach, while some others who know what to teach, lack the
necessary skills in teaching (Act of 2001 NCLB, 2001). Rosas and West (2011) contend
that knowledge of the content is very important and highly needed by any teacher in
transferring knowledge. In light of this, it is assumed that the moment the knowledge of a
subject is conceived and known, transfer may still be difficult, if the pedagogical aspect is not
well handled. Additionally, Tirri and Ubani (2012) posit that the two areas are important.
2
In other words, pedagogical skill and knowledge in a particular subject function like
Siamese twins that are inseparable. It is not enough knowing what to teach without knowing
how to teach (Tirri & Ubani, 2012). Similarly, Feiman-Nemer (2001) declares that some
studies have indicated that most pre-service teachers fail to explain basic concepts in their
disciplines. This is evident in the Finland system of education where all teachers are expected
to possess a minimum qualification of Master’s Degree in their subject area before
considering going into the teachingprofession (Tirri & Ubani 2012). This makes them to have
confidence in themselves and to the services they are expected to perform.

Teachers are expected to provide indispensable services to any society compared to

services provided by any other profession (Nenty, Moyo & Phuti, 2015). This has made
different countries all over the globe to take education very serious. In fact, for any society
to advance in various spheres, its educational system must be looked into properly. Little
wonder, in the 2015 world ranking of universities, schools ranking top on the list are found
in developed countries, while schools from third world countries ranked low (World
University Ranking, 2015). This implies that education and development work in a
synergic manner. Of course, this has resulted in different countries worldwide taking
education as the first priority in their planning. Furthermore, Nenty et al. (2015) maintain that
most progressive countries in the world, from the Far East to Scandinavia, are those that
give teaching the highest status. For instance, in Korea, recruitment is usually from the
top five per cent of graduates. Likewise, in Finland, only the best and brightest pre-service
teachers are permitted to pursue teaching profession (Sahlberg, 2010).

In Turkey, both education and teacher training policies are formed through national education
councils and development plans have enormously improved teacher education programmes.
Her government goes as far as establishing the state education agencies which ensure that
education offered in schools is of high quality. Her approach has yielded good results
though the country suffered a lot of political instabilities (Kildan et al., 2013).

In the United States of America, they ensure that they produce well prepared teachers into
the profession by doing the following preparations:
1. Establishing high standards for admission into teacher preparation programmes
2. Ascertain that pre-service teachers obtain sufficient content knowledge the

3
 subjects they teach
3. Explicitly require practice teaching programmes to address the instructional
shifts required by university and career readiness standards

4. Holding Faculty of Education accountable for the quality of teachers they

produce (National Council on Teacher Quality, 2014).

In Taiwan, it is the government’s responsibility to establish standards for teacher quality in

order to produce graduates who are experts in the field. Pre-service teachers are recruited
based on uniform criteria for all the institutions of high learning. Performance on the
academically oriented Joint College Entrance Examination as well as offering a uniform
teacher training curriculum are the main standards set for education. In Finland, it is slightly
different as candidates are not expected to pass the matriculation examinations alone. They
are also expected to possess exceptional interpersonal skills which are definitely going to
help the learners whom they will be teaching (Sahlberg, 2010). Of course, learning
comprises character and intelligent quotient (I.Q.). Hence, every good teacher must be able
to impart knowledge to the learner both intellectually and character-wise. To this end,
Finland has been able to accomplish a high level of educational feat and recognition in
relation to the world’s most knowledgeable societies (Statistics Finland, 2010).

In the above assertions, one has realised that if a government does not take teacher
education as its main responsibility, that teacher education loses its intended direction. In the
Nigerian universities for instance, Akuegwu et al. (2011) assert that their teacher education
programmes are managed by their faculties of education and that resulted to the poor quality
of graduate teachers who are being produced. Moreover, this poor production of teachers
raises contentious issues about the training which is being provided by those faculties.
They are uncertain whether the problem is with the curriculum or with the implementers who
are the lecturers. They are also unsure whether teacher education programmes are correctly
placed in the hands of faculties of education to train and produce teachers of high calibre
(Akuegwu et al., 2011).

The study carried out by Nenty et al. (2015) in Malawi and the other one by Akuegwu et al.
(2011) in Nigeria illuminated some of the reasons why some of the institutions of higher
learning produce teachers of poor quality. They point out that some of the pre- service
4
teachers do not pursue teaching out of their own will. They pursue teaching profession
because they have failed to follow their desired careers and the reason being the high standards
set for those careers. Other pre-service teachers perceive teaching as a springboard to other
careers. They do not have interest from the heart to pursue teaching because they regard
it as a low paying career. According to them, it does not have incentives. However, in Turkey,
a majority of pre-service teachers pursue teaching

profession because they have love for children as well as for teaching profession and that
affect their output positively (Kildan et al., 2013).

The South African Educational State policy (2014) is underpinned by the belief that
teachers are the most important drivers of a good quality of education system. It was
designed to produce community of competent teachers who are highly dedicated to their work
in all the spheres of education. It ensures that it caters for the development of teaching
profession and being able to meet the needs of a democratic South Africa. It was drawn on
the work of the Ministerial Committee in the 2014 South African Educational State
Teacher Policy Year Book.

The committee conducted an extensive study from the key stakeholders, which included the
South African Council for Educators (SACE), the South African Qualifications Authority
(SAQA); the Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training
(ETDP-SETA); National Teacher Unions; the Higher Education South Africa (HESA)
Education deans’ forum; and NGOs in order to come up with education policy of high quality.
The South African Educational State policy (2014) seeks to provide a convincing strategy for
the successful recruitment, retention, and professional development of new and seasoned
teachers in order to meet the country’s economic and social needs. Thus, Mitra (2011)
contends that education possesses broader social and economic benefits for society.

The principles which are in the policy are expressed in the Norms and Standards of
Educators (2000) which state categorically that the teacher has to play the following roles:
1. A curriculum developer
2. A specialist in a particular learning area, subject or phase
3. A specialist in teaching and learning
4. A specialist in assessment

5
 5. A leader, administrator and manager
6. A scholar and lifelong learner
7. A professional who plays a community, citizenship, and pastoral role (The
National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and development in South
Africa, 2006).

This policy puts it explicitly that each and every institution exercises its autonomous rights
to decide how to run its institution. Each institution of higher learning in South Africa
conducts its core business consisting of some of the following; vision, mission and strategic
plan and how it performs against its key performance targets (Rensburg, 2013). Although
they are characterized by different degrees of institutional autonomy, they are always
accompanied by some level of public accountability (Badsha, 2014). This accountability is
shown when they are requested to prepare a five-year plan, and report to the Department of
Education twice a year.

Each and every faculty including the Faculty of Education comes up with its curriculum
to report it to its department (nationally). Regardless of this level of accountability which
has been put in place, the government departments responsible for education have little
capacity; they are unable to control the level of quality of graduates being produced by the
institutions of higher learning. Badsha (2014) further posits that alternative mechanisms
have to be looked for in order to rectify the situation in some of the institutions of
higher learning (Rensburg, 2013).

Rahman et al. (2011) state that teaching profession is mainly characterised by reforms in the
curriculum and methods of teaching. In other words, pre-service teachers are expected to
be creative in thinking and endeavour to engage learners in critical and analytical thinking.
Hence, they must learn to be informative and good problem solvers with interpersonal and
communication skills as well as ability to be good managers. Buang and Bahari (2011)
argue that mastery learning is one of the important methods to be considered in many
teaching and learning situations in order to increase learners’ motivation to learn. They
further explain that it depends on how it is implemented by the teachers. “The mastery
learning method divides subject matter into units that have predetermined objectives
expectations. Learners, alone or in groups, work through each unit in an organised fashion and
6
they have to demonstrate mastery on unit exams before they move on to a new material”
(Buang & Bahari, 2011:362).

Ferraro (2000) argues that reflective practice plays a vital role in the professional
development of pre-service teachers in their level of teaching. In this regard, Ferraro (2000:
5) clarifies that “by gaining a better understanding of their own individual teaching styles
through reflective practice, they can improve their effectiveness in the classroom.” Thus,
teachers must be well trained for this feat to be achieved. However, Bandura (1997) and Tirri
and Ubani (2012) declare that self-efficacy is highly important in the realisation of the
teachers’ work. This helps teachers to understand the extent to which they have been able to
affect their learners.

Additionally, Incecay and Dollar (2012) agree with the view of the importance of self-
efficacy though to them it helps to align with the content (knowledge of what is to be taught)
and pedagogical skills involved in the process of transferring knowledge. Furthermore,
efficacy helps in ensuring good classroom management as the teacher does everything possible
to understand his/ her learners’ individually. Sclafani (2012), on the other hand, opine that the
readiness of pre-service teachers towards this profession is based on the motivation they
receive either from the government or other stakeholders in the sector. For instance in
Singapore, free tuition as well as monthly stipend for personal upkeep is enjoyed by pre-
service teachers. Similarly, for those entering the postgraduate educational programme an
equivalent salary of college graduate in civil service position is paid. Also, awards are given
for good performances. All these are done to motivate students to pursue career in the field
of education.

Shulman (1992) declares that teaching is “perhaps the most complex, most challenging, and
most demanding, subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity. Additionally, Rahman, Abdullah
and Rashid (2011) hold the opinion that in preparing and making teachers ready for the
teaching profession, it must be well understood and explained to pre- service teachers that
good teachers perform various roles that range from guiding the learners, coaching them,
facilitating interesting topics as well as advising them. Thus, Struyf, Adriaensens and
Meynen (2011) pronounce that pre-service teachers who want to pursue teaching career have
to know that teaching is a permanent learning process, a series of formal and informal learning
experiences which have to be acquired throughout their life time. That is the reason why those

7
who are interested in pursuing this career of teaching have to be well prepared and ready
for its responsibilities and challenges.

Akuegwu, Edet, Uchendu and Ekpoh (2011:96) define readiness as a function of the degree
of preparation and the quality of teaching skills acquired by an individual over a given period
of time as well as the degree of training and skills imparted on the individual by an
institution of higher learning. Hence, it is expedient that an exploration be made on the
readiness of training pre-service teachers because there are no studies in the literature
investigating the institution’s pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. Therefore, this study
aims to contribute to the literature by conducting it on a different culture.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

There is a general outcry about the quality of education delivered in recent times. Several
factors have been attributed to the poor quality of education. These factors include
availability of infrastructure resources, social economic background, student related factors
as well as teachers related factors. A major outcry in the teacher related factors is maturation
of teachers. Several researchers such as Jenks, Lee, and Kanpol (2001); Rosas and Campbell
(2011); Rosas and West (2011); Wu and Guerra (2017) have stated that the lack of readiness
to teach is a major concern for teachers education programme. Hence, the practice teaching
exercise which is usually set aside to prepare teachers is questioned. This study therefore
aims at exploring the readiness of pre- service teachers to teach, taking cognisance of the
practice teaching programme.

It is usually a moment of joy for both the learners and all the stakeholders in the school to see
pre-service teachers as service providers with good ideas, intentions, commitments, etc.
Unfortunately, in recent times there is a world-wide outcry about the majority of graduates
who have just received their teaching qualifications. They lack among others, common
nomenclature (Zeichner, 2005). The schools and the communities have a great concern
about the new teachers’ commitment in their profession. Most of these new teachers do
not have adequate content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and the positive
attitude/values towards their career (Phelps & Spitzer, 2013). Moreover, Kildan et al.
(2013:52) stress that verbal ability and content knowledge are the most important attributes of
qualified teachers. Furthermore, Heeralal and Bayaga (2011:100) argue that “characteristics
8
of ideal teacher constitute a positive self-image, willingness to accept others as well as self,
identifying in a positive way with others and being well informed. These characteristics
contribute positively to the development of pedagogical skill.”

What makes the researcher to be concerned is that when pre-service teachers are being trained
in their institutions of higher learning they are also given opportunity to visit the schools
in order to practice teaching, to be acquainted with all the activities that take place in the
work place. It is where they are expected to demonstrate the theory which they must
have obtained from their institutions of higher learning. Thus, this study aims at evaluating
the readiness to teach of third year pre-service teachers of a South African University. Based
on the aim which is stated above, the study poses the following research questions:
1. Are pre-service teachers able to facilitate the teaching and learning process using
various methods of teaching?
2. Have third year pre-service teachers acquired adequate content knowledge of
their teaching subjects?
3. Are the pre-service teachers able to maintain order and discipline in the
classroom?
4. What do school based subject mentors consider as important aspects in preparing
pre-service teachers for the teaching profession?
5. Do third year pre-service teachers consider practice teaching to be sufficiently
preparing them for the teaching profession?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The study aims to pursue the following objectives:

1. To establish whether pre-service teachers are able to facilitate the teaching and
learning process using various methods of teaching.
2. To ascertain whether the third year pre-service teachers have acquired adequate
content knowledge of their teaching subjects.
3. To determine the pre-service teachers’ ability to maintain order and discipline in
the classroom.
4. To determine what school based subject mentors consider as important aspects
in preparing pre-service teachers for the teaching profession.
5. To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers consider practice
teaching to sufficiently prepare them for the teaching profession.
9
1.4 INTENDED CONTRIBUTION TO THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

This study focuses on improving readiness of a South African University third year B. Ed
pre-service teachers to teach as they are about to exit the programme. The findings will also
raise awareness about the challenges which the beginning teachers encounter when they
assume their teaching profession. Furthermore, it is expected that the results of this study will
contribute in improving the quality of practice teaching programmes and better prepare the
pre-service teachers for the challenges which they might face in the working place.
Additionally, the study will not only be of value to the pre-service teachers but even to the
faculty of education in expanding its knowledge as far as strategies to improve
accountability to the Department of Higher Education as Haig, Ell and Mackisack (2013:10)
contend that “the quality of practice teaching defines the quality of teacher education”.
Moreover, the results of the study will make the faculty of education take the challenges
faced by the pre-service teachers seriously and address them amicably. In support of the
aforesaid assertion Ismail, Abdullah, Salleh and Yahya (2016:591) advocate that “it is
necessary for the education authorities to focus on the concerns expressed by pre-service
teachers.”

1.5 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is limited to the readiness of pre-service teachers in the South African context
through the use of South African based University as a case study. It was impossible to involve
all the pre-service teachers of Education. Hence, the study is limited to the third year B. Ed
pre-service teachers who are in the intermediate and senior phase. Third year pre-service
teachers were selected for the study because they were involved in practice teaching exercise.
This means that they were in a more authoritative, well-informed position to show their
readiness of teaching.

Following the identified scope and delimitation of the study, it was going to be difficult to
generalise the results to all education pre-service teachers in different universities. However,
the findings of the study may still be relevant and applicable to pre-service teachers in the
Faculty of Education in different universities.

10
1.6 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Pre-service teachers: In the context of this study, pre-service teachers refer to s t u d e n t s

i n t h e F a c u l t y o f E d u c a t i o n w h o a r e undergoing teaching training in the
universities

Readiness: According to this study, readiness means level of preparedness to perform and
discharge duties in lieu of the future profession.

Evaluation: In this context, evaluation means assessing the capability of education students
who are undergoing teaching practice

1.7 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research design for the study was a descriptive case study anchored in the qualitative
research methods. The qualitative research method was used to observe, interview and
analyse documents of the pre-service teachers. Interviews were also conducted with the
subject mentors of the pre-service teachers.

1.8 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

The structure of this dissertation is as follows:

Chapter One: Introduction and background to the study

This chapter presents the background of the study. Additionally, a short
summary of literature review is presented. Intended contribution to the body
of knowledge, scope and delimitation of the study are highlighted. The
operational definitions of terms are followed by a brief description of the
methods to be employed.

Chapter Two: Literature related to the area of the study

This chapter focuses on the theoretical framework which provides a specific
viewpoint through which this study is examined as well as review of literature
which is relevant to the study.

11
Chapter Three: Research Methodology

In this chapter, research design and methodology of the study are

detailed. Procedure for the collection of data, research instruments, the
selection of participants, and a plan of organising as well as analysing of
data are discussed.

Chapter Four: Data presentation and analysis

A detailed analysis and interpretation of data are discussed in
this chapter.

Chapter Five: Discussion of findings

This chapter presents the aim of the study, discussion of findings and their
implications.

Chapter Six: Summary of results, conclusion, limitation and recommendations.

In this chapter summary, conclusion, limitation of the study and
recommendations are discussed.

1.9 SUMMARY

This chapter focused on the background of readiness to teach which focused on outcry
about the quality of education delivered in recent time. Using this background as a
launching pad for further inquiry, the research problem was stated and was followed by
the research questions. Consequently, background, research questions and objectives of
the study were highlighted after which the scope and delimitation of the study were
identified. The operational definition of terms is also considered

12
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Chapter one introduced the problem under investigation with regards to its nature and scope. The
background to the study was presented together with the operational definition of terms. The aims
and objectives were appropriately outlined while the delimitation of the study was explained in
order to gain the profound understanding and a more penetrating insight regarding the problem
under investigation. The purpose of this chapter is to review literature relevant to the topic of this
study which is: Evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. It focuses on one of the South
African universities. This chapter also deals with twelve issues which are mainly in connection
with the research questions, theoretical framework, the importance of practice teaching and
skills development for pre-service teachers, the new components added to teacher education,
the elements associated with readiness and commitment of pre-service teachers, the importance
of redesigning teacher education, evaluation of readiness of pre-service teachers to teach,
what is readiness in pre-service teacher training? pedagogical skills and content knowledge
in pre-service teaching programme, pre-service teachers and classroom management,
responsibilities of subject mentors and their perceptions of pre-service teachers, pre-service
teachers’ readiness for teaching profession, factors promoting pre-service teachers’ readiness
to teach and pre- service teachers’ perception of practice teaching.

13
2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

In any research endeavour, theory is crucial because it offers a structure for analysis, enables
the efficient development of the field, and is needed to solve the real world problems
(Owolabi, 2017). Creswell (1994) is of the view that the theoretical framework needs to show
the relationship between the theoretical framework and literature review. Asiri, Muhmud,
Bakar and Ayub (2012) defines theoretical framework as an explanation of a phenomenon
which provides a point of focus for attacking the unknown in a particular area. Furthermore,
McMillan and Schumacher (2010) postulate that theoretical framework is used to justify the
selection of the subject, variables and designs. On the other hand, Smith, Hayes and Shea
(2017) highlight that it generates findings of a broader and generalisable value. Moreover,
theoretical framework plays an important role in a research study as it enables researcher to
establish the phenomenon being studied on sound logic and can be anchored in previous
research studies (Durodolu, 2016).

Based on the above definitions and the functions of theoretical framework, a significant
number of theoretical frameworks have been used to investigate aspects related to readiness
of pre-service teachers to teach (Moses, Berry, Saab, & Admiraal, 2016; Mohamed, Valcke
& De Wever, 2017). Brown, Lee and Collins (2015) utilised grounded theory when they were
investigating pre-service teachers’ sense of efficacy and preparedness. Turuk (2008) used the
socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky which claims that learners do not merely copy teachers’
capabilities; rather they transform what teachers offer them during the processes. This theory
portrays that learners are not born as tabular rasa but they have innate cognitive abilities which
need to be developed formally. Likewise, Wang, Li, Bruce, Christine, Hughes and Hilary
(2011:2) view socio-cultural theory as a communal constructivist paradigm which considers
human knowledge as a product of social interaction within the community through
collaboration. That is the reason why Tarman (2012) cites researchers like Pajares’ (1992)
and Richardson’s (1996) claim that pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach emanates from
the combination of their prior beliefs about teaching, from personal experience, from
schooling and instruction, and lastly, from formal knowledge which they obtain in the
institution of higher learning.

This study is underpinned by Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) which was developed
14
and first presented by Mezirow and Marsick in 1978 (Carey, Robertson & Grainger, 2015).
The study adopted the notion of this theory because it deals with the transformation for the
better of the mind of pre-service teachers. According to Mezirow (2003:58-59),
transformative learning is learning that transforms problematic frames of reference, sets of
fixed assumptions and expectations (habits of mind, meaning perspectives, mind sets) to make
them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective, and emotionally able to change. Such
frames of reference are better than others because they are more likely to generate beliefs and
opinions that will prove truer or justified to guide action. Similarly, Howie and Bagnall
(2013) define transformative learning theory as learning that transforms problematic frames
of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, reflective, open, and emotionally
able to change.

Christie, Carey, Robertson, Grainger (2015) postulate that frames of reference means that
every individual has a particular view of the world. In other words, there is no individual
who is born as a tabula rasa. This frame of reference may either be positive or negative.
If it is negative it needs to be transformed and if it is positive it needs to be strengthened.
On the contrary, Howie and Bagnall (2013) claim that it begins with a person being engaged
in activities that cause a disorienting dilemma leading them to modify or shift one of their
meaning schemas or meaning perspectives, which are part of their frame of reference.
Furthermore, Howie and Bagnall (2013) mention that the transformation may be fast or
epochal, or it may be slow or incremental. Howie and Bagnall’s (2013) assertion is supported
by Izmirli and Yurdakul (2014) when they come up with Mezirow’s 10 phases of
Transformative Learning which depict how the mind of the individuals operates when it
undergoes the process of transformation.

15
Figure 2.1: Mezirow’s 10 phases of Transformative Learning. (Izmirli & Yurdakul, 2014)

Taylor (2013) highlights three constructs that are ever present when talking about
transformative learning theory. These are experience, empathy, and desire to change. Taylor
(2013) postulates that experience constructs is a concept that is most central to transformative
learning and adult learning. Different scholars have given different definitions of experience
under the perception of the transformative learning theory. Lindeman (1961:7) referred to
experience as “adult learners’ living textbook.” Jarvis (2005:72) defines experience as ‘the
process of creating an understanding of or perception of a situation, which often appears to be
a direct participation in an event,’ and ‘the accumulation of previous experiences, both
conscious and unconscious, and stored in the mind’. Likewise, Howie and Bagnall (2013)
referred to experience as frame of reference. Furthermore, Taylor (2013:35) provides in-depth
explanation about the importance of experience. He declares that ‘Learning is understood as
the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the
meaning of one’s experience in order to guide future action.’ In a nutshell, the main function
of experience is to shape each and every individual and his/her meaning perspectives and habit
of mind.

The second construct of transformative learning theory is empathy, which is defined as the
ability to subjectively experience and share in another psychological state (Morse,
Anderson, Bottoroff, Yonge, O’Brien, Solberg, & McIlveen, 1992). This implies that to have
16
empathy of others is to have a sense of sharing. It is evident that empathy plays a significant
role in the transformative learning theory because it teaches one to be caring for others. It also
includes emotive, moral, cognitive, and behavioural aspects (Kunyk & Olson, 2001; Morse et
al., 1992). To affirm the importance of empathy Bakah, Voogt and Pieters (2012) mention
that when teachers are dependent on each other through collaboration that leads to the
formation of the interaction for learning, which result to the teachers’ commitment and
successful teaching. The third construct is the desire to change. The desire goes with
willingness. Individuals need to have a willingness to transform otherwise if they do not have
willingness, transformation cannot occur. Scholars such as Kiggundu and Nayimuli (2009)
and Rahman et al. (2011) state that the goal of teaching practice is to help pre-service teachers
to realise their potential for learning how to teach effectively which subsequently change their
ways of teaching for the better.

In the case of this study, pre-service teachers’ frame of reference can be transformed by
undergoing teaching practice where they will be in a real school situation. As it is mentioned
above, that each individual does not start something not having his/her own understanding of
it, the same applies to pre-service teachers. They go for teaching practice with their own
experiences (prior knowledge) of how to teach. Those experiences accrued when they were
still at school, learning. They imitate their own teachers who were teaching them or they treat
learners the way they were treated by their former teachers when they were still at school.
According to Mezirow (2003), that phase is the first one and is called the disorienting
dilemma. As they are in the institution of learning, undergoing teacher education programme,
they transform from disorienting dilemma to a self-examination which is the second phase.
In this phase it is where they start to question themselves about the truth of teaching.
Gradually, they move from self-examination to critical assessment where they try to weigh
what they understand about teaching. They want to find their stand as far as teaching is
concerned.

Critical assessment phase takes place when they are in schools doing teaching practice. It
occurs after they have observed their subject mentors’ teaching. After they have engaged
themselves on critical assessment they then recognise their potential in teaching and after that
they explore. In this phase they start to have confidence in their teaching. Gradually, they enter
a planning of course action where they are free to do their lesson plans on their own and acquire
knowledge that will help them when teaching. They do not rely on the prescribed books only,
but they also search for the supplementary knowledge in order for their learners to easily
17
 understand the lesson taught.

Provisional trying of roles is the next phase. In this phase they start to apply different types
of teaching methods depending on a lesson taught. It implies that after they have gathered
information of the lesson (content knowledge), they now know that they should have an
appropriate pedagogical knowledge of the particular lesson to be taught. After the latter phase
building competence of self-confidence phase occurs. It is evident that once pre-service
teachers have mastered pedagogical content knowledge they become confident in their
teaching. This competence is very crucial on the lives of pre-service teachers because if they
do not master it, they lose control of their classrooms and would subsequently decide not
to pursue the teaching profession. The last phase is called a reintegration phase. In this phase
they are expected to know how to integrate a lesson they are teaching with other relevant
subjects or to integrate within a lesson. Integration helps learners to know that there is
interrelation within the subjects. Thus, they can be able to use the information learnt from
one subject and use it to another subject.

Pre-service teachers have to undergo all these phases of transformation bearing in mind
Taylor’s (2013) three constructs, which are experience, empathy and a desire to change.
Because without undergoing teaching practice and experience of how teaching is done and
have sense of sharing with their peers, cooperating teachers and learners as well as willingness
to change, teaching practice becomes a futile exercise. Additionally, all these phases and
constructs are achievable through the guidance of both the university supervisors as well as
the experienced and seasoned teachers.

2.1 EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ READINESS TO

TEACH

This section presents a synopsis of research studies nationally and internationally that are
relevant to the present study. This section explores the educational debates about pre-service
teachers’ readiness to teach. This educational debate proves that there is a world-wide concern
about the readiness of pre-service teachers to teach. Although internationally, teaching practice
is an issue that has been researched for some time (Du Plessis, 2013) but pre-service teachers
18
do not have a “smooth journey” to the teaching profession career. For instance, the findings
of the study which was conducted by Rosa and West in (2014) reveals that many Ohio pre-
service teachers enter the classroom without a comprehensive understanding of content
knowledge. Therefore, they posit that additional contents coursework is needed in teacher
preparation programs in order to equip pre-service teachers with necessary competences
of teaching profession.

It is evident that there are least studies which confirm pre-service teachers’ readiness to
teach. Furthermore, the findings of the study by Sears, Mueller-Hill and Karadeniz (2013)
revealed that most pre-service teachers are not ready for teaching because they are not
afforded opportunities by their subject mentors to prove that they can teach. Sears et al. (2013)
perceive that these pre-service teachers will face challenges when they exit teaching practice
programme. Thus, they suggest that pre-service teachers’ subject mentors need to increase
opportunities for pre-service teachers to practice teaching in their presence. The findings of
Mokoena (2017) concurs with Sears et al. (2013) who declares that subject mentors do not let
pre-service teachers teach because they feel that pre-service teachers would delay and waste
learners’ valuable time and they would subsequently not be able to finish the syllabi in record
time.

The Strategy Document focusing on Published Teacher Training Curricula (2012) in India
asserts that there are extensive challenges in the teacher education which subsequently result
to the production of inadequate teachers. In order to solve these extensive challenges, the
committee of this strategy document has decided to identify and employ academics who are
going to be trainers of teacher-trainers who should have among other qualities: school-based
experience, and teacher-training experience, so that they can identify appropriate learning
experiences for their pre-service teachers, based on experience rather than idealisation,
familiarity with the sites of learning, both at teacher training institute and school levels,
including taking part in teacher learning communities and engaging in action research
processes; a capacity to engage in processes of professional development as well as a capacity
to develop a teacher-training curriculum which includes curriculum standards, content
knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and logistics of use, i.e.
when and where they should be used, and to translate this into a learning experience for their
pre-service teachers.

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Training of pre-service teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa has its own challenges. In Kenya for
instance, the study by Nganga and Kambutu (2017) report that most of the pre-service teachers
are not well prepared to teach. Additionally, Nganga and Kambutu (2017) cited the responses
of the pre-service teachers who participated in their study. They rated the teacher training
programs experience as inadequate because they did not provide them with opportunities to
learn about learner-centred teaching practices. In conclusion, they posit that teaching practice
has to be aligned effectively with social needs, so that the society can benefit from education.
Subsequently, improve in societal and economic development.

The findings of the study by Alonge, Kolawole and Akundayo (2014) which was conducted
in three universities in Nigeria reveal that pre-service teachers have multi-faceted problems
when it comes to teaching. That denotes that they are not ready to teach because they do not
have necessary skills, experience and confidence. The main cause of these challenges is that
teachers in partnership schools do not perform the role of mentors to pre-service teachers. One
of the reasons of teachers not mentoring pre-service teachers might be that they do not know
what is expected of them to do. This submission concurs with Jackson (2014) who emphasises
that subject mentors have to be provided with training so that they will know what is expected
of them when mentoring pre-service teachers. Furthermore, Alonge, Kolawole and Akundayo
(2014) and Jackson’s (2014) assertions are in agreement with du Plessis (2013) who stresses
that besides the training of the subject mentors, mentoring during teaching practice needs to
be carefully planned through and discussed by the various school stakeholders so that there is
greater clarity about what is expected of subject mentors and schools where pre-service
teachers are placed.

In order to eradicate the challenges faced by pre-service teachers in Nigeria, Alonge,

Kolawole and Akundayo (2014) posit, among other things, that pre-service teachers have to
be provided with proper orientation before going on teaching practice exercise, pre-service
teachers should be exposed to micro-teaching and this will make them gain enough confidence
during the real exercise of teaching in schools and the duration of teaching practice session
should be increased so that pre-service teachers will be exposed to all professional activities
associated with teaching.

Teaching practice duration finishes before pre-service teachers become acquainted with
all the activities that are rendered in school. They are not given opportunity to engage
20
with broader school environment such as, setting the examination papers, invigilation,
marking the examination papers, making the reports and closing of the class attendance
register. That is the reason why most of newly qualified teachers get a shock of their life when
they start their careers and subsequently leave the profession. On the contrary, the finding
of the study which was also conducted in Nigeria by Babatunde (2016) reveals that newly
qualified teachers’ performance in schools is excellent. It shows that they had undergone
teaching practice programme. Additionally, he mentions that newly qualified teachers’
excellence is indicated by their adequate content knowledge, knowledge about how to interact
with learners, lesson preparation, pedagogical knowledge as well as classroom
management. These competences were gained during teaching practice session.

In Botswana, Mannathoko (2013) conducted a study where she wanted to find out whether
pre-service teachers were ready to teach Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). Her findings
revealed insufficient preparation of pre-service teachers to develop them as quality
professionals in the CAPA area. The findings also revealed that not enough was done in all
subjects including CAPA, especially the pedagogy aspect as the majority of pre-service
teachers shared the same sentiment. They reported that there was limited assistance or no
assistance at all from their subject mentors and university supervisors before and during
teaching practice despite their request for help. In her recommendation Mannathoko (2013)
suggests the following: teaching practice coordinators should design schedules which
stipulate that each subject should be assessed by a specialist in that area and demand reports
from supervisors and students on findings and feedback in each lesson assessed; pre-service
teachers should be provided with extensive orientation/workshop by CAPA and other subjects
educationists on how to teach CAPA or any other subject area before teaching practice session
commences.

Bitso and Fourie’s (2014) study was conducted in the National University of Lesotho. Their
findings reveal that pre-service teachers are not thoroughly prepared for teaching. The reason
is that they predominantly use traditional sources such as books, personal knowledge and
experience, other teachers in their host schools and their host schools’ libraries. Bitso and
Fourie (2014) explain that it is not that pre-service teachers use these traditional sources
deliberately. It is because of limited information services such as school libraries and
information infrastructure such as the internet in the whole country.

21
It is evident that pre- service teachers in Lesotho are not exposed to the technology of today’s
world. That makes them not to be ready to teach. Education and society are changing as
the time keeps on changing, moving from traditional age to the digital age. It is also
evident that they have challenges when they teach in other countries which use technical
information infrastructure. Challenges which are faced by pre-service teachers in Lesotho
caused Bitso and Fourie (2014) to urge information professionals to provide means of
developing better information services for pre-service teachers as well as the effect of
modern electronic information, including internet.

Mokoena (2017) conducted a study on “student teachers’ experiences of teaching practice at

open and distance learning institution in South Africa.” The finding of his study reveals that
most pre-service teachers are not ready to teach. Besides that University of South Africa
(UNISA) caters for distance learning, it has some challenges about preparation of pre-service
teachers for teaching. Mokoena (2017) claims that some of the challenges which caused pre-
service teachers not to be ready to teach are the quality of teaching practice which is
deteriorating because of the huge number of pre-service teachers who are expected to be
placed in different schools. It is well-known that because of the huge number of pre-service
teachers who need to be placed, some of them end up being placed in the schools which have
inadequate facilities and others are dysfunctional. This leads to pre-service teachers being
depressed because of not given a conducive environment to reinforce theory which they have
obtained in the institution of learning, which makes it appear irrelevant. Another challenge
which Mokoena mentions which makes pre-service teachers not to be ready to teach is the
shortage of university supervisors to support and evaluate pre-service teachers, the lack of
support strategies, and contracted supervisors who lack knowledge and skills to evaluate
certain critical subjects, such as mathematics, science and technology.

Mokoena (2017) recommends the following in order for pre-service teachers to be ready to
teach:
1. There should be a teaching practice handbook for pre-service teachers so that
they can follow a uniform method of preparing a lesson.
2. Rules and regulations of practice teaching should also be stipulated in this
handbook.
3. In addition to the handbook, a “Teaching Practice Guidebook” is required.

22
 That guidebook will outline the procedures of teaching practice modules. It will
also deal with the following: how a school is chosen /allocated; introduction
to the school; allocation of subjects / learning areas in each level of a school
education in South Africa ; and the involvement of mentor teachers
4. The visit by UNISA supervisors should also be explained in detail so that pre-
service teachers will know what to expect and to do during the visit.
5. Teacher training institutions should work collaboratively with the schools and
organize workshops to train cooperating mentors. This training will empower
cooperating teachers and be able to ensure that the pre-service teachers know what
is expected of them in order to be ready to teach.
6. Partner schools should be motivated about teaching practice
7. Teaching practice should not be seen as an evaluation or assessment of whether
one is a good teacher or not, but should be about the qualities, passion,
commitment and willingness to make a difference in pre-service teachers’ lives
as well as in learners and the communities around the schools.
8. Teamwork should be encouraged during teaching practice by encouraging
subject mentors to work harmoniously with the pre-service teachers through
having mini conferences before and after the lessons taught, doing lesson
preparation together and teach alternatively in the presence of another.

By attending to these recommendations Mokoena (2017) is optimistic that pre-service teachers’

attitudes can improve and they can be ready to teach.
Although the study by Heeralal (2014) concentrated on pre-service teachers who are going to
teach in rural schools, its findings reveal that all pre-service teachers generally are not ready
for effective teaching. Heeralal (2014) further highlight that pre-service teachers require
adequate professional preparation during their initial teacher education program and even during
teaching practice sessions. This implies that most of teacher education programs do not cater
for rural schools when preparing pre-service teachers for teaching. Besides, even pre-service
teachers too prefer to do their teaching practice in the urban schools. One of the reasons why
they prefer urban schools is that they assume that all urban schools are well equipped with
learning teaching and support material as compared to rural schools. They also have a notion
that rural schools do not have adequate human and physical resources (Heeralal, 2014).
They forget to think that they are going to be placed anywhere for teaching after they have
completed their studies.

23
 According to Heeralal and Bayaga (2011), the cause for pre-service teachers not to be ready
to teach is that they do not give themselves time to pay attention on the above aspects.
However, most of the studies highlight that the problem is with the poor design of teacher
education programs. They mention, among other things, that teacher education programs do
not involve the partner-schools when designing their curriculums which involve teaching
practice (Boydell, 1986; Butler & Cuenca, 2012). What is said by the latter scholars is
confirmed by pre-service teachers’ behaviour when they are in schools for teaching practice.
They enter into a reality shock (Peters 2012) because of what is really happening in schools.

2.4 THE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICE TEACHING AND SKILLS

DEVELOPMENT FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

The general practice in South African pre-service teacher education is to train teachers for four
years, which includes practical training as a major component. School-based practice teaching
is part of the practice teaching component because it exposes pre-service teachers to the
classroom situation (Jackson, 2014). Practice teaching and skills development are the main keys
to professional growth. These main keys have long been credited as essential components
in the professional development of both the future teachers and the seasoned teachers.
Practice teaching is regarded as a bridge between pre-service as well as novice teachers’
world and seasoned teachers’ world. Ali and Khalid (2015) affirm this illustration when they
proclaim that effective teaching, like any other skill, requires practice because it is regarded as
the main basic and indispensable component of teacher education. Additionally, Nomlomo
(2016) opines that practice teaching, skills development, and continuous training help
teachers to grow intellectually, aesthetically, affectively and socially.

“It is believed that skills development ‘has a connotation of evolution and continuity’, which
also presumes an approach to teacher training that values its contextual and organisational
nature, while it overcomes the ‘traditional juxtaposition of initial training and teacher
development. Meanwhile continuous training is taken to be an on-going and permanent
process designed to improve development. Therefore, it is experienced and felt as ‘an active
project, engaged in at the rate of the situation that makes it live” (Herdeiro & Costa e Silva,
2013: 176). As noticed by Al Malihi (2015), skill development in education is a process of
specialised training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to enable

24
 teachers, and other school stakeholders to improve their professional knowledge,
effectiveness and competence. According to UNESCO (2004), competence means ‘the ability
to meet complex demands successfully or to carry out an activity or task. In this regard, Ries,
Cabrera and Carriedo (2016:2035) declare that pre-service teachers have to acquire the
following competencies during their practice teaching:

1. Knowledge and understanding of the main research methods in education,

recent theories of learning, teaching and schooling, applying theories, critical
thinking, and facing urgent challenges in contemporary education and schooling.
2. Practical skills for using work methods, theoretical knowledge and research
findings, creativity in developing professional ideas, decision making, processing,
assessing and interpreting gathered data related to education and schooling.
3. Theoretical skills to be able to tackle new situations take an active part in the
discussion of learning, teaching and schooling in contemporary society, initiate
research and development projects and manage the work of individuals and
groups.

What is essential with these aforesaid definitions are the characteristics for equipping pre-
service teachers, novice teachers as well as the seasoned teachers with skills and knowledge
relevant for effective teaching. Evidently, teaching profession as a career has over the past three
decades been built on the pillar of skills development and continuous training. Therefore, skills
development and continuous training strive to prepare both pre-service teachers and beginning
teachers for an ever changing career (Bigham et al., 2014). In addition, Haigh, Ell and
Mackisack (2013) emphasise that world-wide, school-based skills development experiences
play a significant role in the initial teacher education programmes. They stress that it provides
authentic opportunities for pre-service teachers to gain understandings of the professional
practice of teaching before assuming teaching career independently. Thus, Endeley (2014)
opines that practice teaching is made a compulsory programme in most education institutions
world-wide. Suffice it to state that there can be no effective teachers if there is no practice
teaching.

It is evident that there are several studies which have been conducted on the importance
of practice teaching and its connotations. For instance, Endeley (2014:148) and Ali and
Khalid (2015:426) affirm that practice teaching has three major connotations which are:

25
 1. The practicing of teacher skills and acquisition of the role of a teacher
2. The whole range of experience that pre-service teachers go through in school
3. The practical aspects of courses as distinct from critical studies

These connotations imply that practice teaching is the main pillar of teacher education. Thus,
pre-service teachers cannot acquire sufficient knowledge and skills without going for practice
teaching in schools. In this regard, Endeley (2014:147) stresses that the “concept of practice
teaching is deeply rooted in the drive towards the education and training of competent and
professional teachers.”

Different scholars mention numerous responsibilities of practice teaching. Butler and Cuenca
(2012) pronounce that practice teaching programme provides pre-service teachers a prime
opportunity to develop personal practical knowledge about the work of teaching. Nwanekezi,
Okoli and Mezieobi (2011:41) point out that “practice teaching enables pre-service teachers
to be ready for their assumption of duty as professionals, motivated, conscientious and
efficient classroom teachers who will encourage the spirit of inquiry, creativity and
intellectual development among the beneficiaries of the educational system”. Franc (2013)
and Chiatula (2015) also confirm the above assertions. They emphasise that practice teaching
is powerful and has the most potential to provide pre-service teachers the opportunity to learn
to become competent teachers. Little wonder, Altan, Saglamel and Boylan (2015) opine
that practice teaching provides pre-service teachers the opportunity to put into practice
all the content knowledge experience and pedagogical instructions. Furthermore, Silberstein,
(2002) explains that practice teaching entails displaying teaching skills such as classroom
management, teaching of content, relationship with learners and appropriateness of teaching.

In brief, Ali and Khalid (2015) define practice teaching as a prerequisite for and continuous
process of a teacher’s professional development. Thus, Chiatula (2015) avers that practice
teaching trains pre-service teachers to teach in a classroom, to apply the content knowledge,
skills, and professional dispositions they have learned in their university-based modules
to classroom practice. Furthermore, Feiman-Nemser (2001) declares that the suitable name
for teaching practice has to be the work-based learning and work experience acquiring
programme because its main responsibility is to equip pre-service teachers with the necessary
academic, technical and employability skills in order to enable them to enter the workplace
upon completion.

26
 The aforesaid assertions are further illustrated by Vesterinen et al. (2014) when they emphasise
that practice teaching is a prerequisite for continuous process of a teacher’s professional
development, and there is a clear expectation that during its session, pre-service teachers learn
practices that will enable their construction of practical knowledge and learning. As a result
of the role played by practice teaching on the development of pre-service teachers, the results
of the study conducted by Powers and Harris (1990) reveal that pre-service teachers’
perceptions are extremely positive and optimistic about teaching. It further states that pre-
service teachers are anxious about initiating their professional preparation in real
classroom environments independently. Whatever explanation can be given for practice
teaching, the most important fact is that it is a professional exercise which assists the pre-
service teachers to be well equipped for the teaching profession.

It should be noted that it is because of the aforesaid statements which caused Reddy, Menkveld
and Bitzer (2008:146) to postulate that pre-service teachers’ placement in schools has two main
purposes on them:
1. Gaining experience in implementing skills and knowledge
2. Getting the opportunity to assess their readiness to enter the teaching profession.

However, Ajayi (2011) opines that the assessment of readiness can only achieve its goal if the
practice teaching programme can be designed to prepare pre-service teachers who have the
knowledge and skill to perform the following aspects:
1. Identify skills, knowledge, dispositions, and strategies required of their
learners to learn efficiently in the new subject matters and areas
2. Develop effective pedagogical strategies to integrate new teaching strategies
into the common traditional methods
3. Help their learners to understand the shifting forms and functions of various
subjects in relation to new media technologies and changing practices
4. Use new technologies to prepare learners for future public and working
environment.

It has to be noted that the duration of teaching practice does not allow pre-service teachers to
acquire all the above mentioned skills. Thus, it needs to be extended. However, Ronfeldt and
Reininger (2012) argue that the duration of teaching practice has little impact on the
performance of pre-service teachers. It all depends on pre-service teachers’ passion of the

27
profession.

2.5. NEW COMPONENTS ADDED TO TEACHER EDUCATION

According to Bhargava and Pathy (2014), changing times have added new components to the
teaching profession. In addition, Donche and Petegem (2011) contend that these new
components assist pre-service teachers not to learn from theory only. They also assist them
to learn from field experiences and relating theory to practice and learning with and from
others involved in the teaching and learning process. By learning from others it involves
learning from people such as subject mentors, cooperating teachers, peers as well as all other
school stakeholders. These new components play a vital role in the shaping of the personality
of the pre-service teachers and make them ready for the teaching profession. They are the main
players who improve teaching and help pre-service teachers achieve the objectives of practice
teaching (Ali & Khalid, 2015). This is further illustrated by Feiman-Nemser (2001) when she
declares that these new components assist pre-service teachers to know more about the
range of approaches to curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and have the judgement skill
as well as understanding to decide what to use and when.

In this regard, it is evident that technology has a drastic impact on society as well as in
education. This means that pre-service teachers have to be exposed to it in order to be effective
teachers (Lu, 2013). This is confirmed by the review of several studies which reveal that pre-
service teachers’ readiness to teach has to comply on the needs of societies because societies
have changed tremendously. This change has increased the educational demands and the
teaching profession (Struyf et al., 2011).Thus, society and education are inseparable.
Conversely, deMonte (2015) postulates that teaching is the single largest and critical occupation
in the society.

Hence, education is an important element in developing public knowledge and awareness about
issues that affect the future of the world in general and of the society in particular (Esa, 2010).
Technology, as has been pointed by Lu (2013), is contributing immensely and drastically to the
society and on education. In this regard, Al Malihi (2015) confirms the effect of technology on
education when he pronounces that the findings in his study revealed that pre-service teachers
are not fully ready to teach because they do not receive enough pre-service or in-service training
which incorporates the use of technology. Supporting this contention, Wilcox and Wood (2011)
confirms that the work-place has changed, thus practice teaching programmes have also to
28
 change and incorporate a wider range of skills. Little wonder, Jackson’s (2014) findings reveal
that successful student teaching programmes have to share the following criteria:
1. The programme has to choose the experienced teacher with whom the pre-
service teacher is paired
2. The programme has to require that that experienced teacher who is paired with
pre- service teacher has to have at least three years of experience
3. The pre-service teachers have to be observed at least five times and
complete a capstone project that aggregates their learning from the experience.

Additionally, the State Teacher Policy Year-book (2014) opines that teacher education
institutions have to ascertain that they produce well equipped teachers by meeting the
following standards:
1. Establishing high standards for admission into teacher preparation programme
2. Ensuring that pre-service teachers have rigorous content knowledge of the
subjects they will teach
3. Explicitly requiring teacher preparation programmes to address the instructional
shifts relevant to the college- and career-readiness standards
4. Holding teacher preparation institutions accountable for the quality of teachers
they produce.

From the aforementioned statements, it is therefore inevitable for schools to have qualified
teachers who are ready and committed to impart content knowledge to learners passionately
and enthusiastically using pedagogical skills. The schools also need teachers who can be of
help to the up-coming teachers by mentoring them appropriately.

2.6 WHAT IS READINESS IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING?

Readiness from different points of views may have different connotations. Psychologically,
readiness means the state in which the cognitive domain of an individual is alert and able
to comprehend and harness all that is taught (Maxwell & Clifford, 2004). They further
explain psychological readiness as the intellectual and academic abilities needed to succeed
in school. Thus, Housego (1990: 37) declares that “pre-service teachers' feelings of
preparedness may influence their ability to perform teaching tasks.” Socially, readiness
means the ability of the individual to interact with the people and relate with the general beliefs
29
 or predominant cultureof the environment in which they find themselves (Gevirtz Graduate
School of Education, 2010).

Based on the aforesaid reasons, Akuegwu, Edet, Uchendu and Ekpoh (2011: 96) proclaim
that “the degree of readiness is a function of the degree of preparation and the quality of
teaching skills acquired by an individual over a given period of time on the one hand, and
the degree of training and skills imparted on the individual by an institution on the other”.
Hence, readiness in this study will be perceived as being psychologically, socially and
emotionally alert towards the accomplishment and achievement of set goals or given tasks.

2.7 THE ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH READINESS AND

COMMITMENT OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Suditu, (2014) affirms that readiness and commitments of pre-service teachers have to go with
good inter-personal skills. He further states that charisma is another attribute associated with
inter-personal skill which also lead to teacher effectiveness. In this regard, Huang and Lin,
(2014) opine that learners perceive charismatic teachers as “humorous, loving their job and the
subject matter, creative, having confidence in subject knowledge, having great teaching
methods, possessing positive personality traits as well as having classroom management skills”.

Tarman, (2012) adopt the viewpoint put forward by Suditu (2014); Huang and Lin (2014) when
he stresses that the word charismatic is simple yet it is playing an essential role in the lives
of learners because it makes the class enjoyable. Inevitably, it can even be used as a teaching
tool. Bhargava and Pathy (2014) also confirm similar assertions. According to them, charisma
helps teachers to develop a friendly teacher-learner environment in the classroom. Thus, it
becomes easy for learners to interact with the teachers because of being approachable.
Therefore, it is proper to say that teacher education programme has to take charisma as one
of the main skills to be instilled to pre-service teachers so that they can enjoy teaching as
well as learners can enjoy learning.

However, de Vries, Jansen, Helms-Lorenz and Van de Grift (2015) proclaim that the
knowledge, skills and attitudes required for this complex teaching profession cannot be fully

30
developed in pre-service teachers unless they are involved in the teacher learning activities.
According to Vesterinen, Toom and Krokfors (2014), teacher learning is defined as a pre-
requisite for and continuous process of a teacher’s professional development. Furthermore,
Versterinen et al. (2014) proclaim that teacher learning has eclectic approaches and one of them
is the deep approach to learning which:
1. Guide pre-service teachers to use critical search for relationships between the
lessons preparing
2. Relate them to their prior conceptions and knowledge
3. Aim at understanding the issues being studied in their wholeness and from
the viewpoint of their future profession
4. Search for and reflect on justifications for knowledge, skills or other
focuses of learning.

From the above assertion one may deduce that teacher learning has to be emphasised in order
to develop and produce inquiry-oriented teachers who will be career-long learning
professionals. Consequently, it is evident that teachers’ education has to be redesigned in order
to meet the aforesaid requirements of making it effective to the training of pre-service teachers.

2.8 EVALUATION OF READINESS TO TEACH OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

From the foregoing discussion, it has been noticed that although pre-service teachers are offered
opportunities to go for practice teaching there are emerging gaps and concerns regarding their
readiness to teach. Therefore, it is most relevant and compelling to evaluate the readiness
of pre-service teachers to the teaching profession because they join schools for a specific
period of time in order to be exposed to new perspectives of teaching in the school environment.
These assertions are supported by Altan, Saglamel and Boylan (2015) when they emphasise
that most teacher education programmes use practice teaching as the primary station of
evaluating pre- service teachers’ competences.

Evaluation is the only tool which is used to determine whether pre-service teachers are ready
to teach. Furthermore, Darling-Hammod, Newton and Wei (2013) pronounce that in California,

31
they regarded the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) as an authentic tool
for evaluating pre-service teachers. This tool was established to examine their abilities to plan,
teach, assess, and reflect on instruction in actual classroom situation. They further recommend
the PACT for measuring and developing pre-service teachers’ effectiveness. However, Ell and
Haigh (2015) state that judgment of readiness to teach is subjective because it depends on the
individual’s own experience and frames of reference, leading to variability in the decisions
he/she makes. Similarly, High (2013) pronounces that pre-service teachers’ evaluation
is complicated as teacher education is complex, thus it needs evaluators who are trustworthy
and dependable. Thus, it means that it has that element of uncertainty. People who are
responsible for evaluating pre-service teachers are their cooperating teachers/subject mentors
and university supervisors. They judge pre-service teachers’ performance whether they are
ready to teach independently in their own classrooms (Ell & Haigh, 2015).

Although Haigh et al. (2013) question the manner in which readiness to teach is evaluated, the
concern is between accountability and formative purposes. To address this concern, Gerrevall
(2011) posits that pre-service teachers have to be evaluated before admitted to register for the
profession to ascertain whether they are suitable for it. He further explains that in Finland for
instance, there are stipulated qualities that pre-service teachers who intend to register for
teaching have to meet. They are evaluated to show that they are suitable for becoming suitable
teachers. The evaluation is conducted in a form of a test in order to identify the suitable teacher
candidates among a huge number of applicants who have applied for the teaching profession
study. On the contrary, Haigh et al. (2013) stress that pre-service teachers have to be evaluated
in schools not before they are registered for teaching profession, to determine whether they are
ready to teach. In this regard, they opine that clear understanding of the expectations of the
evaluators have to be known by the pre-service teacher as well as the normative standards which
constitute good teaching have to be explicit.

Endeley (2014) affirms that in Cameroon universities, pre-service teachers are given aggregate
score by their cooperating teachers and university supervisors. Their portfolios also form part
of the things which are evaluated. Portfolios are expected to be made up of a report, lesson
plans, lesson notes, a journal and teaching aids. Pre-service teachers get these aggregate scores
at the end of their practice teaching exercise. Rusznyak (2008) clarifies that pre-service teachers
are evaluated in every period of practice teaching and the evaluation focuses on the student
teacher’s compliance with all requirements laid down by the university and the school. In this

32
 regard, Haigh, Ell and Mackisack (2013) stress two main purposes of evaluating the pre-service
teachers:
1. It may be a mechanism for ensuring professional accountability and
2. It may have more formative value by serving as a means of professional learning
and thereafter to prove that pre-service teachers are ready to teach.

In addition, Ali and Khalid (2015) declare that evaluation is the tool which enables pre-service
teachers to know their strengths of readiness to teach and to subsequently work on their
weaknesses. That is why Housego (1990) avers that it is important for pre-service teachers
to feel well-prepared and to be highly motivated to perform a task of teaching when
being evaluated.

It is therefore evident that teacher education program can be incomplete without the thoroughly
planned practice teaching. Additionally, Wambugu et al. (2013) posit that its planning has to
be frequently revised and be closely monitored to ensure that its aims and objectives are
achieved. In this regard, it can produce highly equipped teachers who are ready and who can
contribute immensely in the development of teaching process of the learners. Furthermore,
Hollins, Luna and Lopez (2012:123) state that “the quality of pre-service teacher preparation is
influenced by the quality of preparation for practice teaching; the quality of teacher preparation
influences teaching competence; teaching competence influences the quality of learning
opportunities provided for learners; and the quality of the learning opportunities provided for
learners influences learning outcomes.” This shows that teacher education cannot survive
without practice teaching.

Basically, this chapter focuses on conceptualising pre-service teachers’ readiness with regards
to pedagogical skills, content and knowledge of the subject to teach as well as classroom
management. Professionalism, self-efficacy and other factors that promote or hinder the
readiness of pre-service teachers to teach will also be considered. The reason for this focus
is because Korthagen, Loughranb, and Russel (2006) pronounce that during the final decades
of the 20th century, several studies revealed complaints about teacher education. Those
complaints lead to a study of research components which documented the phenomenon of the
reality shock faced by new teachers when they start their teaching career. That study claimed
that the main causes of the reality shock were not addressed adequately. For instance, how to
connect theory and practice in such a way that, teachers would be able to handle the

33
problems of everyday teaching through theory-guided action. Additionally, how to involve
both university supervisors and cooperating teachers when designing the teacher education
programme were not properly addressed. Similarly, Bigham, Hively and Toole (2014)
maintain that teacher education programme will improve provided the schools are given the
opportunity to contribute to its design. Thus, pre-service teachers can be ready for the teaching
profession.

2.9 PEDAGOGICAL SKILLS AND CONTENT KNOWLEDGE IN PRE-

SERVICE TEACHING PROGRAMME

The role of a teacher to learners’ knowledge development is very crucial. Thus, it becomes
crucial for the pre-service teachers to be well equipped with all the necessary “ammunitions”
in order to be able to assist learners in their learning. Content knowledge and content pedagogy
are among the main “ammunitions” which pre-service teachers should master before going
to class. In regards to this, different researchers have different views as far as what is
more important than the other. According to Chard (2013), both pedagogy and content
knowledge cannot be separated. They are intertwined and both of them are important because
the latter has to be backed up with experience in designing instruction that conveys content
most effectively, to equip learners with adequate information. In this regard, Wambugu,
Barmao and Ng’eno (2013) assert that good teachers should be able to perform and put to use
various teaching skills. Additionally, the above assertions are supported by Barrel and Purcell
(2014) when they argue that research has revealed that teachers often go into teaching lacking
indispensable information literacy skills and knowledge. They further explain that this
dilemma is caused by experiences which they obtain while they were still the pre-service
teachers.

It is evident that proper application of appropriate skills will dependent on the deep
understanding of the subject matter. Consequently, the matter will provide foundation for
content knowledge in order to make ideas accessible to learners. Both pedagogical skills and
content knowledge are important to pre-service teachers and practice teaching programme.
However, Huang and Lin, (2014) proclaim that in addition to pedagogical and content
knowledge skills, classroom management skills play a vital role to learners to concentrate
inwhat is taught in class. Thus, the need arises to explore the importance of classroom
management skills in pre-service teachers’ training.

34
2.10 PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ READINESS FOR THE
TEACHINGPROFESSION

Having considered the general perception of readiness, the need arises to consider the subject
matter “readiness” as it concerns pre-service teachers and their choice of profession.
According to Snow (2006), readiness connotes the state of a learner’s competencies that are
relevant in their achievement of success in the set profession. Furthermore, Ali and Khalid
(2015) explain that evaluation is the pre-service teachers’ reflection on the learners’ teaching
competencies.

It is generally perceived that everyone with a degree in medicine is perceived and accepted
by the society as a medical practitioner, in the same way everyone who has a degree or a
certificate in education is expected to be an educator. According to Bigham et al. (2014),
schools want beginning teachers who possess the following qualities:
1. Good interaction with the learners
2. Academically prepared
3. Understand their roles and responsibilities
4. Passionate working with learners
5. Ability to work as a team player with both learners and other teachers

In support of Bigham et al. (2014), Vesterinen, Toom and Krokfors (2014) highlight that in
order for schools to obtain teachers of high quality; pre-service teachers have to be guided on
a reflective and conscious attitude towards teaching and the teaching profession. Furthermore,
Feiman-Nemser (2001), posits that pre-service teachers have to be guided through exposing
them to the different types of roles and responsibilities that include the following:
1. Analysing preconceived notions of teaching and learning
2. Developing subject matter and pedagogical knowledge
3. Developing an understanding of learners’ developmental stages and socio-
cultural contexts
4. Developing a beginning repertoire or acquisition of different pedagogical skills
5. Developing tools to study teaching requiring skills of observation,
interpretation, analysis and research.

35
These roles and responsibilities denote that the teacher has to be a life-long reader/ learner.
This is justified by Struyf et al. (2011) when they affirm that development of teacher
professionalism does not end when pre-service teachers complete their teacher-training
programmes, but it continues even when they are the qualified professionals.

A study conducted by Peklaj (2015) investigating teacher competencies through the prism of
Educational Research regards competencies as a requirement for achieving synergetic effects
in learners and are thus organised into three groups:
1. Teacher competencies for promoting cognitive processes (e.g., knowledge in
the broadest sense as well as (meta)cognitive strategies)
2. Teacher competencies for promoting affective-motivational processes, and
3. Teacher competencies for promoting social processes in pre-service teachers.

According to Struyf et al. (2011), competencies which the pre-service teachers have to acquire
before exiting the programme specify a clear set of knowledge, skills and attitudes. They
further unpack competencies which the pre-service teachers have to be guided on by
mentioning the following:
1. Lesson preparation
2. Lesson implementation
3. Differentiation
4. Evaluation of pre-service teachers
5. The teacher as an educator
6. Classroom management
7. The teacher as a member of the school team
8. The teacher as a member of society
9. Use of communication / language and
10. Professional development.

These are the basic competencies which the teacher education has to include when training
the pre-service teachers because it is essential for the pre-service teachers to exit the
programme being equipped with the important aspects of teaching. That will help them to
minimise the stress and the fear of the new environment (fear of the unknown). Furthermore,
Akuegwu et al. (2011) report that pre-service teachers have to be taught how to be ready for
the teaching profession. They emphasise that teaching readiness encompasses pre-service

36
teachers being exposed to different trainings which have to be provided by the institutions of
higher learning with an aim of equipping them with proper knowledge and skills so that they
leave their training programmes highly effective and efficacious teachers (Leader-Janssen &
Rankin- Erickson, 2013). Therefore, pre-service teachers are expected to exit practice teaching
programme when they are considered ready and found to be competent to meet the
demands of teaching profession. As alluded to above, Incecay and Dollar (2012:191)
highlight that readiness means “a combination of one’s ability and willingness to do a job.” By
inference it will mean the intellectual ability needed by both pre-service teachers and
beginning teachers to succeed in the teaching profession.

With regards to teaching profession, if teachers lack confidence and competence in their
subject areas and pedagogical skills, they will not deliver the lessons successfully. In other
words, pre-service teachers are not expected to exit the teacher education programme without
having the knowledge of what to teach and how to teach. Pre-service teachers’ readiness is
depicted by:

1. Their knowledge of pedagogical skills

2. Content building
3. Self-efficacy
4. Instructional planning
5. Classroom managements, as well as
6. Dissemination of appropriate instruction to learners when they are about to exit
their educational training (Rhode Island Department of Education, 2015).

Thus, Evans (2015) maintains that readiness is an open-ended phenomenon which consists of
pre-defined spectrum of knowledge, skills and identities rather than a pre-defined state of
being. Consequently, Tarman (2012) cites researchers like Pajares’ (1992) and Richardson’s
(1996) who allude to the fact that pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach emanates from the
combination of their prior beliefs about teaching, from personal experience, from schooling
and instruction, and lastly, from formal knowledge which they obtain in the institution of
higher learning.

National Education Association / NEA (2010) posits that in order to address some of the
critiques faced by practice teaching, pre-service teachers have to be exposed to global

37
competence to increase their skills and competence before entering the workforce. According
to Mansilla & Jackson (2011), global competence is the capacity and disposition to understand
and act on issues of global significance. Furthermore, Vatalaro, Szente and Levin (2015: 42)
define global competence as “the acquisition of in-depth knowledge and understanding of
international issues, an appreciation of and ability to learn and work with people from diverse
linguistic and cultural backgrounds, proficiency in a foreign language, and skills to function
productively in an interdependent world community”. To affirm the aforesaid explanations,
Hickling-Hudson and Hepple (2015:444) add that global competence helps teachers to prepare
learners to live and work inter-culturally, with a greater global understanding of socio-cultural,
educational issues of planetary significance.

Furthermore, NEA (2010) breaks this definition of global competence down into four
components:
1. International awareness;
2. Appreciation of cultural diversity;
3. Proficiency in foreign languages; and
4. Competitive skills.

Therefore, practice teaching programmes have to be designed to lay foundation of the global
competence so as to equip the pre-service teachers with “educational weapons” which will
help them when they are employed in the multi-cultural school or outside their country. Hence,
the school reflects the larger society which has its diversity Vatalaro et al. (2015) highlight
that one of the main advantages of global competence is that it provides pre-service teachers
with additional real-world experiences when interacting with different people at work and also
working in varying socio-economic conditions. Moreover, NEA (2010) affirms that global
competence helps pre-service teachers to be able to face challenges of living and working in
a diverse and rapidly changing world. Therefore, practice teaching programmes have also to
be designed to lay foundation for the acquisition of competence skills as well as professional
values, knowledge and practices of pre-service teachers’ readiness for teaching career,
regardless of where they are going to be employed. Hence, the good foundation laid ensures
that pre-service teachers acquire a supportive and interactive classroom environment,
especially with learning to teach.

Inevitably, only a small percentage of pre-service teachers (if there is any) is exposed to
meaningful, professional skills that enhance global competence (Vatalaro, et al., 2015).
38
This depicts that practice teaching programme faces great challenges in ensuring that
graduates from the Faculty of Education are prepared for the demands of today’s classrooms
and the rapid changes that are affecting the society as well as education (Pae, Freeman &
Wash 2014). Osmanoglu, Isiksal and Koc (2015) proclaim that pre-service teachers’ readiness
to teach can be enhanced by the case based pedagogy. They specify that this pedagogy assists
the pre-service teachers to improve on the noticing as well as the observation skills in order
to think about teaching and learning process more deeply.

Nomlomo (2016) announces that there is a general outcry about the low quality of teaching
and learning in schools which is usually related with poor teacher education. Furthermore,
Korthagena et al. (2006) state that practice teaching is being criticised because it does not
address the needs of the pre-service teachers and it has also insufficient impact on practice. In
other words, it does not prepare pre-service teachers for the reality of everyday practice in
schools. Little wonder, Osmanoglu et al. (2015) indicate that although practice teaching helps
pre-service teachers in gaining some theoretical and practical knowledge, it does not
adequately prepare them for the complexity of the teaching profession and for facing the world
generally. Although, Caires and Almeida (2007) stress that pre-service teachers perceive
themselves ready to teach if provided with three specific assistances, which are:
1. To be observed by their cooperating teachers when teaching and b e provided
with feedback
2. To be provided with moral support and encouragement
3. To be provided with instructional seminars that enhance their teaching experience.

However, the problem persists and begs the question: how available are these components
towards facilitating the readiness of student teacher? In essence, the main purpose of this study
aims at evaluating the readiness of pre-service teachers’ to assume the teaching profession.
Furthermore, Shagrir (2010) posits that practice teaching programme, which is provided to
the pre-service teachers has to entail the following professional skills:
1. Displaying teaching skills as classroom management

2. Teaching of content, relationship with learners

3. Appropriateness of teaching.
Additionally, Korthagen et al. (2006) suggest seven principles that can aid student teacher
learning and programme change in teacher education:

Principle 1: Learning about teaching involves continuously conflicting and competing

39
demands.
This principle implies that practice teaching needs to focus on how to learn from experience
as well as on how to build professional knowledge. In so doing, there is a need to respond to
a range of conflicting and competing demands. Pre-service teachers have to learn from their
experiences in ways that might help to shape their thinking about their teaching.

Principle 2: Learning about teaching requires a view of knowledge as a subject to be

created rather than as a created subject.
Teaching is not a subject that is filled with exclusive knowledge; rather it is expected to be a
phenomenon that creates knowledge. In other words, it is expected to be a creative art not a
knowledge based art. This principle for the pedagogy of teacher education lies at the heart of
what it means to teach the learners, and not the curriculum.

Principle 3: Learning about teaching requires a shift in focus from the curriculum to the
learner.
This principle explains that the learners should be the focal point whenever the curriculum is
planned. In the same vein, the principle stresses that teachers are to prepare their lessons using
the learner centred strategy. Additionally, when teachers plan their teaching, they should have
their learners in mind. They should not isolate learners from their planning. That helps them
to decide on the appropriate method to be used when teaching in order to accommodate all the
learners in the classroom. This concurs with the view of UNESCO’s (2004) four pillars of
education which are the following;
1. Learning to know: to provide the cognitive tools required to better comprehend
the world and its complexities, and to provide an appropriate and adequate
foundation for future learning.
2. Learning to do: to provide the skills that would enable individuals to
effectively participate in the global economy and society.
3. Learning to be: to provide self-analytical and social skills to enable individuals
to develop to their fullest potential psycho-socially, affectively as well as
physically, for an all-round complete person.
4. Learning to live together: to expose individuals to the values implicit within
human rights, democratic principles, intercultural understanding and respect and
peace at all levels of society and human relationships to enable individuals and
societies to live in peace and harmony.

40
 Thus, this latter principle implies that pre-service teachers need opportunities to understand
what is involved in planning the teaching / lesson, doing the teaching, and reflecting on the
teaching. Therefore, they need to link all of these pillars to the relationship between the teaching
and the concurrent learning.

Principle 4: Learning about teaching is enhanced through student teacher research

Teaching profession demands pre-service teachers to be the life-long learners (readers) because
they are the emerging professionals who have to be exposed to research. They have to be able
to direct their own professional development through researching their own planning of
teaching, for instance, lesson planning, teaching and learning support material which is
appropriate for the lesson to be taught and also appropriate for the learners, assessment of
learners as well as classroom management. By creating and sharing their understanding of
practice through the results of their own research, perceived distinctions between theory,
practice, transmission of knowledge and socialisation into teaching may be confronted and their
professional roles may be better recognised, defined and enhanced. Practice teaching has to
give pre-service teachers an opportunity to gather data based on their experiences during
practice teaching. These experiences will be useful when they commence their permanent
journey of teaching career.

Principle 5: Learning about teaching requires an emphasis on those learning to teach

working closely with their peers.
Pre-service teachers have to be encouraged to work closely with their peers in order to share
experiences. They also have to incorporate cooperating teachers as well as collaborate with
their learners when necessary in order to gain more experience as they are the emerging
professionals. This depicts that the school is a broad entity.

Principle 6: Learning about teaching requires meaningful relationships between schools,

universities and pre-service teachers.
It is very vital for the university to create a meaningful relationship with the partner schools
which they use for placing pre-service teachers for practice teaching. Before pre-service
teachers are sent to schools for practice teaching, it is recommended that universities should
provide workshops or short courses for the schools in order to know what is expected of them
when they are mentoring pre-service teachers and pre-service teachers too have to understand
the expectations of the schools as well as of the universities. The mutual understanding among
the three stakeholders can create a harmonious environment.

Principle 7: Learning about teaching is enhanced when the teaching and learning
41
 approaches advocated in the programme are modelled by the teacher educators in their
own practice.
Teachers are expected to internalise and master the teaching strategy to be adopted in any
lesson. They are not expected to use the teaching period as the rehearsal time, though sometimes
new structures are also incorporated. Pre-service teachers have to be taught that they should
give themselves sufficient time to prepare for a lesson to be taught, and when preparing for
a lesson they should have learners in mind so that they will be able to use the appropriate
teaching and learning support materials as well as teaching approaches. They have to teach
themselves to learn from the seasoned teachers who are always encountering similar situations.

In support of these aforesaid principles and requests, Shagrir (2010) posits that contributions
which are provided by the subject mentors to assist pre-service teachers have to include:
1. Building the professional self
2. Being a member of a community of professionals
3. Enhancing professional practical skills.

All these contributions are crucial and can mainly be rendered by the seasoned subject mentors
who are skilled in the field of education (Hudson, 2013). Furthermore, in support of Shagrir’s
(2010) assertion, Makura and Zivera (2013) opine that subject mentors perform a multifaceted
role, as guide, supervisor, counsellor, assessor, protector, model and coach who help pre-
service teachers reflect upon their practical teaching experience. Timperley (2010), and Butler
and Cuenca (2012) proclaim that subject mentors are expected to relate principles of teaching
in practical contexts to the pre-service teachers. They further emphasise the need for subject
mentors to guide pre-service teachers on developing and improving their own practice. By
doing so, they will be developing their knowledge and experiences through the role model
behaviours in the training. Moreover, Kane and Francis (2012) mention that being mentored
by an experienced teacher is central to practice teaching programmes and has been
demonstrated to assist with the socialisation of pre-service teachers and the beginning teachers
into the school culture. It enhances their self-confidence and sense of belonging as well as
sense of self-efficacy.

Altan, Saglamel and Boylan, (2015) claim that subject mentors have great influence, on
student-teachers because they assist them to recognise their strengths and weakness as well as
developing their deficient skills (Seker & Denis, 2016). In that regard, Housego (1990) posits
that subject teachers have to be encouraged to give pre-service teachers opportunity to practise

42
some of the seldom-assigned tasks or roles; for instance, keeping achievement records, or
implementing a management system to encourage learners’ self-discipline. Hence, Bigham,
Hively and Toole (2014) refer to subject mentors as designated gatekeepers of the profession.

It is clear from the foregoing review that the responsibilities of the subject mentors call for
their thorough selection through the cooperation of universities and schools. When they are
being selected, it has to be ascertained that those who are selected are the experts in the field
because they play a vital role in the foundation of the pre-service teachers’ profession (Shagrir,
2010). If this selection is not considered, that may result to the negative influence in the
professional development of student-teachers. Additionally, Altan et al. (2015) concur with
Shagrir’s view when they posit that selection and evaluation criteria could be instrumental to
minimize, if not totally eliminate, the problematic aspects of mentoring.

Most literatures’ findings reveal that the majority of pre-service teachers as well as beginning
teachers concentrate on mastering the pedagogical content knowledge and typically struggle
to render other main activities which contribute to the education of learners (Fung & Chow,
2010; Van Driel & Berry, 2012; Beausaert, Segers & Wiltink, 2013). For instance, to motivate
learners to learn, implement effective classroom management, plan effectively for the diverse
needs of learners, incorporate effective assessment strategies into daily planning and teaching,
and work in partnership with parents. That is where the subject mentors have to help the pre-
service teachers to master how to deal with the above mentioned challenges which the pre-
service teachers and beginning teachers struggle to cope with during their practice (Johnson,
Berg & Donaldson, 2005).

However, the results revealed by the study of Housego (1990:48) portrayed that “pre-service
teachers feel least prepared to deal with classroom behaviour problems, to group and to assess
learners, and to choose suitable methods for teaching, all of which could be viewed as
requiring more specialised preparation.” Additionally, Salzman (1996) opines that classroom
management, methods modules, and multi-cultural education also contribute to the pre-service
teachers’ un-readiness to teach. Consequently, Greenburg and Jacobs (2009) declare that
many researches come with a notion that there is no need for teacher preparation because, a
teacher with very little preparation can be as effective as a teacher who has had a lot of
preparation. Stenberg, Karlsson and Pitkaniemi (2014) concur with Greenburg and Jacobs
(2009) when they pronounce that pre-service teachers’ beliefs are paramount; in such a way

43
that they resist change during teacher education.

Little wonder, Vesterinen, Toom and Krokfors (2014) proclaim that pre-service teachers
develop their pedagogical thinking at their own pace, and moreover their conceptions of their
pedagogy develop before their actions in the classroom. Likewise, Tarma (2012) supports
the perception held by Vesterinen et al. (2014) when he opines that pre-service teachers
develop beneficial skills such as empathy for diverse learners, a stronger commitment to
teaching as a profession, an increased use of reflection on their own practice. This confirms
that even if subject mentors can do their work of mentoring excellently; it all depends on the
commitment and willingness of the pre-service teachers to devote themselves on the assigned
work.

As noted above, the aforesaid assertion puts it clear that although practice teaching is well
appreciated, it does not adequately prepare pre-service teachers for the complexity of
professional work. For instance, one may argue that this work of mentoring pre-service
teachers is not the responsibility of the subject mentors only but it is the responsibility of any
teacher who prepares student-teachers to become members of the teaching profession.
Therefore, all school staff members who are involved in the professional preparation of the
pre-service teachers serve as role-models for them (Shagrir, 2010). Additionally, Tirri and
Ubani (2012) pronounce that pre-service teachers appreciate their stay in schools when they
are supported by caring staff members, regardless of whether they are subject mentors or not.
Hence, it is believed that they benefit socially, academically and other wise.

Tirri and Ubani (2010) proclaim that self-efficacy is one of the most powerful professional
skills which serve as the predictors of teachers’ commitment to teaching because it shows
when the teacher is making a positive difference in the life of a learner. Furthermore, Çakır
and Alıcı (2009) opine that self-efficacy is related to positive teaching behaviours such as
enthusiasm, commitment, persistence and instructional behaviour in the classroom
environment. Leader-Janssen and Rankin-Erickson (2013) define self-efficacy as belief in
one’s capabilities to organise and execute the course of action required to produce given
attainments. Housego (1990) says it is a judgment of one's capacity to accomplish a certain
level of performance. One may also say that self-efficacy is the internal beliefs and thoughts
one has about his or her ability for performing a specific task, in this case, it is about teaching.
In other words, self-efficacy is innate and it can boost or destroy one’s self confidence,

44
depending on the experiences one has and how she/he react on that experience.

Pre-service teachers have to be given proper training in order to have high level of self-efficacy.
Additionally, Leader-Janssen and Rankin-Erickson (2013) proclaim that pedagogical skills and
knowledge that contribute to being an effective teacher, inclusive of self-efficacy, contribute
to one's effectiveness. Furthermore, Bandura (1997) comes up with four main pillars of
self- efficacy and they are:
1. One’s own experience of successes
2. Modeling. This means that student teacher has to observe and compare
oneself to others in similar situations or even their mentor teacher in a variety of
situations.
3. Persuasion. In other words, others persuading the pre-service teachers to believe
they can succeed. It can also be response of the learners to their teacher
4. Physical and emotional well-being. It means that depending partly on information
from ones physiological state in judging ones capabilities.
These pillars are the premise upon which self-efficacy is built by individuals. They depict that
pre-service teachers do not enter this profession without any knowledge of what is going on
in teaching. In other words, it is important for the pre-service teachers to have an idea of
what is happening in the teaching profession and ensure that these ideas collaborate with their
level of self-efficacy.

Aðalsteinsson, Frímannsdóttir and Konráðsson (2014) argue that confidence, self-efficacy and
sense of security are all connected to well-being and are likely to be tested when taking on a
new job with new demands. It is because of the aforementioned assertions that Brown, Lee
and Collons (2015) postulate that pre-service teachers’ feelings of preparedness are often an
important predictor of their ability to perform teaching tasks as well as their self-efficacy to
teach. In the same vein, Leader-Janssen & Rankin-Erickson (2013) declare that teachers' self-
efficacy is strongly related to pre-service teachers' achievement. Hence, if the pre-service
teachers have confidence in their teaching, they have a high level of self-efficacy and they
have enough energy to help learners who are struggling to understand the lesson taught. Little
wonder, Christophersen, Elstad and Turmo (2016) posit that practice teaching programmes
need to foster these beliefs in their pre-service teachers.

45
High level of self-efficacy has to be promoted in the practice teaching programme in order to
help pre-service teachers to have passion for their work. That can yield good results of the
retention of teaching profession. No wonder, Çakır and Alıcı (2009) maintain that teachers
with high level of self-efficacy are successful when setting their goals and through
commitment and they make sure that their goals are achievable. They further contend that
these teachers show that they are passionate with their work by coming up with new teaching
methods and techniques in order to meet the needs of all the learners they teach. This means
that they have good interpersonal relationship with their learners as well as all other school
stakeholders. Brown, Lee and Collins (2015: 362) concur with Çakır and Alıcı (2009) when
they pronounce that “teachers with a high sense of teaching efficacy have been shown to be
more resilient in their teaching and likely to try harder to help all learners reach their
potential.”

Additionally, Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (Brown, et al., 2015) differentiated

among teachers’ sense of efficacy based on three critical facets of effective instruction and
these are:
1. Teachers’ sense of efficacy for instructional strategies refers to confidence that
one can design and implement activities, tasks, and assessments to facilitate
learners learning.
2. Teachers’ sense of efficacy for classroom management is the belief that one
can control, organise, non-distractive classroom environment
3. Teachers’ sense of efficacy for learners’ engagement reflects confidence that one
can help learners become and remain participative, involved or motivated for
learning.

The aforesaid statements summarise the importance of teachers’ sense of efficacy to the
development of pre-service teachers teaching profession and it is evident that if pre-service
teachers can get proper training on self- efficacy, institutions of high learning can produce
teachers of good quality.

Different researchers have come up with different connotations of professional skills that
contribute to teachers’ readiness to teach. Batchelor (2012) alludes to that reflection as among
the most professional skills that are being developed to the pre-service teachers during their
practice teaching. Reflection encourages self-study of which through self-study pre-service

46
teachers can transform from self to social understanding for themselves and for the learners
whom they teach. Toom, Husu and Patrikainen (2015) affirm that it is well known that during
their studies, pre-service teachers engage in practices that enable reflection both as a process
and as an outcome.

Marcos, Sanchez and Tillema, (2011: 21) declare that reflection “Provide a source of
knowledge construction in teaching.” Thus, Korthage et al. (2006) pronounce that theory
added to pre-service teachers’ reflections is built as much as possible around their experiences,
questions and concerns. Furthermore, Korthage et al. (2006) argue that reflection is an
essential tool for linking practice and theory, and from the very start of the programme there
is strong focus on systematic reflection.

Cheng, Cheng and Tang (2010) claim that pre-service teachers develop to become professional
teachers from many different sources of influence, and those sources include personal
reflections on their own practice, others' practices, and information from educators, literature,
mentors, peers and pupils. Consequently, Toom et al. (2015) report that teacher reflection
tends to be seen as an ideal skill when it comes to identifying, analysing and solving
complex problems that characterise teachers’ classroom work. Thus, they define it as the
‘active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in
the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.’
Hence, they further add that it comes both as a process and as an outcome because it looks
back on the assumptions and beliefs, and simultaneously, it looks forward to the implications
or consequences of a reported action.

Toom et al. (2015) opine that the qualities of reflection come especially into view when
reflection occurs in written format through art factual tools like portfolios, essays or various
journal tasks. In addition, the findings of the study by Vesterinen, Toom and Krokfors (2014)
opine that pre-service teachers build developmental paths in their pedagogical thinking
especially when they are supported in their reflection. They also identify three modes of
reflection, namely:
1. Reflection as induction to warranted ways of seeing, thinking and acting
2. Reflection as concept development, and lastly
3. Reflection as off-line or imagined practices.

47
 In support of the above assertions on reflection, Vries et al. (2012) explains that reflection has
been adopted as a foundation for many teacher education programmes. Consequently, it
(reflection) is a vital practice when dealing with human beings as teachers are viewed as
people who are responsible for the holistic education of the learners, including their personal
and ethical growth (Tirri & Ubani, 2012).Yang (2012) gives a good summary of the function
of reflection to the learning of pre-service teachers to teach. He proclaims that reflection helps
pre-service teachers to modify and review their previous practice teaching so that their
teaching may improve in the next practice teaching session.

From the foregoing statements, it is important to note that if pre-service teachers do not have
professional skills as the continuum to their training and as an integral part of their
development as teachers, they will not be considered as being properly trained. Thus, not ready
to teach. Furthermore, Korthagen, Loughranb, and Russel (2006) maintain that teacher
education is inevitably inadequate and cannot fully prepare teachers for their entire careers
unless it focuses on teaching pre-service teachers how to learn from their experiences and on
how to build professional knowledge. Hence, Feiman-Nemser (2001) posits that every
experience has to prepare a person for later experience of more extensive quality. Therefore,
for the stated reasons one may precisely state that reflection is one of the main strategies in
many professional developmental programmes.

2.11 PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS AND CLASSROOM

ANAGEMENT

Teaching and the classroom management skills are like two sides of a coin. According
to Polat, Kaya and Akdag (2013:18), classroom management means “modelling the
expected behaviour for learners and eliminating the unwanted behaviours.” When
looking at the classroom management, this study will refer to discipline and
behaviours of learners in classrooms. Behaviour management is one of the main
challenges which the majority of pre- service teachers encounter when they are in schools
for practice teaching programme (Beare, Mashall, Torgerson, & Tracz, 2012). According
to Hildenbrand and Arndt (2016), the key behaviours involve the following:
1. Teachers setting clear rules and expectations for the class with the
involvement of learners so that they can own those rules
48
 2. Informing learners about the consequences of breaking the rules
3. Involving the learners when setting the teaching goals
4. Exhibiting assertive behaviours
5. Establishing good relationship with the learners.

On the other hand, Malmgren, Trezek and Paul (2005) state the models of classroom
management which pre-service teachers have to apply during their teaching. According to
Freiberg (1996) models and approaches of classroom management are foundations into which
teachers build a management plan. They highlight three models of classroom management
namely:
1. Assertive Discipline,
2. Logical Consequences,
3. Teacher Effectiveness Training

Assertive discipline
According to Dustova and Cotton (2015) Assertive discipline is a structured, systematic
approach designed to assist teachers in running an organized, teacher-in-charge classroom
environment”. They further state that in order for the learners to succeed in their learning,
they have to be placed in a warm, supportive classroom environment. They believe that
teachers have a responsibility to identify what is best for learners, and to expect adherence.
Learners have to be controlled by ruleswhich have to be explained, practiced and enforced
consistently. Teachers have to give clear direction and guidance for proper behaviour. It
means that assertiveness has to be applied by teachers in order prevent disruptions in
teaching and learning. Teachers are expected to make sure that no learner is disrupted from
learning or they themselves are not disrupted from teaching. In order to achieve this axiom,
teachers must be consistently assertive in their wants and expected behaviour in the
classroom.

Dustova and Cotton (2015) go further by mentioning five steps of assertive

discipline:
1. Teachers should avoid negative expectations about learners.
2. Teachers have to practice assertive response styles which minimize
opportunities for confrontation.
3. Teachers have to set limits. It is important for teachers to be friendly but firm to
learners so that learners will learn appropriate behaviour.
49
 4. Teachers have to always follow through with all established consequences.
Learners have to be taught that each and every action has its own consequences.
They have to be taught the appropriate consequences and teachers have to live by
example.
5. Teachers have to implement a system of positive consequences such as personal
attention, positive notes to parents, special awards, and special privileges.

From the above mentioned assertions it is evident that assertive discipline model is based
on the positive reinforcement of desirable behaviour and negative consequences of the
undesirable behaviour.

Logical Consequences
It is well known that it is human nature that human being desire and need social recognition.
For instance, to survive, to love and belong, to gain power, to be free and to have fun (Freiberg,
1996). Likewise, with learners because they are human beings too. When learners are not
recognised they tend to misbehave and disrupt teaching and learning. Dustova and Cotton
(2015) calls that the attention-seeking behaviours. If this behaviour continues to occur.
Dustova and Cotton (2015) highlight that teachers have to apply logical consequences that
have a clear and logic connection to misbehaviour. In other words teachers should not act out
of proportion.

Teacher Effectiveness Training

In the teacher effectiveness training, Dustova and Cotton (2015) imply that it is important
for teachers to teach their learners to regulate and manage their own behaviour. By so doing,
teachers will be empowering their learners to conceptualize and solve problems for
themselves.

The above mentioned assertions about classroom management are confirm by Ali and
Khalid (2015) when they proclaim that practice teaching brings pre-service teachers face
to face with the actual challenges of the profession, which one of them is the classroom
management.

Clement (2002) insists that among the various responsibilities of the cooperating teachers
is classroom management which Atici (2007) regards as one of the most difficult tasks
50
for both pre-service teachers and experienced teachers. Atici (2007) further asserts that most
pre-service teachers define classroom management as all approaches and behaviours
adopted by teachers in order to ascertain that the curriculum is delivered appropriately
and lessons conducted successfully. When pre-service teachers have no confidence in
themselves, obviously teaching and learning is affected. The reason for this affection is that
learners lose trust in them and end up misbehaving. That is why Marais (2016) proclaims
that professional skill for teaching and learning is developed by exposure to authentic
environment. Therefore, when discipline is thoroughly maintained, learners in the
classroom are able to make better decisions in becoming responsible for their learning
(McDonald, 2010).

In order to deal with the challenges the pre-service teachers encounter in schools as far
as classroom management is concerned, Marais (2016) posits that all teacher training
programmes should offer appropriate programmes that will assist pre-service teachers to
deal with classroom dynamics. By so doing, that will help them gain the skills and
confidence in their practice in schools. Clement (2010) concurs with the above
illustrations when she avers that pre-service teachers face the problem of classroom
management because even their cooperating teachers voice out that they do not have
adequate knowledge of how to mentor pre-service teachers on classroom management
because of the shortage of sources which deal with it. They depend on their experiences.
On the contrary, Peters (2012) disputes that pre- service teachers do not get adequate
training in classroom management skills. In his findings he states that the majority of
pre-service teachers reported that they felt highly confident in being able to manage their
classrooms and were able to exercise appropriate discipline to the disruptive learners. As
already noted, in a study of 36 senior pre-service teachers in the Englishlanguage teaching,
department of foundation, in a university in Istanbul (Turkey), conducted by Incecay and
Dollar (2012), it also revealed that pre-service teachers’ classroom management
efficacy and readiness in an actual teaching environment are showing positive insights.
This shows that the issue of classroom management can also be associated with the
personality of pre-service teachers as well as the pedagogical skills and content
knowledge they have.

2.12 FACTORS PROMOTING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ READINESS TO

TEACH

Education programme faces great challenges in ensuring that its graduates are readily prepared
51
for the demands of today’s learners (Struyf, Adriaensens & Meynen, 2011; Holly, Freeman
& Wash, 2014), whereas the demand for teachers in the labour market is alarming. Thus,
practice teaching programme has become one of the most essential features for preparing
teachers of a high quality. Bahari and Buang (2011) support this assertion when they contend
that the school is one of the suitable agents where pre-service teachers do their practice
teaching. In order to address this demand, the institutions of higher learning provide different
programmes to strengthen the quality of teacher education in order to meet the needs of the
societies. Concurrently, Vries et al. (2015) opine that the school is where pre-service teachers
are developing and updating knowledge and skills, reflecting on teaching experiences and
collaborating with colleagues. They further explain that concerning the development of
knowledge and skills, pre-service teachers are expected to obtain practical and theoretical
knowledge base in the subject matter they teach, together with general pedagogical knowledge
and pedagogical content knowledge.

Petro (2016) posits that all teacher education institutions have to ensure that they offer
appropriate teacher education programmes that will enable pre-service teachers to deal with
the various demands associated with the teaching profession. Like any other professional
career, teachers are expected to enter the workforce skilled in the use of various strategies. To
affirm the above assertions, Brown, Lee and Collins (2015) report that it is during this
experience that pre-service teachers perform the following activities:
1. Practice skills of teaching
2. Learn to design and implement curricular activities
3. Establish relationships with learners of varying abilities and cultural differences.

Additionally, Christophersen, Elstad and Turmo (2016) declare that teaching profession
requires solid knowledge. Thus, Struyven, Dochy and Janssens (2010) pronounce that during
practice teaching pre-service teachers’ style of teaching is expected to be more explicit and
gain a more definite and defined shape. Darling Hammond, Chung and Freelow (2002)
proclaim that some universities have come up with teacher education programmes that include
intensive training for teaching as well as a year-long student practice teaching. For instance,
in St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, Heck and Bacharach (2016) opine that pre-
service teachers are provided with sufficient opportunities to co-teach with the experienced
teachers in order to collaborate with colleagues and develop their knowledge and skills and
reflect on their own teaching experiences. They further explain that co-teaching commonly
involves two teachers, a general educator and a special educator. They work cooperatively
52
to deliver instruction to the learners. When pre- service teachers visit the schools for practice
teaching, they are guided and developed by both teachers. This method of teaching is supported
by Smith and Averis (1998) when they report that collaboration is an essential part of learning
and, as such, it lies at the heart of what it means to be a developing teacher.

Co-teaching assists pre-service teachers to establish a foundation for the rest of their working
lives (Vries, Jansen, helms-Lorenz & Van de Grift, 2015). Additionally, Bakah, Voogt and
Pieters (2012) declare that when teachers are dependent on each other through collaboration,
that leads to the formation of the interaction for learning which result to the teachers’
commitment and successful teaching. In concurrence with Vries et al. (2015) and Bakah et
al.(2012), Kamens and Casale‐Giannola (2010) pronounce that the experience of pre-service
teachers teaching in a co-taught classroom provide some clear opportunities for professional
growth because working with experienced teachers as models assist them to construct new
knowledge and learn about teaching in the context of the classroom structure. Additionally,
Heck and Bacharach (2016) explain that before pre-service teachers and experienced teachers
work together, they are brought together to get to know one another and begin to establish a
professional relationship early in the student-teaching experience. Both experienced and pre-
service teachers are involved in every aspect of planning and delivering instruction.

Cooperating teachers provide modelling and coaching, explicitly sharing rationales for their
instructional, curricular, and management decisions. They give pre-service teachers time to
develop and practice all aspects of teaching, with their support. It is evident that when pre-
service teachers are actively involved in teaching activities from day one they become
confident and get ready for the profession. This model of co-teaching is recommended
provided that all the responsible stakeholders (university, the school, cooperating teachers and
pre-service teachers) identify suitable strategies of how to implement it. Furthermore, Vries,
Jansen, helms-Lorenz and van de Grift (2015) stress that collaborative activities are essential
for learning to teach because they lead to improvements in both teaching and learning to teach.
However, Kamens & Casale‐Giannola (2010) argue that many pre-service teachers feel that
they are not adequately prepared to co-teach.

According to Rosnani (2012); Bahari and Buang (2011) the factors which depict the pre-
service teachers’ readiness for teaching profession:
1. Knowledge

53
 2. Skills
3. Attitudes
4. Interests.

They further emphasise that these factors play an important role in producing and creating
effective teaching and learning methods. Struyven et al. (2010) opine that pre-service
teachers’ approaches to teaching are dependent on the following variables:
1. Performance,
2. Academic self‐esteem,
3. Perceived workload and
4. Pre-service teachers’ changes in approaches to learning.

Bahari and Buang (2011) pronounce that pre-service teachers need to be guided by
experienced teachers to give them the exposure and knowledge to ensure that they can
contribute towards effective teaching of the learners. They further proclaim that one of the
factors that promote readiness of teaching is mastery learning teaching method. They further
explain that it is considered easy to apply in many teaching and learning settings. Furthermore,
McGaghie (2015) opines that the goal of mastery learning is to ensure that all learners
accomplish all educational objectives with little or no outcome variation, provided that they
are given appropriate instructions and sufficient time to learn (Verdinelli & Gentile, 2012). In
other words, this approach permits the learner to progress from one objective to another.
However, the success of mastery learning depends on how teachers implement it. Moreover,
Block (Verdinelli & Gentile, 2012) describes the following steps of the components of
mastery learning:
1. The course content is broken up into a number of separate units or lessons. Each
unit conveys complex information, but it is short enough to allow a close
monitoring of each student’s learning process.
2. Units follow a logical sequence and are hierarchically organized at increasing
levels of complexity.
3. Pre-service teachers must show that they have mastered the current unit by a
feedback instrument or formative, criterion-referenced test at the completion of
each unit.
4. Additional corrective or enrichment activities are provided. The material tested can
be re-taught in alternate ways for those who have not passed the test. Correctives
may include cooperative groups, peer tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, etc.

54
 Enrichment activities also need to be provided for all, especially for those who
passed the initial mastery test, so that the material can be studied more deeply
(vertical enrichment) or applied broadly (horizontal enrichment).

The above stated steps exemplify the notion that the mastery learning approaches play crucial
roles in the educational growth of pre-service teachers. It helps them to focus on one unit at a
time and after seeing that the learners have mastered that unit they precede to another.
Furthermore, it helps them to see their teaching progress or their improvement in teaching.
Thus, Caires, Almeida and Vieira (2012:172), in their study of the perceptions of pre-service
teachers in Portugal, reveal that “there is appreciation of growth in knowledge and skillfulness,
their increasing sense of efficacy, flexibility and spontaneity in their performance and
interactions when implementing the mastery learning teaching approaches.”

Besides the above mentioned factors that promote readiness of pre-service teachers to teach,
Osmanoglu, Isiksaliand and Koc, (2015) declare case-based pedagogy as an effective method
to prepare pre-service teachers for the complexities of teaching as well as developing their
professional knowledge. Furthermore, Shulman (1992:19) defines the case pedagogy as “the
methods of pedagogy employed in conjunction with teaching cases. Arellano et al.
(2001:506) pronounce that “It embraces ideas that are grounded on critical curriculum inquiry,
and the importance of teachers’ knowledge is deep rooted in curriculum inquiry and the
importance of teachers’ practical knowledge.”

It is obvious that the case-base pedagogy is highly recommended in teacher education because
it prepares pre-service teachers to face the real classroom complexities and at the same time
provide them with opportunities to develop their professional knowledge. It is the correct tool
to uproot the discrepancies between the theory and the practice which pre-service teachers
face in the real classroom situation thus enables them to pass through the transition period
from being student to becoming a teacher (Jay, 2004).

Tsien and Tsui (2007: 348) perceive the school as the platform which produces a practitioner
who can integrate theory and practice sensitively, systematically and successfully, and when
it does that, it promotes the readiness of pre-service teachers for the teaching profession. Thus,
the study by Beck and Kosnik (2002:85) articulate that “components of a good practicum
placement” found that emotional support from:
55
 1. Co-operating teacher
2. Peer relationship with the cooperating teacher
3. Collaboration with the cooperating teacher
4. Flexibility in teaching content and method
5. Feedback from the cooperating teacher
6. Sound approach to teaching and learning on the part of the cooperating teacher
7. Heavy but not excessive workload during teaching practicum is the main factor
that influences pre-service teachers’ readiness to the teaching profession.

Schools have always been influenced by the historical and cultural changes in the economic,
social and political sectors of their country, and those factors influence the running of school
organisation, specifically with respect to teaching and the skills and content which is taught
to learners (Herdeiro & Costa e Silva, 2013).Therefore, all factors discussed above can be
subsumed into different subheadings ranging from environmental, psychological, and
economical to social factors; each discussed distinctly below.

2.12.1 Environmental factors

Environmental factors deal with various units revolving around the school both within and
outside the school premises. This involves stakeholders such as members of the host
community where the school is situated, municipality leaders, parents, etc. In this regard the
way teachers are treated by members of the host community as well as parents and municipal
leaders within that environment will go a long way to determine how well pre-service teachers
will accept the profession and consequently react. For instance, if teachers are ill- treated by
members of the host community and parents, it is not doubtful that pre-service teachers will
hate the profession and that will affect their attitude as well as readiness towards the teaching
profession. However, if the reverse is the case, the tendency for the pre-service teachers to be
well prepared to take over as expected will be high. Thus, Esa (2010) avers that the success
of pre-service teachers in schools require the commitment of host community as well as
parents and municipal leaders within that environment because environmental problems have
become issues of great concern to many pre-service teachers. The spirit of collaboration is
emphasised. Hence, Vries et al. (2015: 462) pronounce that “collaborative activities are
essential for learning to teach; they take place both in the practice school with experienced
teachers as colleagues and in the teaching institute with peers.”
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2.12.2 Psychological factors
It is very crucial for the teacher to know what he/she believes and who he or she is. Pre-service
teachers’ beliefs which entail attitudes and values play a vital role in development of their
teaching because they bring them to classroom for teaching the learners. Khader (2012) asserts
that generally, those beliefs are the thoughts held by the teachers about the teaching and
learning processes, which influence their classroom practices. Furthermore, Khader (2012)
explains that what teachers do in the classroom is said to be governed by what they believe.
He further points out that teacher’s beliefs come from three sources:
1. Teacher’s experience as a learner when they were still in school (prior experience
as a learner).
2. Teacher’s knowledge of the school courses when they were placed in schools as
pre- service teachers, observing their cooperating teachers teaching and given a
chance to practice teaching (prior experience as teacher candidate).
3. Personal experiences of the teacher in general and teaching in particular when they
are formerly employed as qualified teachers.

From the aforementioned emphasised points, it is evident that pre-service teachers and the
beginning teachers do not enter this profession as “tabula-rasa,” but they enter it with the
experience they acquired while they were in schools learning and when they were placed
inschools observing their cooperating teachers teaching and also given a chance to practice
teaching. Cheng et al. (2010) concur with the above mentioned assertion when they explain
that pre-service teachers enter this profession with the pre‐training experiences which include:
1. Life experiences

2. Family background
3. Cumulative experiences of school lives
4. School’s culture
5. Teacher education programme.

Davis and Wilson (1999) affirm that those beliefs and theories they acquired before joining
the teaching profession tend to shape the nature of their instructional practice. Furthermore,
Cherian (2006) declares that generally, the teachers’ beliefs are described as being the most
valuable factors in the psychological composition of the teacher. Consequently, Vesterinen,
Toom and Krokfors (2014) concur with Davis and Wilson when they announce that pre-
service teachers’ conceptions of their pedagogy develop before their actions in the classroom

57
 and their pedagogical thinking develop at their own pace. They further suggest support from
the subject mentors to help pre-service teachers put their pedagogical ideas into practice,
because it is known that not all pre-service teachers are able to reach the level of pedagogical
thinking which is required. This is confirmed by De Monte (2009) when he emphasises that
through the help of subject mentors, pre-service teachers need to know content and know how
to teach it.

2.12.3 Economic factors

The responsibility of education system does not support pre-service teachers on the cognitive
domain only but to develop their whole being, economically and otherwise. For instance, in
Finland, Tirri and Ubani (2012) declare that teaching is made attractive and very lucrative to
the extent that the requirement may be as high as minimum Master’s degree; pre-service
teachers still thrive to meet the standard. Furthermore, De Monte (2015) proclaims that, that
requirement serves as threshold that must be successfully crossed to enter teaching as a
professional. Tirri and Ubani (2012) further indicate that teacher education in Finland is
popular to the pre-service teachers because they are salaried (given stipend) while still in
schools doing teaching practice.

In South Africa, for instance, the Funza bursary helps encourage pre-service teachers to
opt for the teaching profession based on the funding they are bound to enjoy. That encourages
less privileged students to further their studies by going into the universities to study education.
On the contrary, pre-service teachers are discouraged to study education because the salary
scale for teachers is quite low as compared to other professions (Tirri & Ubani, 2012). On
the other hand, the teaching profession is no longer a calling. It is economically driven. The
pre-service teachers study it because they assume that it is easy to be employed after they
have completed their studies. That mentality contributes to pre-service teachers not becoming
ready to teach. Thus, Bullough and Hall-Kenyon (2011:128) opine that “having a strong
‘sense of a “calling” work constitutes a practical ideal of activity and character that makes a
person’s work morally inseparable from his or her life.” It is evident that based on economic
growth, the quality of education can be improved. This will in turn produce teachers who are
competent and in return successfully produce competent citizens in large numbers (Subroto,
2013).

2.12.4 Social factors

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According to Butler and Cuanca (2012) mentoring is largely a socially constructed practice
because pre-service teachers have to learn to cooperate with their cooperating teachers, school
management, administrators and parents. The mentor–pre-service teacher relationship is
affected by personalities and past histories of each person, the school setting's, emotional
effect, and decisions made along the way. It is evident that experienced teachers mentor pre-
service teachers using their experiences, which include what they experienced when they were
still in schools learning, when they were pre-service teachers as well as when they became
professional teachers. As a result of that mentoring, the relationship which develops between
mentor and mentee occurs as a cause of various expectations of the experiences (Cherian,
2006).

Herdeiro and Costa e Silva (2013) explain that this interaction of the different professional
experiences of teachers, like the contexts in which they work from; for instance, from the
classroom to the school and on to social and political contexts, that give rise to the thoughts
and actions of teachers. That is why, Cheng et al. (2010) declare that what makes education
work is not just knowledge learnt from books, but it is also the knowledge constructed in
practical and societal situations by teachers personally and practice teaching experiences
which are regarded as one of the main factors in changing pre-service teachers' thoughts of
teaching.

Yoder (2014) emphasises that pre-service teachers need to be taught the importance of social
and emotional competencies that enable teachers to create supportive relationships with
learners, create activities that build the strengths of learners, and help learners themselves to
develop the basic social and emotional skills necessary to participate in classroom activities.
Teacher learning is understood as socially negotiated and contingent on knowledge of self,
learners, subject matter, curricula, and setting (Hollins, Luna & Lopez, 2012). Hence,
Stenberg et al. (2014) declare that teachers are part of a broader environment, which is the
school and surrounding society. This means that pre-service teachers need to be exposed to
the activities which will make them get to know the community which they are dealing with
so as to know their needs.

Although the importance of the social factor which promotes pre-service teachers’ readiness
to teaching profession has been stated, it lacks the definite clarity of mentoring teachers’ roles

59
and responsibilities. This is caused by the fact that there is no interaction between the teaching
experience institutions and the schools. As a result of not receiving guidance from teacher
education programme about the goals and practices that cohere with university preparation,
mentors are often left to fend for themselves (Butler & Cuenca, 2012). Gerrevall (2011)
concur with Butler and Cuenca (2012) when he states that mentors have now taken it as a
norm to use their own experience when they develop mentor pre-service teachers. Some
experienced teaching institutions provide consistent and focused training to prepare mentors
to work with pre-service teachers (Heck & Bacharach, 2016).

Besides the lack of interaction between the experienced teaching institutions and the partner
schools, Makura and Zivera (2014) point out that, pre-service teachers are a vulnerable group
who are subjected to the scrutiny of those at their host school and the surrounding
communities. Sometimes they are being abused by their mentors when they fail to comply
with their ill-treatment, for instance when the subject mentors shift all their responsibilities to
the pre-service teachers. Furthermore, Xu (2016) affirms that the attrition rates vary for pre-
service teachers in different academic majors, partly due to the indirect social context
provided by the major departments. In other words the practice varies from one department to
another department.

To sum up the factors that promote the readiness of pre-service teachers for the teaching
career, Fry, Ketterridge and Marshall (2008: 86) claim that “the school environment offers
pre-service teachers the opportunity to acquire experiences of school based knowledge, which
are the School Organisation Development (SOD) and to appreciate the complex aspects of
school cultures”. This count for a reason why Heeralal and Bayaga (2011) confirm that pre-
service teachers report that practice teaching brought considerable amount of experiences to
their study. Similarly, Allison, Nwanekezi, Okoli and Mezieobi (2011) assert that pre-service
teachers see themselves grow through experiences and begin to imbibe the culture of teaching.
Likewise, Al-Mahrooqi (2011: 247); Wambugu, Barmao and Ng’eno (2013: 170) claim that
research indicates that pre-service teachers value the teaching components and other practices.

On the contrary, Vries et al. (2015) opine that the content knowledge, pedagogical skills and
attitudes required for the teaching profession cannot be developed fully in pre-service
education programmes, so life-long learning is recommended for all teaching professionals.
Al Malihi (2015) concurs with Vries et al. (2015) that the results from their study reveal that

60
most pre-service teachers are not fully ready to teach because they do not receive sufficient
pre-training, so life-long learning is the only way to go. Additionally, Rusznyak’s (2011)
analysis shows that learning to organise and present a coherent lesson to learners is a complex
process for most of pre-service teachers. They do not master it at a go. They need to keep on
striving to achieve excellence. Likewise, the results revealed by the study of Powers and
Harris (1991) depict that readiness for teaching is low in most of pre-service teachers because
they (pre-service teachers) are beginning their professional application of knowledge and have
a lot of fear.

Based on the above premise, Struyf, Adriaensens and Meynen (2011) declare that researchers,
policy-makers and teacher educators emphasise that the process of becoming a teacher
involves lifelong learning. Nomlomo (2016) confirms Struyf’s et al. (2011) assertion that
learning to teach is not a simple, mechanistic and one-way process but is loaded with
complexities that require more than mere observation but learning from your own experience
and from peers as well as other experienced teachers. Furthermore, Cheng et al. (2010) argue
that if the pre‐training experiences or teaching context influences have a stronger impact on
the pre-service teachers than the teacher education programme, that create a mismatch
between what the pre-service teachers learnt (theory) from the institution of higher learning
and what they expect to find happening (practice) in schools. Thus, it is evident that in order
for the pre-service teachers not to enter into a reality shock, there must be correlation between
theory learnt at the university and practice found in schools. Besides, Cheng et al. (2010)
further posit that the development of reflective practice can be advocated to help pre-service
teachers integrate theory and practice.

From the foregoing discussion, it can be concluded that although practice teaching is highly
recommended world-wide, it does not provide adequate requirements in order to produce a
qualified teacher who is ready to teach.

2.13 RESPONSIBILITIES OF SUBJECT MENTORS AND THEIR

PERCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Subject mentors are regarded as the main players in the development of pre-service teachers’
teaching because pre-service teachers are placed under their supervision in schools. In support
of this assertion, Endeley (2014) declares that some of their responsibilities are to support pre-

61
service, give them considerable amount of feedback after they have taught and even conduct
lessons as a team (team teaching). Additionally, Ali and Khalid 2015 proclaim that the main
function of subject mentors is to improve instruction and guide pre-service teachers in actual
classroom teaching. Thus, they are regarded as the resource people, counsellors, advisors,
evaluators and interpreters of feedback. In this regard, Bigham et al. (2014) declare that
subject mentors have high expectations for pre-service teachers when they are under their
supervision. These expectations include:
1. Good interaction between them and pre-service teachers as well as all other
school stakeholders
2. Demonstration of professionalism
3. Coming to classroom fully prepared for teaching
4. Committed to all the work which is given to them to perform.

Therefore, it is evident that when subject mentors know what is expected of them when
mentoring pre-service teachers, pre-service teachers will be well equipped with adequate
knowledge about the culture or dispositions of teaching profession (Yang, 2012). Thus,
adequate knowledge will help pre-service teachers to be ready for the teaching profession.

2.14 PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PRACTICE TEACHING

Every professional career provides training for its employees including education profession.
This is further illustrated by Chen and Mu (2010), and Tarman (2012) when they state that
teacher education programmes cannot be complete without a practice teaching programme. In
this regard, they maintain that it is where pre-service teachers are assisted to translate
knowledge and skills gained from their institution of higher learning into practice through
actual teaching in the classroom.

Furthermore, teacher education provides practice teaching programme whereby pre-service

teachers are given an opportunity to visit schools in order to learn how to teach being assisted
by experienced teachers in a real school context (Yucel, Acun, Tarman & Mete, 2010). These
assertions are supported by Wumbugu, Barmao and Ng’eno (2013) when they opine that
practice teaching plays a significant role in helping pre-service teachers to acquire and develop
purposeful, scientific experiences in advance. They further explain that the acquisition and
development of these scientific experiences result to the formation of perception regarding
their roles and responsibilities as professional teachers.
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Additionally, the findings of the study by Tarman (2012) indicate that besides practice
teaching’s function of preparing pre-service teachers with methods of teaching, it also gives
pre-service teachers opportunity to modify their self-perceptions about teaching career. It also
provides them the opportunity to reflect on their understanding of teaching as a profession. In
other words, it gives them the opportunity to recognise how much they like the job and how
well they can cope with it (Ali & Khalid, 2015). However, Naylor, Campbell-Evans and
Maloney (2015) conducted a study on “Learning to teach: What do pre-service teachers
report.” Their study reveals that to teach is complex because one needs to learn to perform
different activities simultaneously. Thus, Street (2004) states that pre-service teachers have
towork very close with their subject mentors in order to develop the ability to work
independently. In this regard, Yang (2012) adds that teaching expertise of pre-service teachers
is mainly developed through interactions with subject mentors and learners. Furthermore,
working in collaboration will also assist them to be ready for evaluation by both subject
mentors and university supervisors.

It is evident that this practice is accepted world-wide although the study by Naylor et al. (2015)
reveals that the survey which was conducted nationally and internationally mentions that
practice teaching programmes do not prepare pre-service teachers for real teaching. Similarly,
Barone, Bresler and Latta (2007); Kildan, Unallbret, Pektas, Aydinozu, Incikabi and
Recepoglu (2013); Ali and Khalid (2015); Nenty, Moyo, Sello, Phuti and Fiji (2015) opine
that most of the pre-service teachers report that they do not see any contribution made by
practice teaching in their professional development. Kildan et al. (2013) concur with the
aforesaid assertions. They mention curriculum and content knowledge as the main reasons for
pre-service teachers to feel inadequate for teaching. Furthermore, Yang (2012) states that
besides the aforementioned reasons which make pre-service teachers feel inadequate for
teaching, other factors such as personal dispositions, interactions with cooperating mentors
and school leadership can also hinder their learning to teach practice.

These assertions are further supported by Wambugu et al. (2013) when they assert that pre-
service teachers report that their subject mentors do not offer them any help because they do
not want to be observed when teaching. Moreover, they do not accompany them when it is their
(pre-service teachers’) turn to teach. Additionally, Hassan, Maharoff and Abiddin (2014)
emphasise that on top of not being accompanied to classrooms, pre-service teachers confirm

63
 that they are not given sufficient time by their subject mentor to teach. That makes them feel
least competent in the curriculum and content knowledge as well as in monitoring and
evaluating learning development.

This shows that pre-service teachers end up not gaining any teaching experiences from
their subject mentors. In order to address this challenge which is encountered by pre-service
teachers, Hassan et al. (2014) posit two actions:
1. Pre-service teachers need three to four years to acquire adequate competencies
and a few more years to become professionals.
2. An orientation course for subject teachers in order to be ‘workshopped’ on
how to assist pre-service teachers and that orientation has to be based on mutual
respect.
In the study by Hollins et al. (2012) on learning to teach teachers, which used practice-to-
theory field experience (PTE) approach, it concurs with Hassan et al. (2014). It stresses the
need for subject mentors to be trained in order to know how to mentor pre-service teachers on
how to teach. Likewise, Jackson (2014) also explains that mentoring training is necessary so
that subject mentors will know what is expected of them when teaching pre-service teachers.
Additionally, Ali and Khalid (2015) explain what is expected from the subject mentors when
mentoring pre-service teachers. They mention that it involves guiding, helping, correcting,
advising, evaluating and even showing the trainee teacher how to teach better. If subject
mentors can be ‘workshopped’ on what is expected of them when mentoring pre-service
teachers that can minimise the rate of pre-service teachers who withdraw from pursuing
teaching profession after they have reflected negatively on their understanding of it.
Literature mentions various reasons which make pre-service and beginning teachers to
withdraw from the teaching profession. For instance, Vuaghn (2006: 27) points out that the
types of curriculum, instruction and assessments of teacher education programmes employed
to teach measure their pre-service teachers’ readiness for such setting. Concomitantly, Lin,
Childs, Zhang and Boylan (2016) mention the lack of commitment to teaching, lack of
confidence in their ability to be teachers as well as inability to manage/control the class.
Moreover, Marais (2016) include the overcrowding of the classroom which makes pre-service
teachers not to be able to teach and to manage the class. That is why Peters (2012) avers that
pre-service teachers experience “reality shock” when they come across what they were not
expecting in the classroom.

2.14 THE IMPORTANCE OF REDESIGNING TEACHER EDUCATION

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Butler and Cuenca (2013), and Makura and Zireva (2013) support the aforementioned
suggestions by explaining that in order to improve learning experience of pre-service teachers
in schools, these divergent perspectives (university supervisors and cooperating teachers) need
to work in collaboration. Through such collaboration and mutual communication between the
two aforesaid main stakeholders, pre-service teachers would better develop themselves during
their pre‐service education. Ali and Khalid (2015) stress that this collaboration reveals
interdependency of the education institutions and the partnership schools. Likewise, Ngcobo
(1995) emphasises that KwaZulu Department of Education and Culture, realised the need
to strengthen the links between universities and the schools used for practice teaching as
both teachers and lecturers have much to learn from closer contact (Taskin, 2006).

Additionally, Struyf, Adriaensens and Meynena (2011) posit that Departments of Higher
Education have to initiate the development of a vocational profile and a list of basic skills
to serve as quality standards for teacher-training programmes. They explain that vocational
profile gives a clear direction of what is to be known by the pre-service teachers besides the
classroom responsibilities. In other words, it highlights other activities that are to be known
and done by pre-service teachers which will strengthen their understanding of activities
rendered by teachers in school. Vocational profile put it clear that the pre-service teachers
need not be confined in the classroom activities only, but they have to be exposed to all
the activities rendered by schools in order to have a complete ‘feel’ of how the schools
operate or work with the surrounding communities. That exposure will enable them to
learn more about the learners’ background and thus be able to understand and teach them
effectively.
As such, Struyf et al. (2011) further mention that pre-service teachers have to be trained on how
to deal with learners’ diversity because the school is a small society that reflects the larger
society which is always dealing with diversity of religion, ethnicity, economic and social status.
Peklaj (2015) argues that if all these diversities can be balanced and work in synergy in the
classroom that can lead to the best outcomes and the best learners’ achievement.

Rahman, Abdullah and Rashid (2011) pronounce that all these challenges mentioned above
show that re-designing teacher education in the new millennium is a world-wide matter that
needs to be addressed prudently so that it can benefit both the pre-service teachers and the
school (learners). The importance of redesigning teacher education has been deliberated on.
Thus it has to be implemented and evaluated to determine whether it can make pre-service
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teachers ready for the teaching profession.

2.15 SUMMARY

This chapter provided the synopsis of the relevant literature on pre -service teachers’ readiness
to teach. The concept of readiness was unpacked as well as the importance of practice teaching
and skills development. Since the study is about pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach, the
researcher saw it necessary to highlight the following areas: perception of practice teaching;
pedagogical skills and content knowledge in pre-service teaching programme and classroom
management. Furthermore, when pre-service teachers are in schools for practice teaching,
they are the responsibility of subject mentors. The responsibilities of subject mentors and their
perceptions of pre-service teachers were vital to include. Research findings on practice
teaching in selected countries have been analysed in order to indicate how practice teaching
is accepted worldwide. Pre-service teachers’ readiness for teaching profession as well as
factors that promote their readiness to teach were also identified in this chapter. Furthermore,
an attempt has also been made to put theoretical frameworks in perspective where
constructivism (which infuses cognitivist) and transformative learning theories were used.
The next chapter deals with research design: research approaches and research methods.

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 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter explicates the methodological procedures that were undertaken during data
collection. The instruments used for data collection are explained in detail with both their
advantages and disadvantages.

The aim of the study is to evaluate pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach and it is a case study
of a South African University. Thus, this study is guided by the following five research objectives
during data collection:
1. To establish whether pre-service teachers are able to facilitate the teaching and
learning process using various methods of teaching
2. To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers are able to present the lesson
in a logical manner
3. To ascertain whether the third year pre-service teachers have acquired adequate
content knowledge of their teaching subjects
4. To determine whether pre-service teachers are capable of exercising / applying
classroom management skills
5. To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers consider practice teaching
sufficient to prepare them for the profession.

3.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM

A research study is based on assumptions about what constitutes knowledge and its reality, and
the appropriate methods of building it. When summed up, these assumptions fall under the term
‘paradigm’ (Punch, 2014:14). A paradigm can be defined as “a worldview - a way of thinking
about and making sense of the complexities of the real world. A research paradigm would therefore
serve to define what should be studied, the type of questions to be asked and what rules to be
followed in interpreting the answers obtained (Collins, Kinzig, Grimm, Fagan, Hope, & Borer,
2000:19). Additionally, Johnson and Christensen, (2012) regard research paradigm as the
underlying set of beliefs about how research elements are pieced together to make meanings of
research discoveries. There are three main research paradigms known as: positivism, interpretivism
and post-positivism. On the other hand, Creswell (2014) categorises research paradigms into four
67
 which are constructivism, post positivism, transformative and pragmatism.

In this study, interpretivism paradigm was used. This approach was used in order to collect in depth
and qualitative data from the pre-service teachers as well as their subject mentors. Creswell
(2014) states that in order to collect adequate and relevant data in certain subject matters, in-
depth investigation should be carried out. The qualitative in-depth investigation can be
conducted through the use of observation, interviews, among others. Hence, in proffering
answers to the research questions guiding this study, observation techniques were used and
interviews were conducted with both subject mentors as well as focus group participants
consisting of selected pre-service teachers. Furthermore, interpretivism paradigm links to the
transformative learning theory which is used in this study. Data were collected on the perception
of subject mentors towards the readiness of pre-service teachers in order to help proffer
suggestions on how transformation can be made in preparing pre-service teachers’ minds for
better output. The table below illustrates how the paradigm and methodological approaches were
used in this study.

Table 3.1: Research Paradigm

Characteristics Interpretive approach
Purpose This approach allows for observations, interviews, focus group
interviews and document analysis as instruments of data collection.
Beliefs Different people have different needs, different perceptions as well as
different experiences.
Research method Qualitative
What study data is based Descriptive, explanatory and content analyses
upon
Study sample Representative who were selected based on knowledge of the
phenomena being studied (Readiness of pre-service teachers to teach)
(Michel, 2008)

3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is defined by Kumar (2014:123) as the road map that one decides to follow
during his or her research journey to find answers to certain research questions as valid,
objective, accurate and economical as possible. On the other hand, McMillan and Schumacher
(2006) explain that research design refers to a plan for selecting respondents, research sites and
data collection procedures to answer research questions. It is an overall pattern or approach
which portrays how the researcher intends to obtain, analyse and interpret data. Furthermore,
Kumar (2011) explains that through a research design the researcher may do the following:
1. Conceptualise an operational plan to undertake the various procedures and tasks
68
 required to complete the study
2. Ensure that these procedures are adequate to obtain valid, objective and accurate
answers to the research questions

In a nutshell, the above assertions indicate that research design is a framework on which research
is built. Therefore, it is evident that the main goal of research design is to provide results that are
judged as trustworthy because certain procedures are followed when it is used. This study adopted
a qualitative research approach which emphasises inductive reasoning. Qualitative data are
gathered primarily in the form of spoken or written language, unlike in the quantitative research
approach where data is collected in the form of numbers (Polkinhorne, 2005). McMillan and
Schumacher (2011: 323) opine that in the inductive approach the process is like a funnel because
the data are gathered first and then synthesised inductively to generate generalisation. This implies
that the data is developed from the bottom up rather than from the top down. In this study, data were
collected from the purposive sample of sixteen B. Ed three pre-service teachers and sixteen subject
mentors.

Different researchers give different aims and functions of qualitative research approach. Flick,
Kardorff and Steinke, (2002) opine that it seeks to contribute to a better understanding of social
realities and to draw attention to processes, meaning patterns and structural features. Thus,
Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen and Snelgrove (2015) emphasise that the main aims of qualitative
approach are to provide an in-depth, socio-contextual and detailed description and interpretation of
the research topic. Additionally, Miller, Dingwall and Murphy (2003) declare that it is a tool used
to address many of the problems and dilemmas facing contemporary organisational stakeholders.
Qualitative research approach is further illustrated by Creswell (2009) as a means of exploring
and understanding the meaning that individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem.
To sum up the above aims and functions of qualitative research approach, Williams (2007) regards
qualitative research as the holistic approach which deals with discovery which is not easy to
quantify such as observations of non-verbal discussion and interview transcripts. Therefore,
qualitative research approach describes life- world from the point of view of the people who
participate. Hence, the researcher has chosen to use qualitative research in order to explore and get
in depth understanding of pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. A qualitative research approach
is also used in this study to investigate the phenomenon from the pre- service teachers’ subject
mentors’ perspective.
In support of the above assertion Piaw (2013) opines that qualitative research approach is mostly

69
 used by the academic researchers in order to gather data which is used in different forms such as
words, pictures, objective and host of others. Furthermore, this study employed qualitative research
approach in order to investigate and provide a comprehensive analysis for the achievement of
the research objectives purposes. This approach is recommended by many researchers because of
its decent characteristics which are stated in the table below:

Table 3.2: Characteristics of qualitative research

Characteristics of Explanation
qualitative research
Importance of context A relevant factor in the elusiveness of “truth” is the central and
significant role context plays
Importance of meaning It is unique in the dimensionality of drawing meaning from the data
Researcher as instrument It places the researcher at the centre of the data gathering phase and
the researcher becomes the instrument by which information is
collected
Participant-researcher Since the researcher is the instrument by which data is collected,
relationship the relationship between the former and the participant is crucial
Flexibility of the research Various instruments for collecting data: observation, interviews,
design focus group interviews and document analysis in order to capture
an authentic data
Skill set required of the Researcher has to possess unique skills and appropriate analytical
researcher abilities
Types of issues effectively Suitable to tackle issues that might be difficult and also tackles
addressed sensitive or personal issues such as violence, sexual dysfunction;
personal life
Messy analysis and inductive Its analysis is not rigid. The messiness of the interconnections,
approach inconsistencies embraces the tangles of its data from many sources.
Inductive approach is the contributor to the messiness of the
analytical process
(Roller & Lavrakas, 2015)

In this study, case study was used because it focused on the pre-service teachers who were
studying in a single institution of higher learning in South Africa. Imenda and Muyangwa (2006),
and de Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011) state that a case study refers to the in-depth
analysis of a single unit. That single unit may include a single person, a group of people, an
organisation or an institution. McMillan and Schumacher (2011) and Creswell (2014) concur
with the above assertion when they explain that case study is the design which develops an in-
depth analysis of a case, often a program, event, activity, process, or more individuals. What
compelled the adoption of this approach is the fact that the study sought to understand the
phenomenon of sixteen pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach without trying to control it as would
be the case with quantitative studies. Furthermore, this study sought to develop in-depth analyses
of these sixteen pre-service teachers readiness to teach.

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3.4 POPULATION

According to Tuckman (2011) population is the target group from which the researcher wants to get
information about the problem or phenomenon of interest and then draws conclusions. The
population of this study comprised one thousand and eighteen (1018) third year registered pre-service
teachers in the Faculty of Education at a South African university and their subject mentors in two
districts in KwaZulu Natal. This South African university consists of four faculties, Faculty of
Education included. The Faculty of Education offers a four year B. Ed programme to its pre-
service teachers who intend to become teachers. The first and second year pre-service teachers
who are registered for B. Ed degree are given a chance to go and observe seasoned and
experienced teachers teaching in schools as part of their programme. The third year registered
pre-service teachers are the only pre-service teachers who are expected to undergo practice
teaching for a period of six weeks under the supervision of the school based subject mentors. They
are allowed to observe the subject teachers at least for a week and thereafter teach learners for
five weeks. They are visited by their university supervisors for evaluation purposes. Based on
the programme which is undergone by the third year pre-service teachers, the researcher saw it
necessary to evaluate their readiness to teach.

3.5 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDURE

According to Bless and Higson-Smith (2010), sample is a portion of the whole target
population that is being investigated from which characteristics are generalised to the entire
population. Therefore, qualitative research has various sampling methods such as maximum
variation sampling, homogeneous sampling, critical case sampling, theory based sampling,
confirming and disconfirming cases, snowball sampling, convenience sampling, opportunistic
sampling, random purposive sampling, criterion and stratified purposive sampling.

Non-probability purposive sampling method was chosen as the most appropriate sampling
strategy for this study. As the word ‘non-probability’ denotes, this sampling is set on the premise
that not all members of the population stand a chance of being selected. This sampling strategy was
used to select respondents due to the design of the study which was specifically targeted towards a
particular group of people. Schumacher (2010) outlines three types of non- probability sampling
approaches which are commonly used: convenience sampling, quota sampling and purposive
sampling. This study preferred to use purposive sampling strategy on the grounds that in purposive
sampling, participants are selected for a specific purpose on which the researcher decides
(Mutshaeni, Manwadu & Mashau, 2015). Hence, the main aim was to evaluate pre-service teachers’
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readiness to teach. The use of purpose sampling in this study is also supported by De Vos,
Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011: 232) when they explain that “purposive sampling is based
entirely on the judgement of the researcher, in that a sample is composed of elements that contain
the most characteristics, representative or typical attributes of the population that serve the
purpose of the study best”. Similarly, McMillan and Schumacher (2010: 138) opine that “in
purposive sampling, the researcher selects particular elements from the population that will be
representative or informative about the topic of interest”. They go further to opine that it is a
useful strategy for sampling procedure when conducting a study because it allows the researcher to
select the sample based on knowledge of the phenomena being studied. Based on the above
mentioned assertions it is evident that purposive sampling is extremely useful when the researcher
wants to construct a historical reality, describe a phenomena or develop something about which
only a little is known.

Different researchers employ purposive sampling in order to achieve one of the goals mentioned
above. For instance, Wairimu, Macharia and Muriru (2016) used purpose sampling method when
collecting data from 8 participants selected from eight schools for their study in Kieni West Sub
county, Nyeri county, Kenya. Velittin and Caner (2017) employed the use of purposive sampling
to select three commercials in order to criticize the TV commercials that use sports image by using
semiotics-analysing method in Turkey. Çalik Var, Kilic and Kumandas (2016) also employed the
use of non-probability purpose sampling when they investigated perceptions of the parenting
styles of mothers who have children between 2-6 years old, 20 mothers were selected.
Adetimirin (2012) too used purposive sample to select four faculties in seven universities in
Nigeria in order to collect data for her study. Besides, Devers and Frankel (2000) assert that
qualitative research mostly adopt purposive sampling than other types of sampling.

This study was conducted in one of the South African universities where three B. Ed
programmes are simultaneously run in the Faculty of Education. These programmes are: Early
Childhood Development (ECD) Phase, Intermediate and Senior (Int. and Sen.) Phase and Further
Education and Training (FET) Phase. Thus, this study used sixteen (16) third year B. Ed pre-service
teachers who were purposefully selected to participate. They were purposively selected because they
were regarded as a good representation of the phenomenon under study based on their programme
and the level of learners they had to teach. In order to make a total of sixteen, eight pre-service
teachers per district participated. The participants were drawn from B. Ed three pre-service
teachers who were registered for Intermediate and Senior phase, regardless of the subjects they were

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 teaching. The reason for selecting Intermediate and Senior phase pre-service teachers was to narrow
the scope of the study to one phase. They were drawn from sixteen schools spread across two
districts in the province of KwaZulu Natal. The selected districts are King Cetshwayo and
uMkhanyakude (Far North).

Eight schools from each of the two districts were selected to make a total of sixteen schools to
participate in the study. Eight school based subject mentors per district which make a total of sixteen
were also purposefully selected from sixteen schools in two districts in KwaZulu Natal. They
were purposefully selected because they spend most of the time with pre-service teachers in
schools. They are the ones who guide, mentor and equip pre-service teachers with all the
necessary skills and knowledge in order to be effective teachers. Additionally, purposive
sampling permits the researcher to select the sample based on knowledge of the phenomena being
studied. The total number of participants for the study was thirty two (32). This sample was used to
elicit information to answer the research questions of this study through the use of the three
instruments for triangulation purposes in the analysis and synthesis of findings in the subsequent
chapter.

The purposively selected third year B.Ed. pre-service teachers were observed while teaching in
their respective schools and then interviewed in a form of a focus group on campus once they had
finished their practice teaching session. Their responses were taken verbatim. Documents
which consist of lesson plans, CAPS documents as well as university supervisors’ comments in the
evaluation sheets were also analysed. Additionally, subject mentor teachers were interviewed in
their respective schools. Their responses were taken verbatim. Their views were regarded as
valuable as pre-service teachers spend most of their time with them during practice teaching. They
are the people who coach /mentor them for six weeks. Hence, the words of Ferber and Nillas (2010)
become a reality when they opine that subject mentors are the most effective people to the lives of
pre-service teachers because they are their role models as they develop them professionally.

3.6 INSTRUMENTS AND DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

The purpose of data collection is to develop answers to the research question(s) (Creswel & Clarke,
2011). Data collection method used in this study entailed aspects of methodological triangulation
through cross verification from various sources. According to Polit and Beck, (2008) triangulation
is the use of multiple sources or referents to draw conclusions of what constitutes the truth about
a single phenomenon and to bring clarity and understanding of that. Hussein (2009) opines that
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 triangulation is used to gain a deeper understanding and increase the credibility of a study. This
implies that triangulation is the use of multiple methods to collect and interpret data about some
phenomenon in order to have accurate representation of reality in academic research. Therefore, the
notion of triangulation in this study involved the practice of viewing issues from different angles
by using several data collection techniques. McMillan and Schumacher (2010: 331) affirm that
“different strategies may yield different insights about a topic of interest and thus result to the
credibility of findings.” Additionally, De Vos et al. (2011: 442) stress that triangulation’s main
advantage is that “each type of datum can be collected and analysed separately and
independently.” Hence, four methods were employed to collect data on pre-service teachers’
readiness to teach. Those methods were:
1. Observation
2. Semi structured Interviews
3. Focus group interviews
4. Document analysis.

The researcher used the observation schedule when she was observing pre-service teachers
teaching and used interview schedule for the subject mentors. Voice recorder was used to record
the responses of the subject mentors and also during the focus group interviews for pre- service
teachers in order to assist the researcher to capture all the necessary data properly. Furthermore,
the data were transcribed verbatim. Document analysis was used to evaluate the content of pre-
service teachers’ files. University supervisors’ reports were also analysed to check their comments
about the performance / readiness of pre-service teachers to teach. In the discussions, the
researcher correlated what was observed during the teaching of pre- service teachers with the
responses of the subject mentors during the one-on-one interview. This was done in order to get
in-depth information about whether the pre-service teachers were ready to teach or not.

3.6.1 Observation

Observation is a widely used means of data collection. McMillan and Schumacher (2010), de Vos,
Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011) and Creswell (2014) stress that observation schedule is
an instrument for gathering data which relies on a researcher’s seeing, hearing things that occur
naturally in research site and noting them down and recording these observations. In other
words, observation does not rely on subject’s self-report responses to questions or statements.
Based on the aforesaid assertions by different scholars, the researcher opted to use structured
observation sheet to solicit data on the pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach.
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The Department of Basic Education (2011) in CAPS document stipulates the duration of one hour
period per subject. Thus the researcher itemised the areas to be observed in the lesson presentation
taking into consideration the time allocated per period. In the classroom observation the researcher
categorised the observation as follows:
 Five minutes were spent on how the lesson was introduced
 Twenty minutes on how the lesson content was unpacked including the integration of
the learning and teaching support materials and teaching and assessment strategies
employed.
 Furthermore, the researcher observed the aspect of classroom management which
incorporates the interaction with the learners and how the pre-service teachers
discipline learners during teaching and learning.

These are the following areas which were observed and itemised:
 Lesson presentation and development
The researcher looked at the following points: the lesson taught developed logically, the key
questions were framed with opportunities for reasoning and high order, the pre-service
teachers were able to demonstrate openness to learner challenges about information as well as ideas
and were able to choose and use teaching methods correctly.
 Communication skills
In terms of communication skills, the researcher wanted to observe whether the pre-service
teachers were able to use writing skills and to manipulate body language and poise effectively as
well as to use simple and correct language and voice projection.
 Learning teaching and support materials (LTSMs)
Learning teaching and support materials have a predominant influence on the learners’ success.
The researcher observed whether pre-service teachers used LTSMs effectively and creatively to
facilitate learning process and development.
 Classroom management
Establishing a climate for learning is one of the most important aspects which the teacher needs
to consider as a priority. The researcher wanted to observe whether pre-service teachers were able
to create a positive learning environment for learners. The researcher also wanted to observe
whether pre-service teachers were able to use a variety of appropriate discipline strategies to
capture learners’ attention. In order for teaching and learning to go smoothly and to capture the
attention of learners, they have to be given enough time to do activities given by their teacher. The
researcher wanted to observe whether pre-service teachers were allocating sufficient time for
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 learners to perform their activities and to see that pre-service are able to finish their lessons on time.
 Monitoring assessment and feedback
It is widely known that monitoring assessment and feedback play a significant role in the
learning cycle. Learners find feedback on assessment helpful and motivate them to perform

better in their studies. The researcher observed whether pre-service teachers integrate teaching and
assessment in order to ascertain that learners do follow the lesson taught. The researcher also
observed how pre-service teachers responded to learners’ answers and questions.

McMillan and Schumacher (2010), and Creswell (2011) affirm that observation in general, enables
the researchers to obtain first-hand information from the participants because they do not stand out
as outsiders. Data are collected directly and are not retrospective in nature. By being part of the
activity done by the participants, the researchers achieve the most objective experience of the
participants. However, when the participants are aware that they are being observed, they do not
behave as usual. Their artificial behaviour causes the validity and reliability of the tool used to
be of a major concern (de Vos et al. 2011).

3.6.2 Semi Structured Interviews

Interview is the verbal conversation which occurs face to face between the interviewer and the
interviewee with the objective of collecting relevant information for the purpose of research
(Mcnamara, 1999). Researchers obtain information through direct interchange with an individual
or a group that is known or expected to possess the knowledge they seek (Vos, Strydom, Fouche
& Delport, 2011: 342). Furthermore, Turner (2010) highlights that interviews provide in-depth
information pertaining to participants’ experiences and viewpoints of a particular topic. In this
study, the researcher preferred to use interviews as one of the instruments to collect data. The
information obtained from them is reported and interpreted through the perspective of the
interviewee and can provide important insights into the case under investigation which is readiness
of pre-service teachers to teach.

Creswell (2014) affirm the aforesaid assertion when he states that interviews allow researchers to be
in control of questions. Therefore, in this study the interview provided the researcher with the
opportunity to explore the views and feelings of sixteen subject mentors about the preparedness
of the pre-service teachers. This was based on the fact that subject mentors are regarded as role
models for pre-service teachers. The interviews were conducted at the subject mentors’ respective
schools after pre-service teachers had been observed and evaluated by both the subject mentors
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and the university supervisors. However, semi-structured interview style was used by the researcher
in order to make follow-up on certain responses of interviewees thereby giving room for flexibility.

Different researchers categorise interviews in different ways. For instance, Turner calls them:
1. Informal conversational interview
2. General interview guide approach
3. Standardized open-ended interview

DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006) categorise them as:

1. Unstructured
2. Semi-structured
3. Structured

This study preferred to use semi structured interviews of DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006). It
explored semi-structured interview for purposes of making the subject mentors feel
comfortable and free to express themselves because they were interviewed on their working site
and also to retrieve information on the specific subject matters. Semi-structured interview is
recommended for qualitative research because it enables the researcher to ask an open- ended
question if the interviewee is unable to give an appropriate answer. That helps the researcher
to get to the well-informed analysis. Interviewed data were recorded verbatim using a tape recorder
to ensure that all what was said by subject mentors was captured.

Face-to-face interview was conducted in schools of the subject mentors. Firstly, the researcher
provided an overview of the purpose of the interview, the intended uses for the interview data, and
the measures the researcher has taken to protect confidentiality and anonymity. The researcher
requested permission to record the interview using the Olympus digital voice recorder. This
voice recorder was recommended because of its superior features such as, stop, record, pause,
forward and repeat. Moreover, it has the long lasting battery life, providing superior sound and it
is easy to transfer files. These features made it easy for the researcher to capture the necessary data.
Interview sessions took approximately fifteen minutes each. They focused on the following areas:
1. Exhibition of professionalism
2. Lesson Presentation (Looking into three stages of development: introduction, body and
conclusion)
3. Content knowledge
4. Application of pedagogical knowledge (teaching methods)

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 5. Communication skills (verbal and non-verbal techniques)
6. Learning and teaching support materials
7. Monitoring assessment and feedback
8. Classroom management

Data from the interviews were transcribed verbatim from the voice recording, analysed and
discussed to identify sub-categories, categories and key themes.

Creswell (2014) and de Vos et al. (2011) note that interviews are adjustable because the
researcher has control over the line of questions and are conducted under a relaxed atmosphere.
Thus, Borg and Gall (1989) opine that interviews allow the interviewer to follow- up leads and thus
obtain more data and greater clarity. By so doing greater depth is possible during the interviews.
Nevertheless, the disadvantages of interviews are that they provide indirect information which is
filtered through the views of interviewees, the presence of the researcher may threaten the
participants and not all participants are articulate and insightful (de Vos et al. 2011). This
implies that by not being perceptive, that may influence the expected information. That is the
reason why Turner emphasises that interviews need to be used with other instruments of collecting
data in order for the researcher to get the well-rounded collection of information for analyses.

3.6.3 Focus group interviews

In this study, focus group interviews were used to get the pre-service teachers’ perception about
practice teaching, whether or not it sufficiently prepares them for the teaching profession. The
researcher wanted to find out whether pre-service teachers value practice teaching or not. “Focus
group interviews are a carefully planned discussion designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area
of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment. (de Vos, Strydom, Fouche & Delport,
2011). They further state that they are a means of better understanding how people feel or think
about an issue, product or service”. According to Krueger (1988), it is a carefully planned
discussion which is designed for the purpose of retrieving perceptions on a particular area of
interest of a study in a relaxed environment. On the other hand, Cohen and Crabtree (2008) state
that focus group interviews are a data collection method which collect data through a semi-
structured group interview process and are moderated by a group leader. They are generally used
to collect data on a specific topic. The above mentioned definitions are further illustrated by Rabee
(2004:655) when he declares that focus group is a technique involving the use of in-depth group
interviews in which participants are selected because they are a purposive sampling of a specific

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population, this group being focused on a given topic.

An interview schedule was used as a guide during the focus group interviews. This schedule
consisted of an introduction, the research topic, ground rules formulated by the researcher,
prepared questions and conclusion. The pre-service used for the study were divided into two groups of eight
per group. Their division was based on the districts where they were doing their teaching practice. The
discussion took an active interactive and participatory method whereby all the participants acted as
co-researchers by combining the investigation with learning and group action. This strategy of
discussions enabled the participants to share and compare views as they experienced life and
learning from practice teaching. Rabiee (2004) opines that the participants of the focus group
should feel comfortable with each other and engage in discussion.

Semi-structured interview was constructed and conducted to sixteen pre-service teachers in order to
get the in-depth information about their readiness to teach. Two focus groups consisting of eight
pre-service teachers each were used for this study. The researcher divided pre-service teachers into
two groups in order to give all the participants a chance to participate in the discussions. The pre-
services teachers as they were the participants of the study were coded for anonymity as promised
under ethical considerations. The data were presented through an eclectic use of descriptive
presentation. The researcher opted for semi-structured questions in order to probe for in-depth
information through follow-up questions. The researcher took some notes and also used voice
recorder to ensure that statements made by participants were captured accurately. A focus
group interview took approximately one hour ten minutes and was conducted after the third
year pre-service teachers had returned from their practice teaching.

The focus group interviews’ intention was to elicit more information from pre-service teachers about
whether they consider teaching practice to sufficiently prepare them for the teaching profession.
The areas which were covered in this section are the following:
1. Pre-service teachers’ perception of teaching practice
2. Duration of teaching practice
3. Subject mentor - pre-service teacher relationship
4. The importance of lesson preparation

It is evident that focus group interviews save time and are less expensive because the
participants are interviewed in a group. Moreover, it motivates mass participation of all the
respondents who serve as the principal data sources. That results to the collection of larger amount
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 of data. Therefore, that uniqueness of being able to generate large amounts of data from the
interaction of a group of participants makes it popular to the qualitative study. Rabiee (2004) opines
that in the focus group interview, data collection and data analysis occur concurrently. By so
doing it saves time. Hence, de Vos et al (2011) point out that focus group interviewees are free to
share their personal experiences. They go further saying that it also allows for immediate
triangulation of responses. However, one of the main shortcomings of the focus group interviews
is that it is difficult to get all the respondents together at the same time in the same place.
Furthermore, Creswell (2014) avers that researcher’s presence may prejudice the responses.

3.6.4 Document analysis

According to Bowen, (2009) document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or

evaluating documents. Creswell (2013) points out that these documents range from private to public
documents. Bowen (2009) further maintains that document analysis is often used in combination
with other qualitative research methods as a means of triangulation. In this study, document analysis
was used with observation, individual as well as focus group interviews in order to corroborate
findings across collected data. Additionally, in this study, document analyses consisted of pre-
service teachers’ files: lesson plans, CAPS documents, formal and informal tasks, rubric and
memoranda as well as the university supervisors’ comments that were stating the readiness or un-
readiness of pre-service teachers to teach. Beyer and Davis (2015) postulate that effective teachers
use curriculum resources as their guides when planning for their lessons. The purpose of doing
document analyses was to find out from the documents of pre-service teachers whether they
consider practice teaching to be sufficiently preparing them for the teaching practice. That is why
the researcher saw it proper to require files from pre-service teachers. These files were expected to
have all documents that are used in schools such as CAPS, lesson plans and school policies. These
files were submitted to the researcher immediately after the pre-service had returned from
practice teaching. The university supervisors’ evaluation comments were also analysed to
determine whether pre- service teachers were ready to teach.

Among the documents that were analysed in the files of pre-service teachers included the
following:
1. Lesson plan: The researcher was looking for the following:
 Are the objectives of the lessons formulated clearly; specifically, the
emphasis on the logical connection between CAPS outcomes and lessons
plans?
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  Is the learning context (situation in which concepts, skills, values and
attitude) selected appropriately?
 Is the core-knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to be demonstrated by
learners clarified?
 Are the teachers and learners’ activities clearly defined?
 Are the assessment activities aligned with milestones?
 Is the teaching strategy and learning style(s) appropriately indicated?
 Are the appropriate teaching methods clearly indicated?
 Is the teaching file organised in an appropriate manner and display
evidence of sound preparation?
2. Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement document (CAPS) of the subjects taught by the pre-
service teachers: To observe whether the pre-service teachers aligned their lessons with CAPS.
 Formal and informal tasks: During the survey the pre-service teachers
assess the involvement of learners to find out whether the learners have
understood the content taught and also to enhance learning inter-activeness
of learners.
 Rubric and memoranda: The development and utilization of rubric and
memoranda were evaluated. Both rubric and memoranda are important
for the ability of the advancement of the summaries of the content in a
way that can be easily examined. The rubric and memoranda can be in
question and answer form which provides summary of the lesson content.

 University supervisors’ evaluations reports: Among the aspects which

university supervisors were looking at were lesson plan: how the pre-
service teachers prepare their lessons, whether they meet all the
requirements of planning the lessons; for instance, identifying the learners
and teachers’ activities; how they are going to apply content knowledge as
well as classroom management.

Creswell (2014) notes that document analysis saves a researcher time and the expenses
associated with transcribing as well as the need to obtain the language and words of the
respondents. He goes further highlighting that they are vital materials for the retrieval of data
because they also represent data to which participants have given attention. Besides the above
assertions, Creswell also identifies the shortcomings of document analysis which are lack of
linguistic skills, weak standard format, biasness in objectivity, and sometimes the inability to trace
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the source of the documents. Creswell (2014) supports the perception of Bowel (2009:when he
states the following advantages and disadvantages of document analysis:

 Efficient method: Document analysis is less time-consuming and therefore more

efficient than other research methods. It requires data selection, instead of data
collection.
 Availability: The documents which are needed by the researcher are in the public
domain.
 Cost-effectiveness: Document analysis is less costly than other research methods.
 Stability: As a result to being non-reactive, documents are stable.
 Exactness: The inclusion of exact names, references, and details of events makes
documents advantageous in the research process.
 Coverage: Documents provide broad coverage; they cover a long span of time, many
events, and many settings.
 The disadvantage is insufficient detail: Documents are produced for some purpose
other than research; they are created independent of a research agenda. Consequently,
they usually do not provide sufficient detail to answer a research question.

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS

Content analysis method was used to analyse data. This method followed certain steps which
involved selecting, categorising, comparing, synthesising and interpretation of data.
Furthermore, qualitative results were analysed, interpreted and presented to answer the research
question. Creswell (2014) regards qualitative data analysis as an inductive process to classify things,
persons and events. Furthermore, Creswell and Clarke (2011) highlight thepurpose of data analysis
as to develop answers to the research questions. Creswell and Clarke (2011) concur with Gay,
Mills and Airasian (2006) when they highlight that one of the advantages of data analysis is that
it gives meaning to data collected during research in a way that permits the researcher to accurately
answer the research question.

In this study, this process allows investigation of readiness of pre-service teachers to teach to reveal
itself naturally. Therefore, in order to develop answers to the research questions for this study, data
were selected, coded, categorised, compared, synthesised and interpreted on the different themes
which emerged from emerging responses. The researcher validated the accuracy of data gathered
during observations and interviews.

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3.7.1 Observation schedule

Observation schedule was structured into themes to capture relevant information that was later
analysed. This method followed certain steps which involved selecting, categorising, comparing,
synthesising and interpreting data. McMillan and Schumacher (2006) highlight that this technique
relies on the researchers’ hearing and seeing things and recording these observations, rather than
relying on participants’ self-responses to statements or questions. In this study, this process allows
investigation of readiness of pre-service teachers to teach.
Therefore, in order to develop answers to the research questions of this study, data were
selected, coded, categorised, compared, synthesised and interpreted on the different themes which
emerged from responses. The researcher validated the accuracy of data gathered during observations
and interviews.

3.7.2 Interview schedule

Data were examined for saturation of ideas. The researcher searched for similarities, categories
and themes in order to analyse qualitative data. Six themes and four sub-themes emerged in this
study. The following steps were followed when analysing data:
 The data collected by means of interview were transcribed verbatim from the voice
recording
 Data were examined for saturation of ideas

 Categories and coding scheme were developed and assessed

 Conclusion was drawn from the coded data

3.7.3 Focus group interview schedule

Data from the focus groups were transcribed verbatim from the voice recording, analysed and
discussed to identify sub-categories, categories and key themes. Four themes emerged. Analysis
was done guided by eight steps of Tesch open coding method.

3.7.4 Document analysis

The lesson plans were analysed in relation to relevance to the CAPS tasks and activities.
University supervisors’ evaluation comments were analysed based on the B. Ed summative
classroom observation and evaluation schedule which was designed by the Education Professional
Practice Unit coordinator.
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 3.8 TRUSTWORTHINESESS, CROSS CHECKING AND DEPENDABILITY

Literature (Stewart, 2009, McMillan & Schumacher, 2010) highlights the importance of doing a pilot
study before undertaking the final project. The researcher needs to pilot data collection instruments
in order to determine whether they are appropriate for the data they are designed to collect. This
study used different data collection tools to the participants who did not form part of the final
project but had similar characteristics of the final project’s participants. Observation schedule
was piloted and the collected data were deemed suitable for the needs of the project. In the
interview schedule, it was discovered that some of the subject mentors were not familiar with
some of the terms used and they also had the hawthorn effect. Therefore, in the final project
the researcher used the reiterative interview approach. During the reiterative interview approach,
the subject mentors were allowed to code-switch (make use of isiZulu or English) when
responding to the questions asked. This made them comfortable in responding to the questions
asked by the researcher.

The interview schedule guide prepared for focus group interviews was also piloted. During this
process, several observations were made regarding clarity of the questions asked. This observation
was made from the responses given by the focus group interviewees. Necessary alterations were
made. Hence, the researcher adjusted the questions, removed some and added others. The
restructured schedule guide was presented to experts in the field of curriculum before it was finally
used in conducting the main focus group interview for the study.

The last data collection instrument was the document analysis. The researcher realised that
university supervisors’ comments on the performance of the pre-service teachers were going to
enrich the project. Therefore, they were included in the final document analysis instrument. The
researcher found the questions used to all data collection instruments to be appropriate and the
language used was acceptable.

In the final project, the number of the participants was reduced from 64 to 32 due to the
alterations which were made in the interview and focus group interview as well as document
analysis data collection instruments.

3.9 ETHICAL AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

The researcher read the University Policy and Procedures on Research Ethics and its Policy and
Procedures on Managing and Preventing Acts of Plagiarism and understood their content. The
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 supervisor and the researcher had considered and discussed the ethical issues that arise from this
research.

The South African university through the Faculty of Education’s Practice Teaching Unit has
partnership with school districts in the KwaZulu Natal province. Because of this partnership,
academics within the faculty of education have access to observe pre-service teachers for
evaluation and developmental purposes. This platform was used by the researcher to collect data
using all data collection tools and procedures mentioned; without separate permission letter from
principals, school-based mentors and parents.

The researcher entered into an agreement with pre-service teacher participants which clarifies the
nature of the research and the responsibility of each party. The research included an informed
consent process which encompasses the following: the purpose of the research; procedures used
in research; participant’s right to decline participation at any time; benefits of the research
confidentiality.

Because the research included focus group interviews which were recorded using a voice
recorder; the recorder would be stored safely at a South African university‘s Faculty of
Education for a period of three to five years, and the information in the voice recorder would be
destroyed thereafter. All observation and interview schedule notes would be kept in a locked
and secured place for the period of the study up to three to five years and destroyed thereafter.

3.10 SUMMARY

This chapter has examined the research methodology, using qualitative paradigm as a guide. The
case study research method was employed to gather data. The qualitative approach was used to
elicit responses. Triangulation method of data collection includes observation, interviews and
document analysis was incorporated. Selection of respondents was done using the non-probability
purposive sampling. The sample population was made up of sixteen B. Ed third year pre-service
teachers and sixteen subject mentors in the districts of King Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude. All in
all, thirty two (32) participated in this study. Presentation and analysis of results follow in the
next chapter.

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 CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter outlined the methodology employed by explaining the actual process used
to conduct the research. Pilot study was conducted to rectify the flaws which the study might have
incurred. Furthermore, strategies were employed to ensure the validity and reliability of the
collected and analysed data. In this chapter, the data collected from observation, interview,
focus group interviews and document analysis are presented and the qualitative results are
analysed and presented. Data collected are presented to answer the following research questions:
1. Are pre-service teachers able to facilitate the teaching and learning process using
various methods of teaching?
2. Have third year pre-service teachers acquired adequate content knowledge of their
teaching subjects?
3. Are the pre-service teachers able to maintain order and discipline in the classroom?
4. What do school-based subject mentors consider as important aspects in preparing pre-
service teachers for the teaching profession?
5. Do third year pre-service teachers consider practice teaching to be sufficiently
preparing them for the teaching profession?

In answering the above questions, the following data collection instruments were used:

1. Personal observation. The researcher observed pre-service teachers teaching in schools

during their practice teaching session.
2. The interviews. The researcher conducted interviews with the subject mentors of the
pre-service teachers since they were their role models.
3. Focus group interviews were held on campus with the pre-service teachers after they
had returned from practice teaching.
4. Document analysis. The researcher analysed the pre-service teachers’ files and the
university supervisors’ evaluation reports.

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4.2 CODING OF THE PARTICIPANTS

The pre-service teachers who were observed when teaching were coded as PST1-16. Participants
for the interview who were the subject mentors were coded as M1-M16. That is M1for mentor one
and M2 for mentor 2 up to mentor 16. Furthermore, the participants for the focus groups were
properly coded and discussion followed the codes: focus group one (F1) and focus group 2 (F2). As
they were assigned into two groups of eight, the participants were given alphabet codes from A up
to H per group (F1A to F1H and F2A-F2H).

4.3 THEMES

In this study the themes emerged after data were collected from the respondents through
observation, interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis. They were selected, coded,
categorised, compared, synthesised and interpreted on the different themes. The following are
the themes that emerged:

Theme A: Exhibition of professionalism

Professionalism in this context refers to pre-service teachers’ adherence to school rules and
regulations as well as taking responsibility of their actions and inactions.

The researcher observed that all the observed pre-service teachers displayed professionalism. They
looked presentable and also led their learners as well as all other stakeholders of the schools with
dignity and respect. They were highly motivated; displayed good morals and had good relationship
with learners, their colleagues, parents as well as their employer. Their attitude towards the
profession was good. For instance, they were not reminded to attend to their classes, greeting their
learners when entering the class and acknowledging their mistakes when they were corrected by
learners, calling learners by their names and praising them when they had responded appropriately.

In alignment with document analysis, the display of professionalism by pre-service teachers

shows that they understand and keep up with school policies, timetables as well as the vision and
mission statements of the schools. However, out of sixteen pre-service teachers who were
observed, two of them never greeted learners and did not know learners’ names. This might imply
that their coaching was not properly done or their subject mentors were not greeting the learners
before they start their teaching. The responses of the interviewed subject mentors concurred
with what was observed by the researcher. For instance, all of the interviewed subject mentors

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said:

M1: “They always observe and honour their teaching slots and we never reminded them”
M2: “We do not have a problem with their dress code. They always look presentable for the
profession”.
M3: “They are able to display professional attitude regardless of misbehaving of the learners”.
M4: “They do show professional attitude to the learners and learners enjoy their presence”.

The above assertions collaborated with what was said by pre-service teachers when they were
interviewed in their focus groups. They all took professionalism very seriously. For instance, during
focus groups interview they responded as follows when they were asked about their growth as
far as professionalism is concerned:

F1A: “As we were in schools we were wearing in such a way that we were respected by both the
teachers and the learners”
F1C: “Em…. I think professionalism helped us in many ways including the way we talk because if
you are professional you do not talk any-how. We are the second parents at school so everything
we talk or we are saying to learners must encourage them to help them to grow mentally besides
the content that we teach”
F2C: “For me I think I was able to behave in an acceptable manner not only in a classroom setting
but also in a community. I also had good relationship with my learners and responded well to
different behaviours of learners. For instance, when learners misbehaved I reprimanded them in
a professional way and bring best for the learners, motivate them in order to achieve the best”

These responses imply that teacher education programme emphasised the importance of
professionalism to pre-service teachers when they were about to go for teaching practice. For
instance, dressing appropriately and how they act is as important as what they have to teach. It is
evident that they have an idea of how they are expected to behave in the teaching profession.
This increases their chances of employability. Additionally, even when their documents were
analysed, all their files had vision and mission statements of their schools which prove that they
followed all rules and regulations of their schools.

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Theme B: Lesson presentation and development
Lesson presentation and development in this context means unpacking the lesson bearing in mind
its three phases which are introduction, essence of the lesson/middle phase and conclusion. When
pre-service teachers were observed teaching, it was clear that they did well when introducing
the lesson. They went as far as unpacking the outcomes for the lessons and also asked the learners
their pre-knowledge. As soon as they introduced the lesson they involved learners through baseline
assessment. This was also supported by the comments from the university supervisors’
comments. They mentioned that the pre-service teachers were introducing the lessons by
establishing prior knowledge. However, the supervisors never mentioned that when it comes to
the middle phase of the lesson, pre-service teachers struggled to unpack the new knowledge in a
logical and coherent manner. Furthermore, they did not present and develop lessons by
concluding their lessons in an appropriate manner.

Out of sixteen pre-service who were observed seven of them did not conclude the lessons
appropriately. They confused the conclusion with assessment. They gave learners an activity to do
as the conclusion. They were unable to go over the content covered when teaching by giving a
summary of the lesson taught or give the learners opportunity to do the summary of the lesson
taught. This showed that they lacked in the content knowledge and the presentation skills.
Surprisingly, their files had the CAPS documents which were there to guide them, but it seemed as
if they never made use of them. Moreover, when they were interviewed in the focus group, they
showed that they value teaching practice because it exposes them to the real school environment
and they are able to interact with learners. One of the focus group participants said:

F2G: “It is a worthwhile undertaking because teaching practice is preparing us of what we are
going to do in a near future. As we are going to become teachers one day, we need to experience
first-hand what it is like in a classroom setting, what is expected of you to deliver to the learners,
how you are supposed to interact with learners in the class and how you are supposed to interact
with the staff and just be the all-round teacher that is going to produce learners of a quality
nature”

Meanwhile, the interviewed subject mentors were satisfied about how pre-service teachers
presented and developed the lessons. Out of sixteen subject mentors who were interviewed, three
of them were satisfied about how the pre-service teachers presented and developed lessons.
However, one of them concurred with what was observed by the researcher. The following is

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what they stated:

M1: “Student teachers are excelling when it comes to presenting the lessons and they engage their
learners when developing their lessons”.
M2: “Yes. They do have it and it goes with CAPS. Their ways of teaching make it easy for the
learners to follow”.
M4: “What I normally see is that they ask questions of the previous lessons but they lack on the
conclusion which is the summary of the lessons taught”.

The responses of subject mentors contradicted what was observed by the researcher when
observing the pre-service teachers teaching. This implies that subject mentors are not conversant
with lesson presentation and development. This would possibly drop the quality of education with
the likely effect that learners do not get the best education.

Theme C: Application of pedagogical content knowledge

In this context, application of pedagogical knowledge relates to having the knowledge of the
subject/content and adequate knowledge of how to teach the lesson as well as how to transmit the
lesson to learners in order to develop critical thinking, problem solving and performance skills and
at the same time taking into consideration the level of the learners who are being taught.

The majority of the observed pre-service teachers used only the telling method of teaching. The
method did not encourage learners’ development of critical thinking, problem solving and
performance skills because the teaching becomes teacher-centred instead of learner-centred.
Moreover, they did not have adequate content knowledge. They were transmitting deficient
knowledge to their learners. However, analysis of most lesson plans showed that the pre- service
teachers seemed to have pedagogical content knowledge, yet from observation it was not so. The
afore-said implies that pre-service teachers do not have appropriate training which can expose them
to the different methods of teaching.

Rephrasing of questions was also a challenge to most of the pre-service teachers. Additionally, they
were not giving learners a chance to think about how to respond to the questions asked. They kept
on asking the very same question without rephrasing it. Only two pre-service teachers engaged
learners from the beginning of the lessons to the end by letting the learners discuss in pairs, do the
presentation as well as engage the learners by making them write on the board. By so doing, all
the learners were interested on the lessons. In other words, the last two pre-service teachers were

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able to draw and capture the attention of the learners because their lessons were interesting.
However, the responses of the interviewed subject mentors and the comments from the university
supervisors contradicted with what was observed by the researcher. They were satisfied about
how the pre-service teachers applied pedagogical content knowledge. Only one subject mentor
concurred with the researcher by saying:

M10: “Yes I can say it is adequate because we have discussed this thing although there are some
gaps with the content we are having and the content which they come with in schools. We have
discussed this issue. More especially in history sometime we are forced to compare a student with
B.A. and did PGC with student with B. Ed. We find that those with PGC are better when it comes
to content. Even in Languages, most of the pre-service teachers do not have content knowledge.
For instance, they cannot differentiate how to teach creative writing, grammar, language, literature
and orals. With them they cannot tell. It becomes a challenge because every week they have to
teach all these aspects”

After the pre-service teachers were observed and subject mentors were interviewed, the
researcher wanted to find out from pre-service teachers whether they were given sufficient time
to teach by their subject mentors. Some of their responses are as follows:
PST11: “Yes although some of our subject mentors shifted all their responsibilities to us.Like
for instance, they were no longer attending their classes and letting us to mark the work which
was given to the learners long before our arrival but we managed to teach” PST8: “My subject
mentor allowed me to observe her teaching. She said I am going to delay her. She gave me a
chance to teach a day before I was going to be evaluated”
PST6 “Both my subject mentors never observed me teaching. They just gave me books showed
me where I had to start”

This inadequacy to apply pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service teachers such as not
knowing how to use different representations of the concepts, failing to allow learners to
understand the concepts taught in the best way is a serious challenge. It denotes that both teacher
education program and teaching practice need to put more emphasis on pedagogical content
knowledge when training pre-service teachers. If both teacher education and teaching practice
programmes do not focus on training pre-service teachers appropriately, that can have negative
implications on the life of learners and of the society at large, i.e. the society would not develop.

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Communication skills

This sub-theme emerged when the researcher was interviewing subject mentors on how pre- service
teachers apply pedagogical content knowledge. In this study, communication skills relate to
listening and speaking as well as reading and writing. Teachers need to be highly competent in
all these areas to excel in their profession.

The pre-service teachers were expected to demonstrate effective verbal and non-verbal
techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration and supportive interaction in the classroom. The
majority of the pre-service teachers preferred to use verbal techniques than non-verbal techniques,
such as using the chalkboard. Chalkboard was rarely used. This verbal method favours the auditory
learners at the expense of the visual learners. As a result, it did not cater for learners’ multiple
intelligences. Some of the pre-service teachers were able to model the effective use of expressive
language skill. Others kept on code-switching when explaining something to the learners.
Moreover, there was a pre-service teacher who kept on reading from the book and translated into
a vernacular language.

Furthermore, sequencing the elements of written language was also a challenge to some of the
observed pre-service teachers. For instance, when they realised that they had written wrong
spelling on the board, they did not hesitate to use a finger to erase, instead of using a duster.
Moreover, their chalkboard summary was not flowing. It seemed as if they were not aware that
effective non-verbal techniques foster active inquiry, collaboration and supportive interaction in
the classroom. Surprisingly, during the focus group discussions, all pre-service teachers praised
their subject mentors by saying that they were providing them with teaching strategies, such as how
to project their voices and how to use the board. One of the focus group participants said this:

PST10: “We got assistance from our subject mentors because they provided us with everything
which they saw lacking. They were not against with university strategies instead they acted on
what the university taught us. They always checked everything that we were doing including how
to use chalkboard and they were always in the class when we were teaching”

Remarkably, their lesson plans were written in English but when it comes to the application of
what is written on their lesson plans, it became the problem. However, all the interviewed subject
mentors had positive responses about pre-service teachers’ use of communication skills when
teaching. They were also satisfied about how pre-service teachers used learning teaching and
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support materials. Their responses contradicted those of the researcher. Meanwhile, one pre-
service teacher was able to use learning and teaching materials properly. He even used chalk boxes
and other learning and teaching materials which he brought to use in the classrooms. Although the
school had a shortage of learning and teaching material he was able to improvise. During focus
group interviews, pre-service teachers highlighted that they turned to code-switching because most
of the learners do not follow the lesson taught in one language which is English.

The interviewed subject mentors had a concern about code-switching which was done by pre-
service teachers. They kept on echoing that pre-service teachers had the language barrier. Here
is some of their concern:

M1: “I use to emphasise that he has to minimise the usage of the vernacular language when
teaching”
M2: “Ehm. What I can say is that he likes to code-switch most of the time”
M7: “I used to emphasise that they have to minimise the usage of IsiZulu and to speak loudly for
the benefit of the learners who have hearing problem”

The responses of the subject mentors denote that the pre-service teachers have a challenge on
imparting knowledge using the medium of instruction which is English. This implies that initial
teacher education preparation does not prepare adequately graduates for real teaching. What is also
surprising is that all the university supervisors’ comments about the pre-service teachers’
communication skills were stating that they were good.

Writing of the chalkboard summary

Writing of the chalkboard summary in this study relates to dividing the board into columns which
are going to be used for writing such as, writing the date and the topic of the lesson. Writing
starting from left to right, writing the sub-headings and few points under each heading.

What was observed by the researcher is that most pre-service teachers did not have adequate
competence of chalkboard summary writing. For instance, they did not divide the board and that
caused them to write wherever they felt like writing. This made their summary to be illogical.
This denotes that the pre-service teachers do not give themselves enough time to go to the
chalkboard room and practice how to write on the board. However, both the university supervisors’
comments and the interviewed subject mentors were satisfied with the chalkboard summary
skills which were displayed by the pre-service teachers. The university supervisors’ comments
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stated that the pre-service teachers used the chalkboard effectively to facilitate teaching. One of the
interviewed subject mentor responded like this:

M2: “Writing on the board is clear and he use duster and a ruler to divide the board”
Contrarily, some of the subject mentors disagreed with accuracy of chalkboard summary
displayed by pre-service teachers. However, they stated some reasons for the inaccuracy
chalkboard summary displayed by pre-service teachers:
M3: “They have a disadvantage but that do not come from them. Our chalkboards are faulty but
they try to write legible”

Learning teaching and support materials (LTSM)

The researcher observed that all pre-service teachers relied solely on the textbooks. Meanwhile,
those who made use of charts did not use them appropriately. They mainly wrote the outcomes on
the chart without focusing on the key points which the learners had to master. Moreover, they did not
know when to refer to the chart. For instance, the first thing they often did was to display the chart
on the board and started teaching without referring to it. Additionally, their charts were not
properly drawn and were also congested. University supervisors’ comments also reported the
inadequacy of the charts and its irrelevance to the lessons taught. The pre-service teachers did not
consider textbooks and charts as LTSM even though they are conceived as LTSM because they aid
teaching and learning process. However, during the focus group discussions the pre-service teachers
praised their institution of higher learning for giving them opportunity to do teaching practice
from level one where they observed how teachers used learning teaching and support materials.
The following are some of their responses:

PST5: “I learnt how to use learning and teaching materials from my subject mentors when I was
observing. He used to come with any learning and teaching material to supplement his teaching and
told me that it helps those learners who are not fast to understand the lesson”.

PST10: “I learnt how to make my own learning and teaching materials when I was doing Level
2 (ETSE 200). Our lecturer used to tell us that we had to learn to improvise because there are
schools which do not have adequate learning and teaching materials”

The majority of subject mentors were satisfied with how pre-service teachers used learning and
teaching support materials when teaching. They reported as follows:

M1: “Yes. They use charts and science kit”

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M3: “Textbooks are not sufficient otherwise they know how to use teaching and learning
support materials”
M4: “Our school does not have sufficient learning teaching and support material and even the
board it is not easy to see what is written on it”

Only one subject mentor concurred with the researcher’s observation. Here is his response:

M2: “They use textbook most of the time as their teaching and learning support materials”

Learning and teaching support material is one of the key strategies of teaching. The findings on this
theme imply that pre-service teachers are not conversant with how to use a variety of learning and
teaching material. This denotes that both lecturers and subject mentors do not pay much attention
on how pre-service teachers use learning teaching and support material including creating the
charts as well as making use of them when teaching. Lecturers as well as the subject mentors have
to do justice to their pre-service teachers by teaching their pre- service teachers how to create and
use various LTSMs. If these pre-service teachers exit the programme without knowing how to use
learning and teaching support material, they will not survive in this profession, and if they do, they
are going to produce students who will rely on the auditory teaching and not visual one.
Consequently, if they decide to become trainers of teachers they are going to produce teachers who
will teach like them.

Theme D: Formative assessment and feedback

Formative assessment and feedback in this context refers to the intentional and systematic process
used by teachers during teaching which provides immediate feedback to adjust on- going teaching
and learning in order to improve learners’ achievement of the intended instructional outcomes.
The researcher wanted to ascertain whether pre-service teachers were able to integrate assessment
activities with teaching and learning to complement learning activities and also to find out whether
the learners were given feedback.

What was observed by the researcher was that the majority of pre-service teachers lacked the
integration of teaching, learning and assessment skills. They only assessed towards the end of the
lesson and thus failed to give learners feedback. They regarded assessment as conclusion of the
lesson. However, judging by document analyses, pre-service teachers seemed prepared as they have
knowledge of the necessary documents needed in the teachers’ file. Some of them had good
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lesson plans which had all the required aspects of teaching including the way they had to integrate
teaching and assessment as well as giving feedback to the learners. It became a challenge when it
came to the application of what was indicated in the lesson plans.

Only four of the observed pre-service teachers were able to integrate teaching and assessment
throughout the lessons taught. They were also able to give feedback to the learners on time.
Meanwhile, from the interviews with subject mentors as well as the university supervisors’
comments, it was noticed that they all had positive responses. They were satisfied about how pre-
service teachers monitored assessment and feedback which they were giving to the learners.
Below is one of the statements made by a subject mentor corroborating comments of other subject
mentors:

M7: “Yes they integrate assessment and teaching as well as giving feedback.
They also give learners sufficient time to think when they have asked a question and
I could say that they meet the objectives of the lessons.”

Another subject mentor justified his response by stating:

M16: “Partially, yes. What I can say is that what I normally see is that they do not
give learners enough time to respond to the question and that is caused by the
shortage of the periods.”

In addition, the findings from the focus group discussions with the selected pre-service
teachers showed that subject mentors monitored and guided the pre-service teachers in the
discharge of their duties which include, monitoring assessing and giving feedback to learners. Below
are some comments made during the focus group discussion with the selected pre- service
teachers:
PST16: “Sometimes my mentors corrected me in my lessons of the day and she gave me the
strategies of how to assess the lesson of the following day. She also told me to use my voice
accordingly and give learners enough time to express themselves in the class and at the end I do the
check-up that the learners were listening or not and give them the homework”

PST13: “My mentor took the initiative he has to help me whenever I needed help. He always helps
me for every lesson he sat down with me and helps me with tips on how to best deliver the content
of the day”

This finding shows that the observation of the researcher contradicts the report of the focus group
discussion and interviews with the subject mentors as well as the comments made by the university
supervisors. This implies that the researcher, pre-service teachers, subject mentors as university
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supervisors do not have the same understanding of what formative assessment and feedback
entails. The concern of the researcher was that when the pre-service teachers do not apply integration
of teaching and assessing as well as giving feedback to the learners, the learners are left hanging;
not knowing whether they have understood the lessons correctly if there are no questions asked
while the lesson is developing. The pre-service teachers too are left with a perception that their
teaching is good based on the comments from their university supervisors. This creates the bad
impression on the side of the schools which are going to employ these incompetent teachers.

Theme E: Classroom management

Classroom management is the key aspect for effective teaching and learning to take place. This
assertion is supported by Korkut (2017) who postulates that “Classroom management is the central
element of every teacher’s daily professional experience.”

The researcher sought to find out whether pre-service teachers were able to create and
maintain a learning environment that is favourable and supportive for all learners in order for
effective teaching and learning to take place. The learners of the schools which were visited by the
researcher behaved well. However, most of the pre-service teachers were not confident in their
teaching. For instance, they did not discourage learners who were responding simultaneously on
the questions asked. Additionally, other learners became so excited when there was a question
asked. They kept on calling the teacher when they wanted to respond to the questions. What was
also observed by the researcher in one of the schools visited is that the pre-service teacher never
realised that other learners seated at the back were not concentrating; for example, they did not
open a book when the teacher gave the instruction to open books. This showed that most pre-
service teachers lacked the appropriate skills of managing the class. However, two of the
subject mentors and the university supervisors’ comments reported that pre-service teachers were
able to create an environment which was conducive for teaching and learning. The interviewed
subject mentors reported as follows:

M1: “Classroom management is fine. There are learners who like to disrupt them when they are
teaching but they manage to control them. They are able to create a positive learning space”
M2: “Yes. Like the arrangement of desks, they make sure that all learners see what is written on
the board”

Other two concurred with the researcher when they pronounced that pre-service teachers were shy
in most cases when the learners were disrupting their lesson. They reported as follows:
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M3: “The pre-service teachers’ voices should be audible to drive the lesson forward. That is the
challenge which they have and that cause the learners to disrupt their classes”
M10: “He uses to write names of the learners who disturb him in class and submit the list to me”

The findings of this theme show that pre-service teachers are unable to manage their classes. This
denotes that pre-service teachers are not provided with proper orientation before going on teaching
practice exercise. They are also not exposed to micro-teaching to make them gain enough confidence
during the real exercise of teaching in schools. Therefore, both lecturers and cooperating teachers
should work very hard to help pre-service teachers to be able to manage their classes because if
the class is unmanageable there is no teaching which takes place.

Integration to school culture

School culture denotes the standard of behaviour of both teachers and learners ‘the way we do
things around here’ (Bennett, 2017). Each and every school has its own way of stilling behaviour
to its teachers as well as learners. Pre-service teachers too have to be integrated to school culture in
order for them to feel that they are accepted as teachers. After the researcher had heard that pre-
service teachers liked to isolate themselves from them, the above mentioned theme emerged. The
purpose of the question asked was to find out from subject mentors how pre-service teachers
involved themselves in all the activities rendered in school. These are the responses from the subject
mentors:

M2: “It goes with the personality of a person”.

M13: “They like to confine themselves in their group but if one engages them they come out from
their shells”.

The above stated findings denote that cooperating teachers do not orientate pre-service
teachers when they arrive for teaching practice in their schools. It is also worth stating that the
institutions of higher learning do not teach pre-service teachers how to adjust themselves in schools
where they are placed for teaching practice. For instance, pre-service teachers are not given a
chance to visit schools for orientation before going for teaching practice.

THEME F: Commitment to learn

Taylor mentioned three constructs which pre-service teachers have to use when they enter the
teaching profession. They are experience, empathy, and desire to change. Most of the observed
learners were using their experience when teaching. This experience was obtained from their
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 teachers’ teaching, from their experience when they were still at school learning, from their
lecturers and from their subject mentors. They put all these experiences together in order learn how
to teach. They also have a sense of sharing information with their peers as well as their subject
mentors. Furthermore they had that the desire to change for the better in order to be the best teachers
when they exit the programme. Although the interviewed subject mentors had all positive responses,
they stated that pre-service teachers did not socialise with cooperating teachers. They always wanted
to be alone. One of the subject mentors echoed the following response:

M15: “Grooming and deportment is good but they isolate themselves”.

When pre-service teachers were asked about their commitment to learning they kept on talking about
the duration of teaching practice. Some of them were saying the duration of teaching practice is
not sufficient. That is why it looks as if they are not committed to learn. Others were saying that
they are satisfied with the duration of teaching practice. Out of sixteen pre- service teachers, three
of them said:

PST4, 9 and 15“Six weeks is comfortable to all of us because we get the opportunity to
adapt in the environment of the school and to know the staff members of the school and able to
get more information about learners and get opportunity to interact with learners before we
are evaluated by subject mentors and head of departments”.

Most pre-service teachers concurred like this:

PST: “We think six weeks is not enough for us because we need more time in schools to know the
school environment. That is why it seems as if we are not committed to learn”

4.4. SUMMARY

This chapter has examined the findings acquired from observation, focus group interview and
document analysis of the pre-service teachers as well as interviews with their subject mentors.
Sixteen third year B. Ed pre-service teachers and sixteen subject mentors participated in this study.
The purposive selection of the participants has led to a better understanding of the readiness of
pre-service teachers to teach. In addition, the researcher ascertained that the participants are
from different environments (rural and semi urban) in order to get data of a high quality. The next
chapter discusses the findings of the study and the interpretation of the results.

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 CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

In chapter four the study focused on the analysis and presentation of the results and findings. This
chapter focuses on the discussion and interpretation of the results which emanate from the data
analysed in chapter four. Hence, Kalusopa (2011) declares that unguided and unsupported
discussions lead to improper and unauthentic interpretation as well as conclusions, even when
the data were properly collected and analysed. Despite the interpreting of the findings of this
study, it is important to note that although the data came from a purposive sample of thirty two
participants: sixteen pre-service teachers and sixteen subject mentors in the districts of King
Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude, one cannot interpret these results to make general comments
beyond the population where the sample was derived. However, triangulating the four data sets
which are observation, interview, focus group interview and document analyses, improved on
reliability and validity.

The discussion is based on the objectives of the study as they are mentioned in chapter one and
four. These objectives are the following:
1. To establish whether pre-service teachers are able to facilitate the teaching and
learning process using various methods of teaching.
2. To ascertain whether the third year pre-service teachers have acquired adequate
content knowledge of their teaching subjects.
3. To determine the pre-service teachers’ ability to maintain order and discipline in the
classroom.
4. To determine what school based subject mentors consider as important aspects in
preparing pre-service teachers for the teaching profession.
5. To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers consider practice teaching to
sufficiently prepare them for the teaching profession.

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 5.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPANTS: PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS AND
SUBJECT MENTORS

This section describes the characteristics of respondents who participated in the research in
schools. The participants comprised sixteen B. Ed pre-service teachers who were doing practice
teaching in the senior phase in the districts of uMkhanyakude and King Cetshwayo. In those two
districts, sixteen schools were selected where pre-service teachers were placed for practice
teaching. Furthermore, sixteen subject mentors across the above mentioned districts were also
purposively selected to participate in this study as they are the custodians of pre-service teaching
during teaching practice. The pre-service teachers were observed while teaching and thereafter
the focus group interviews were held as well as their documents were analysed in their institution of
higher learning. The subject mentors were interviewed in their respective schools after the
researcher had observed pre-service teachers teaching. The aim was to find out from subject
mentors whether pre-service teachers were ready for teaching. The study revealed that most
pre-service teachers were not ready to teach. It was noted that most subject mentors gave false
positive responses which positioned the pre-service teachers as effective teachers.

5.3 DISCUSSION DATA FROM THE IN-DEPTH OBSERVATION, INTERVIEWS AND

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS

The following themes and patterns of thought were identified during the process of data
analysis. A discussion of document analyses is also considered after themes.

5.3.1 Themes

Exhibition of professionalism
Professionalism encompasses a combination of all qualities that are expected to a teacher and among
others is good behaviour and having adequate teaching competences. This study established
that in the interview with the subject mentors, there was congruence in some of the responses. For
instance, both the researcher and the subject mentors were satisfied about how the pre-service
teachers displayed professionalism in schools in general. They both agreed that pre-service
teachers were presentable and honoured their teaching slots. Furthermore, the comments from the
university supervisors concurred with the researcher and

the subject mentors. These corroborations were also supported by the pre-service teachers during
focus group discussions. They stated that they were praised by both teachers as well as the principal
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for their professionalism. That showed that they were committed to their work and had passion for
the teaching profession.

In a nutshell, both the researcher and the subject mentors were of the view that the attitude of pre-
service teachers towards their school work was positive. This means that they had recognised their
potential of professionalism. However, there were two pre-service teachers who did not know the
learners’ names. Their behaviour showed that they were not committed to their work. The teacher
education programme together with schools has to emphasise the importance of knowing learners
with their names because it is evident that every human being needs to be recognised. In the case
of learners, if they are not recognised by their teachers, they cease to participate in those lessons
(Munoz, 2013). Subsequently, the teaching and learning becomes futile to them. This assertion is
confirmed by Wall (2012) when he highlights that learners need to feel that they have an authentic
voice that is listened to and heard, and that they have a say in any resulting action of lessons.

Although most the pre-service teachers were able to display professionalism, Herdiani and
Sulikah (2017) highlight that good professionalism is drawn from four competences namely:
pedagogical competence, personal competence, social competence and professional competence.
Rizvi and Elliott (2007) concur with Herdiani and Sulikah (2017) when they explain that
professional teachers are teachers who are committed and efficacious, possess specialized
knowledge and expertise, collaborate with colleagues and use professional discretion, and have the
potential to develop an active and reflective teaching profession. The findings of this study revealed
that the pre-service teachers displayed professionalism in social and professional competencies only
because they looked presentable, were punctual and able to collaborate with their colleagues.
However, they lacked pedagogical competence. Teacher education programme has to expose pre-
service teachers to the importance of mastering all the required competences of education
including pedagogical competence. It does not help much to look presentable but you do not
have other adequate skills of the work you are employed for.

Research conducted by Jorgan (2017) indicates that pre-service teachers have to acquire all
professionalism competences including pedagogical competence. He further explained that
pedagogical competence is essential because it entails application of attitudes, knowledge and skills
required to plan and conduct, and to evaluate and revise on an ongoing basis, lesson-supported
teaching based on theory, current research and proven experience with a view to supporting learners
in the best possible way. Pedagogical competence is thus likely to develop the more experienced
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a teacher becomes. Bourke, Lidstone and Ryan (2013) confirm the above by stating that
professionalism as accountability may be classified as compliance with (1) professional conduct
and (2) professional performance as demonstrated through both high-stakes testing of learners and
professional standards for teachers. Likewise, Macheridis and Paulsson (2017) highlight four
characteristics of teacher professionalism, namely: ‘(1) specific knowledge that is imparted to
learners through formal education; (2) developing level of skills; (3) requires some form of
entry requirements; and (4) a set of behavioural norms. It is evident that professionalism
encompasses many skills which pre- service teachers have to acquire in order to be regarded as
ready for the teaching profession.

Lesson presentation and development

Lesson presentation and development in this context implies unpacking of lesson sequentially. For
instance, it has to have introduction, body and the conclusion. During the observation, it was
revealed that most of the pre-service teachers did not have adequate competence on lesson
presentation and development. They were able to introduce the lesson but the knowledge of their
subject was limited in the curriculum, philosophy and application aspects. What was observed
by the researcher is that most of the pre-service teachers merely present two or three sentences when
unpacking the lesson and thereafter give an activity to the learners. This was supported by the
comments made by the university supervisors when they were evaluating the pre-service teachers.
They pointed out that most of the pre-service teachers did not have adequate pedagogical content
knowledge. Moreover, they were not following the necessary steps when presenting their lessons.
These necessary steps include introduction, body (new knowledge) and conclusion. Most of them
were concluding the lessons by giving learners an activity to do without doing the wrap-up at the
end of the lesson. That means that they did not make a quick review to remind the learners what
they had learned.

Additionally, the pre- service teachers did not notice that they were skipping conclusion when
teaching. This contributes to the failure of learners if some of the steps of the lesson presentation are
ignored. This would also have a negative impact on the graduates of the institution when they are to
be employed. The schools would be hesitant to employ graduates who are lacking lesson
presentation and development skills. Subsequently, the institution would end up not having
students who want to do education and that would result to the closure of the teaching
education programme. Besides, the students who do not want to pursue their teaching education
programme in the institution, the programmes are reviewed by the Department of Higher

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Education. If its reports are negative, the teaching education programme can be shut down. In order
for the pre-service teachers to improve on their presentation and development of lessons, Davis and
Brook (2015) suggest that teaching practice authorities have to redesign the curricula to maximise
transformative learning that would help pre-service teachers to adjust to a fast-changing workplace
and be able to present and develop lessons appropriately.

Surprisingly, the subject mentors did not notice that pre-service teachers were not developing the
lessons in the appropriate way. They all gave positive responses when they were asked about how
pre-service teachers presented and developed the lessons. Shimizu’s (2002) findings in the study
conducted in the public school in Tokyo concur with the view of the researcher. Shimizu mentions
that good lesson presentation and development requires the following steps:
1. reviewing the previous lesson;
2. presenting the problems for the day;
3. learners working individually or in groups;
4. discussing solution methods; and,
5. highlighting and summarizing the main point.

Both the researcher and Shimizu emphasised the importance of summarising the lesson as a
conclusion. However, Sahin-Taskin (2017) justifies the improper lesson development and
presentation applied by pre-service teachers. He highlights that some of the pre-service teachers
claimed that lesson presentation and development is difficult because during their teaching
practice, they do not have sufficient time to get to know learners regarding their needs,
characteristics, levels of learning, etc., and these issues influence their lesson presentation and
development. Sahin-Taskin (2017) implies that it is necessary for pre-service teachers to be given a
chance to know the school environment where they are going to do teaching practice before the
actual teaching practice commences. If pre-service teachers are not exposed to orientation,
transformative learning will not be easy for them as it has been mentioned in chapter two that
transformation learning theory has three constructs and two of them are experience and desire to
change. For instance, if pre-service teachers are not given a chance to observe subject mentors, the
desire to change cannot occur.

Application of pedagogical content knowledge

In this context pedagogical content knowledge denotes adequate subject matter and the
effective ways of teaching that subject matter. The findings revealed that most pre-service

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teachers’ lessons taught were teacher-centred instead of learner-centred. Additionally, they were
all using lecture method when teaching. Wilkinson and Wong (2014) refer to this as teachers’
monologue instead of the dialogue between the teacher and the learners. This means that the
observed pre-service teachers were transmitting information to the learners rather than transforming
prior knowledge of the learners. Moreover, they were unable to rephrase questions when learners
were unable to respond to the questions asked. They regarded learners as people who attended
classes as tabula rasa. This finding has a negative impact to the learning of learners because
the pre-service teachers’ style of applying pedagogical content knowledge does not accommodate
all learners in the class. It also goes back to the teacher education programme’s lack of devising
a strategy of emphasising to pre-service teachers the importance of adequate application of
pedagogical content knowledge when teaching learners.

The schools do not tolerate teachers who lack pedagogical content knowledge skills. It is evident
that in order for teaching and learning to be interesting, teachers need to use active teaching and
learning strategies when they teach. The above assertions are supported by Pierce and Kalkman
(2003) when they highlight that learner-centred approach promotes learner motivation and
learning. Kewaza and Welch (2013) emphasise that learner-involvement is the key to learning how
to comprehend the lessons taught. Furthermore, Ohwojero (2015) affirms that the application of
pedagogical skills adopted by a subject teacher has a great effect on learners’ interest, academic
achievement as well as their brain development. Likewise, Vries et al. (2015) declare that it is very
essential for pre-service teachers to possess both practical and theoretical knowledge based on
the subject matter they teach before they exit the programme because if they do not have
subject matter they would not have confidence on what they would be teaching. Fresko and Ben-
Chain (2006) confirm the statement of Vires et al. when they state that teachers who lack confidence
in knowledge are those who are lacking confidence in teaching. This is crucial because the
knowledge, skills and attitudes required for teaching profession cannot be fully developed in pre-
service teachers unless they are involved in the teacher learning activities.
However, Tajudin and Kadir (2014) highlight that there are learners who do not value education.
They further state that such learners feel secured when teachers are dominant learning centres for
them. This is a serious problem because pedagogical content knowledge is very crucial for
teaching. That is the reason why Livy, Vale and Herbert (2016) opine that there is the going concern
that the newly qualified teachers do not have sufficient pedagogical content knowledge. The above
assertions are supported by Act of 2001 NCLB (2001) which reports that it has become a
questionable issue that some teachers who know how to teach unfortunately find it difficult

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knowing what to teach, while some others who know what to teach lack the necessary skills in
teaching. If the teacher is not equipped with both content and pedagogical knowledge, that means
that learners are in jeopardy. Thus, the quality of education is compromised and teaching and
learning are hampered.

Surprisingly, the subject mentors did not notice that the pre-service teachers did not have
adequate pedagogical content knowledge. They echoed that pre-service teachers had sufficient
pedagogical content knowledge. The reasons for interviewing subject mentors to give false
positive responses might be because they were not aware of what was expected of them when
mentoring pre-service teachers or they thought that if they told the truth, they might be
destroying the future of the teachers in waiting or they were protecting the pre-service teachers
because they were relieving them of their work. However, this may create a false impression for
the pre-service teachers who may continue to believe that they are what they are not, yet the
presence of pre-service teachers in schools means a lot to them.

It is only one subject mentor who concurred with the researcher’s observations. He stated that
according to him, Post-graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) students are better than the
Bachelor of Education students. He further said that the PGCE students obtain sufficient content
when they are doing Bachelors’ degrees. The disparity between the researcher and the subject
mentors concerning level of content knowledge which is possessed by pre-service teachers is
supported by Ell and Haighs’ (2010) argument. They highlight that judgment of readiness to teach
is unpredictable because it relies on the individual’s own experience and frame of reference,
leading to variability in the decisions he/she makes. Ell and Haighs’ assertions are confirmed by
Christie et al. (2015) who under the transformative learning theory explain that every individual
has the frame of reference because each individual has a particular view of the world.

There are themes which kept on coming when the researcher was discussing how pre-service
teachers were applying pedagogical content knowledge when teaching. One of them is
communication skills discussed below.

Communication skills
In this study communication skills entail the following: verbal and non-verbal communication. The
findings reveal that most of the pre-service teachers were not using the above mentioned skills
adequately. Under verbal communication, the researcher observed the following: The pre-service

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teachers kept on code-switching. They kept on alternating English and the vernacular language
which is isiZulu and it was done consistently during questioning and explaining when teaching.
This was confirmed by the subject mentors when they echoed that the pre-service teachers liked to
use vernacular language because of the alarming decline in the proficiency rate of learners to
follow the lesson being taught in English. This justifying reason is the serious statement which
needs to be challenged by the Department of Education.

It is the responsibility of each and every teacher to teach learners how to express themselves in the
medium of instruction which is English. This finding of inadequacy of pre-service teachers to
use the medium of instruction to the relevant subjects will have a negative impact to both the pre-
service teachers and the teacher education programme. The schools will be hesitant to employ
teachers who cannot express themselves in English because they will produce learners who are
not well-grounded in English as a medium of instruction and subsequently, the teacher education
programme would lose students who want to register for teaching and the end result would be
the closure of the programme.

On the other side, Modupeolo (2013) recommends that code-switching can be applied at the
foundation phase for the benefit of little learners to enhance teaching but has to be reduced
gradually as the learners’ progress in proficiency level. Suffice it to state that though code-
switching is acceptable, the society which would be produced by teachers who do not know how
to teach using medium of instruction would not be able to compete in the country’s political and
socio- economic systems, let alone to communicate to the outside world. On the contrary, this point
of code-switching leaves much to be desired because the Department of Education language policy
3(4) of the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (Act 27 of 1996) declares that all official
languages may be used in South African schools. Meanwhile, it is evident that the National
Education policy does not align with what is happening in schools because the experienced
teachers discourage pre-service teachers who keep on code-switching when teaching.

The finding under the non-verbal communication was that the pre-service teachers were not
competent on using the board. For instance, they did not divide the board into columns and never
wrote the date and the topic. Moreover, they were writing wherever they felt like writing.
Some of them did not use the board frequently. This inadequacy confuses the learners especially
when they try to write their notes from the board or they try to comprehend what is written on the
board. Additionally, when the Department employs these teachers who do not know how to use the

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chalkboard appropriately, it would have a challenge because they would produce students who do
not know the importance of writing a date and a topic when writing any document.

Although some of the subject mentors stated that the level of using both verbal and non-verbal
techniques among pre-service teachers was good, one of them concurred with the researcher’s
observation. He mentioned that pre-service teachers were lacking on the skill of using the board
profitable. It was also noted that most of the pre-service teachers preferred verbal
communication than non-verbal communication. They were unable to balance the two. Haneef,
Faisal, Alvi and Zulfiqar (2014) emphasise that verbal and non-verbal communications are
indispensable in teaching and learning process. This is further illustrated by Bambaeeroo and
Shokrpour (2017) in their findings that teachers who use both verbal and non-verbal
communications become more efficacious and learners progress very well academically.
Furthermore, Kildan et al. (2013: 52) argues that verbal ability and content knowledge are the
most important attributes of pre-service teachers who want to be effective teachers after they have
completed their studies.

Based on the above assertions, it is evident that communication skills are essential to teaching. There
are three of the ten phases of Mezirow of transformative learning theory which are relevant to
communication skills, and they are the following: acquisition of knowledge, exploration and
recognition. Acquisition of knowledge phase can occur in verbal or non- verbal method. Under
verbal method, pre-service teachers can attend different types of meetings to listen to the
experts of education in order to improve in teaching. Under non- verbal method, pre-service
teachers can acquire information from different materials which among others are journals and
books, since it is known that teachers are life-long learners.

Under recognition, pre-service teachers have to apply the communication skills in order to be
recognised by others. After they have acquired information and being recognised they have to
explore options of new roles, relationships and action. For instance, they have to apply
different methods of teaching, attending seminars and workshops in order to enhance learning.

While doing all these methods of communication, they have to be empathetic. They have to share
information with their colleagues and create mutual understanding with them in order for them to
have a desire to change. Hence, Taylor (2013) talks about three constructs of transformative
learning theory which are experience, empathy and a desire to change. These phases are relevant
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in the communication skills because pre-service teachers are expected to gain experience verbally
and non-verbally. They are also expected to have empathy to their colleagues and all other school
stakeholders in order for their teaching to be effective. For instance, through communing with
their colleagues and having mutual understanding, they will have a desire to change for the
better. The third phase, according to Mezirow (2003), which is fit to incorporate, is exploration.
In this phase, pre-service teachers have to explore options of new roles, relationships and actions
in order to gain adequate competences of teaching, which one of them is communication.

Writing of the chalkboard summary

In this context chalkboard summary denotes writing notes that are clear on the board which are in
point form and filling in one panel before going to another one. Application of chalkboard
summary is very essential for the learners to comprehend lessons easily. It also assists them to
remember the lesson taught during their study periods. However, the findings of this study reveal
that pre-service teachers did not have adequate chalkboard summary writing skill. They were
writing the whole thing which was written in the textbook and others were writing just one word
after they had talked for a long time. This finding implies that learners who are going to be taught
by these teachers will have a challenge when they do their own summary of what has been taught.

The schools too will have a challenge when they had employed such teachers. Hennington (2012)
concurs with the above assertion when he highlight that the use of chalkboard summary helps
learners to focus on the concepts which are being emphasised and also to retain information
easily. He goes further saying that chalkboard summary has two main aims:
1. To help them plan accurately the lessons in their minds hence their thinking is
organised.
2. To develop sound relationship of the concepts that are more difficult to comprehend.

Pre-service teachers should be encouraged to visit the chalkboard room in order to improve their
chalkboard writing skills as well as confidence in their new roles.

Learning, teaching and support materials (LTSMs)

The LTSMs are the resources used by the teacher to teach and they also support learners to learn
or comprehend lessons easily. The finding of this theme revealed that the pre-service teachers
were unable to convey learning content, skills and values through the use of various learning,
teaching and support material. All the observed pre-service teachers were more likely to use
charts and textbooks as the only learning teaching and support material used to enhance learners'
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performance and motivate them toward learning. This implies that teacher education programmes
do not expose the pre-service teachers to different types of learning, teaching and support materials.

Besides, the pre-service teachers were lacking the improvising skill if their schools were not having
sufficient learning, teaching and support materials. The subject mentors too have to live by example.
It is evident that they too were not using learning, teaching and support material when they were
observed by the pre-service teachers. Learning is being compromised if learning, teaching and
support materials are not used when teaching because there are learners who understand easily if
the teachers use LTSM. These assertions are confirmed by Riet (2012) who highlights that the
main function of LTSMs is to ensure learner achievement of knowledge, skills, values as well as
enabling learners to make their own meaning and understanding rather than relying solely on the
knowledge from the teacher. One can say that it is a tool used to enhance teaching and learning if
it is used appropriately.

The Ministry of Education in Guyana (2016) declares that LTMs are the integral component in any
teaching and learning situation. It further states that there are several benefits which they have
such as, helping learners to improve in different skills or concepts, differentiating instruction and
relieving anxiety or boredom by presenting information in a new and exciting way. The above
assertions are further illustrated by Madray and Catalano (2010:11) when they state that learning
takes place when the brain responds easily to the messages and objects it receives and sees. This
means that if learners can be exposed to different types of LTSMs which include plays, they can
increase their concentration span and learn effectively. By so doing LTSMs engage other senses
such as sight, hearing and touching, thus making them understand the lessons taught better and
even get motivated.

In this study, it was observed that pre-service teachers engaged only sense of sight, ignoring other
senses. They deprived other learners’ right to comprehend the lessons by not using other senses
especially for those who have sight challenges. It was also observed that those who used them
preferred to use textbook or charts. Moreover, they did not use them appropriately. They never
served the purpose of drawing learners’ attention. Some of them were congested and it was not easy
for the learners to read what was on them and worse they were not appropriate for the grades. During
interview with subject mentors they all gave positive answers about how the pre-service teachers
used LTSM. It became apparent that some of the subject mentors are over-protecting pre-service
teachers. It is known that for the sake of enhancing teaching and learning, one need to

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improvise. Teachers should be able to produce their own LTSM (DoE, 2003) if their schools do not
have sufficient material to enhance teaching and learning.

Formative assessment and feedback

In this context, formative assessment and feedback refer to the intentional and systematic process
used by teachers during teaching which provides immediate feedback to adjust on- going teaching
and learning in order to improve learners’ achievement of the intended instructional outcomes.
The findings of this study reveal that the majority of pre-service teachers were unable to integrate
teaching and learning. They were applying the “I go with those who are willing to go with me
principle” and sometimes “own” the lesson. The latter means that most of the pre-service teachers
used the teacher-centred approach when teaching. They never kept on asking questions while the
lesson was developing and if they happened to do, they never gave immediate feedback to the
learners. That left the learners not knowing whether they had responded right or wrong. Others
even kept on asking without rephrasing the question. That disturbed the learners when they were
busy thinking about how to respond to the questions asked. If these afore mentioned assertions are
not properly handled by both the schools (where pre-service teachers practice) and the
universities (where pre-service teachers are trained), teachers will be inadequate in the delivery of
their tasks.

Formative assessment and feedback play a crucial role in the learners’ brain development. It helps
in the in-depth understanding of the content at hand. In support of the above illustration, Hounsell,
McCune, Hounsell and Litjen (2008) highlight that feedback has long been acknowledged as an
indispensable part of an effective teaching–learning environment in education. Kota and Schwart
(2013) concur with Hounsell et al. that formative assessment and feedback make learners think
visibly so that teachers can make better instructional decisions. Furthermore, Nutbrown, Higgins
and Beeseley (2016) opine that assessment and feedback are the cornerstones of learning in schools
and they are consistently associated with achievement. They go further stating that various studies
have revealed that innovations designed to strengthen the frequent feedback that learners receive
about their learning produce extensive learning. This implies that these cornerstones encourage
learners to have the desire in having more interest of what they are learning.

Classroom management
According to Korkut (2017:1) “Classroom management includes not only aspects of classroom
organization such as group-pair and solo-work, maintaining an orderly and peaceful environment,

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and doing the routine business but also making arrangements to motivate and empower the
learners.” What is said by Korkut is contrary to what was observed by the researcher. The finding
of this study reveals that the pre-service teachers lacked the classroom management skills. They
did not discourage learners when they were responding simultaneously from their questions.

The researcher also observed that some learners were busy talking and others were sleeping
while the pre-service teachers were teaching. This implies that the learners were not motivated and
empowered to learn as Korkut said the above mentioned activities are among the classroom
management activities that are to be performed by pre-service teachers. This inadequacy of the pre-
service teachers denotes that they do not have confidence in what they were teaching and also they
were afraid of the unfamiliar environment. This leaves the buck with the teaching practice
department. The department has to expose the pre-service teachers to their teaching practice schools
before the commencement of teaching practice. The schools too have to be cooperative by
introducing pre-service teachers to the classes which they are going to teach and supply them
with the material which they are going to use during teaching practice.

Although some of the subject mentors had noted with great concern the inadequate management
skill of the pre-service teachers but there are those who reported that most of the pre-service teachers
did not encounter any problems in disciplining the learners. One of the subject mentors even
commented about the pre-service teachers’ way of disciplining the learners by writing those who
were misbehaving in class and submit them to him. This implies that even subject mentors have to
be trained on how to mentor pre-service teachers because it is not correct for the pre-service teachers
to shift their responsibilities to other teachers. How are they going to discipline learners when they
are employed as fully qualified teachers? It is obvious that there will be chaos in those classes.
Therefore, it is well known that learners do not hesitate to start making noise when they see that
the teacher does not know his responsibilities or if they do not hear what is taught by the teacher.

Erjjogan, Kurcun, Saltan, Gok and Yildiz (2010) revealed that when pre- service teachers were
asked about the challenges they encounter in their classroom when teaching, they mentioned
that they feel poorly trained in classroom management. Additionally, Hildenbrand and Arndt (2016)
report that most pre-service teachers lack confidence in maintaining order in their classrooms.
They highlight that this lack of confidence is caused by the inadequate management skills of
cooperating teachers. Likewise, Housego (1990) states that pre-service teachers feel least prepared
to deal with classroom behaviour problems. On the other hand, some researchers (Aworanti,

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2016; Yang, 2016) are of the view that lack of confidence is caused by inadequate pedagogical
content knowledge of pre-service teachers which result in failing to establish a strong teacher
identity.

The above assertion proves that most of pre- service teachers emulate what is done by their
subject mentors because they regard them as their role models. Hildenbrand and Arndt (2016) go
further saying that although pre-service teachers are trained in their respective institutions on how
to manage the classroom, they do not hesitate to simply observe and implement their cooperating
teachers’ procedures, strategies, and behaviour management system. This implies that it becomes
worse if they are mentored by teachers who have inadequate management skills because the whole
teaching and learning is affected, thus pre-service teachers end up not learning anything from
subject mentors (Polat, Kayab & Akdag, 2013). Hence, it has been mentioned in literature review
that classroom management, the quality of teaching skills and pedagogical content knowledge are
like two sides of a coin. Tarman (2012) also confirms similar findings. According to him, when
pre-service teachers are mentored by good experienced teachers, they become aware of the complex
dynamics of the classroom which includes exercising appropriate discipline. Besides, Davis and
Brook (2015) claim that most pre-service teachers start to be nervous when they are going to manage
classroom even before teaching practice commences. They further state that pre-service teachers
doubt themselves on how they are going to establish and maintain a wholesome, cooperative
working situation in the classroom.

Integration to school culture

Each and every school has its own way of inculcating the culture of its school. Even the
behaviour of all its stakeholders is not the same from one school to another. What was observed
by the researcher during teaching practice is that most of the pre-service teachers felt lost when
they were in schools. To them, it was a reality shock situation. This observation of the researcher
was confirmed by one of the subject mentor when she said the pre-service teachers liked to be in
their own cocoon. This finding also goes back to the orientation of the pre-service teachers which
is lacking. Orientation is essential because it makes pre-service teachers to be exposed to the
environment where they are going to undergo their teaching practice. If this experience of the pre-
service teachers is not rectified by the teaching practice

authorities and the partner-schools, pre-service teachers will lose interest of pursuing their
teaching profession and there will be shortage of teachers. And the society which does not take
education seriously does not progress. Therefore, it is worth stating that all the school stakeholders
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have to be integrated to their respective school culture.

Pre-service teachers have to feel accepted by the school by being integrated into school culture.
Bennett (2017) states that one of the key ways this is achieved is by designing routines that pre-
service teachers should follow. Any behaviour that should be performed should be made into a
routine. Hence, Taylor (2013) emphasises three constructs that are ever present when talking about
transformative learning theory. These are experience, empathy, and desire to change. Positive
actions of the school to pre-service teachers have to inspire them to change for the better (to be
effective teachers after they have completed their studies).

Commitment to learn
Although the majority of the pre-service teachers perceived teaching practice period as
sufficient, the overall findings of this study denote that pre-service teachers have to be given
sufficient time for teaching practice in order to be acquainted with all the activities rendered in
schools. In support of the above assertion, Darling Hammond, Chung and Freelow (2002); Gujjar
(2011) and Nakpodia (2011) stress that the duration of teaching practice is not sufficient.
Therefore, pre-service teachers have to be provided with enough time to gain more school
experience. Furthermore, Gibbs and Coffey (2004) argue that university pre-service teachers
become more learner-centred in their teaching when they are provided with sufficient time of
teaching practice which is about one full year. However, other study by Ronfeldt and Reininger
(2012) argues that the duration of teaching practice has little impact on the acquisition of
pedagogical and content knowledge of pre-service teachers. It elucidates that it all depends on pre-
service teachers’ commitment to learn how to teach and the passion of subject mentors to mentor
pre-service teachers.

The argument of Ronfeldt and Reininger (2012) is also supported by the pre-service teachers
of this study. Most of their responses during the focus group interview displayed satisfaction with
the duration of teaching practice. Based on the above mentioned findings, the researcher deduced
that three pre-service teachers who were satisfied with the duration of teaching practice think that
teaching profession is about teaching only. They are not aware that there are many activities in this
profession which they are not exposed to due to the limited time they spent in schools. Teaching
practice should be extended so that pre-service teachers have the exposure to all activities rendered
by schools. The rest of pre-service teachers realized the need of the extension of teaching practice
period. This implies that they know that teaching is a complex activity which needs teachers to apply
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their skills to new situation. Thus, Buang and Bahari, (2011) regards teaching as a complex skill,
in which teachers are required to perform multifaceted tasks to new situations.

All in all, the findings of the pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach, the majority of the
responses from both the latter and the interviewed subject mentors showed a high level of
satisfaction. However, most of them contradicted the observation of the researcher. This
problem leaves a lot to be desired. In this study, it is important to note that most of the subject mentors
gave the “all positive” response. They gave the responses which Ell and Haigh, (2015) referred
to previously as the “false positive” responses. Ell and Haigh (2015) argued that false positive
responses are problematic to pre-service teacher and the school, the learners to be precise because
they do not develop pre-service teachers and consequently the learners do not learn anything from
those teachers. Thus, Rajuan, Tuchin, Zuckermann (2011) explain that not all experienced teachers
have the necessary mentoring skills to guide the pre-service teachers. Therefore, guidance is also
needed for themselves. Furthermore, Jackson (2014) emphasises that mentoring training is
necessary so that subject mentors know what is expected of them when teaching pre-service
teachers how to teach. This is evidenced by the “all positive” responses of the pre-service
teachers when they were interviewed on how often they held mini conferences with their subject
mentors to discuss their progress in their teaching. Therefore, it is evident that continuous
professional development for subject mentors is needed in order to be able to provide adequate
guidance to pre-service teachers as they are referred to as the resourced people.

In a nutshell, the results from background information indicated that subject mentors and
university supervisors of pre-service mentors do not have similar perceptions when it comes to the
supervision and guidance of pre-service teachers. This relates to Gutierez and Heui- Baik (2017)
who posit that universities have to provide professional development short courses to subject
mentors. Furthermore, Hudson (2012) claims that providing professional development to subject
teachers on mentoring can capacitate them in two ways:
1. Quality mentoring of pre-service teachers through explicit mentoring practices
2. Reflecting and deconstructing teaching practices for mentors’ own pedagogical
advancements.

These professional development courses can eliminate this over protection and also the
provision of all positive responses which are provided by most of the subject mentors even if they
are not necessary. In addition, it was observed that vision and mission statements of the respective

115
schools of pre-service teachers were readily available in their files. This suggests that the vision
and mission statements of schools which act as guiding principles for the pre- service teachers are
held in high esteem. According to Kosmutzky (2012), teachers are considered as professionals
and well-respected when they know, value, appreciate, and allow the vision and mission statements
of their schools to guide them in the discharge of their duties.

Time-table is a major tool that teachers are expected to possess and value (Kolbe & O’Reilly, 2016).
They further opine that it guides and directs the teachers in their daily activities. The majority of
the pre-service teachers’ files had both class timetables and personal timetables. However, only
few had examination timetable in addition of the two which are mentioned above in their files.
This shows that the pre-service teachers are aware that they should keep time when they are
conducting their lessons. However, most of them were unable to finish their lessons in record
time. Their lessons were finished before the stipulated time of the subject period.

Looking at the study on lesson plan, Ali (2013) and Kola (2017) confirmed that availability of good
lesson plan enhances effective classroom teaching. Sahin-Taskin (2017) emphasises that lesson
plans are of great importance in providing effective teaching and learning. Mutton, Hagger and
Burn (2011) highlight that proper planning of lessons makes effective teachers. In this study, it was
observed that all the selected pre-service teachers had lesson plans. However, the majority of them
lacked weekly, term and annual lesson plans. This implies that the sampled pre-service teachers gave
more attention to daily lesson plans, leaving out other important plans which are mentioned above.
Moreover, most of their lesson plans did not indicate how the lesson was going to be concluded.

In the area of Curriculum Assessment Policy statement (CAPS), there were only three pre-
service teachers whose files had the Curriculum Assessment Policy statement. The majority of the
pre-service teachers exhibited professional commitment by including the formal and informal tasks
which were set for the learners as well as memoranda and mark lists in their files. Ries et al. (2016)
highlight that formal and informal tasks are important for assessing the progress of learners.

From the foregoing assertion, it can be concluded that most of the pre-service teachers’ files did
not have all the required documents needed by effective teachers for effective teaching and learning
exercises. This has a negative impact on the teachers who are going to be produced by the institution
of learning if these above concerns are not taken into consideration. The Department of
Education is going to employ teachers who are not adequately competent and that will have a

116
 very negative impact to the socio-economy of the country. The society and economy depend on
its educated people in order to be a progressive and developed country. Hence, it has been
mentioned in chapter two that education is the main pillar of a society.

The findings of this study reveal that pre-service teachers lack appropriate competences of the
teaching profession. However, transformative learning theory is deemed appropriate for this study
as Mezirow (2003:58-59) explains that it is responsible for the transformation of the problematic
frames of reference, sets of fixed assumptions and expectations (habits of mind, meaning
perspectives, mind sets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective, and
emotionally able to change. Such frames of reference are better than others because they are more
likely to generate beliefs and opinions that will prove truer or justified to guide action. Based on pre-
service teachers, teaching practice is the only tool which transforms their frames of reference.
Christie, Carey, Robertson, Grainger (2015) have explained in chapter two that frames of reference
denotes that every individual has a particular view of the world which needs to be transformed if it
is negative and be moulded if it is positive. Hence, some pre-service teachers’ frame of reference
is fast and for some others is slow. The teacher Education programme and cooperating teachers
should accommodate and cater for all kinds of pre-service teachers taking into consideration their
frames of reference.

5.4 CONCLUSION

In summary, this chapter discussed the findings from the interviews with subject mentors,
observation of pre-service teachers teaching strategies and readiness to teach. Documents and focus
group interviews with the selected pre-service teachers were also analysed under the following
themes: exhibition of professionalism, lesson presentation and development, application of
pedagogical content knowledge, communication skills, writing of a chalkboard summary, learning,
teaching and support materials, formative assessment and feedback, classroom management,
integration to school culture and commitment to learn. The next chapter gives a summary,
conclusion and recommendations based on findings of the study.

117
 CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 INTRODUCTION

The chapter provides the summary of findings, given in the Chapters two and five. The chapter also
provides recommendations for how pre-service teachers should be assisted in order to be ready for
teaching profession and further research. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the readiness of
pre-service teachers to teach in one of the South African universities.

The study compared and contrasted the researchers’ observation and the subject mentors’
responses through the use of triangulation approach. The study was guided by eclectic theoretical
framework which consists of transformative learning theory. Interpretivism was used to address
the research problem.

The sample for the study was drawn from sixteen (16) B. Ed three pre-service teachers who were
registered in the Intermediate and Senior phase. The participants were selected when they were
doing their teaching practice in the two selected districts which are uMkhanyakude and King
Cetshwayo, in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Additionally, sixteen subject mentors also formed
part of the participants. They formed part of this study because they are the ones who spend most
time in schools with pre-service teachers during teaching practice. They were purposively
selected from the above mentioned districts. An observation schedule, focus group interviews
schedule and document analyses were used to collect data from sixteen purposely selected samples
of pre-service teachers during their teaching practice. An individual interview schedule was used to
collect data from the pre-service teachers’ subject mentors. Interviews, focus group interviews
and document analysis were analysed through the use of thematic analysis. This chapter provides
a summary of the study’s findings, the conclusions of the study and recommendations that may
inform the readiness of pre-service teachers’ to teach and future studies.

118
 6.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS BY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND CORRESPONDING
QUESTION
The summary of the findings is organised in line with the research objectives.

6.2.1 Objective One: to establish whether pre-service teachers are able to facilitate the
teaching and learning process using various methods of teaching.

The research question that corresponds with this objective is as follows:

1. Are pre-service teachers able to facilitate the teaching and learning process using
various methods of teaching?

The study investigates whether pre-service teachers were able to facilitate the teaching and
learning process using various methods of teaching.

The findings revealed that most pre-service teachers were least competent in applying pedagogical
skills using different methods of teaching. However, the study established that most of the
responses of subject mentors were all positive. Most of them were satisfied about how pre-service
teachers were applying pedagogical skills when teaching although most of them did not
understand the concept “pedagogical skills”. The researcher had to explain what pedagogical skills
are before the subject mentors responded.

6.2.2 Objective Two: to ascertain whether the third year pre-service teachers have acquired adequate
content knowledge of their teaching subjects.

In achieving this objective, this research question was asked:

2. Have third year pre-service teachers acquired adequate content knowledge of their
teaching subjects?

This study established that few pre-service teachers had adequate content knowledge. However,
the majority of the subject mentors were satisfied with the performance of the pre- service teachers.

6.2.3 Objective Three: to determine the pre-service teachers’ ability to maintain order and
discipline in the classroom.

In working towards the achievement of this objective, the study was guided by this research
question:
3. Are the pre-service teachers able to maintain order and discipline in the classroom?

119
 The study established that although the learners had a Hawthorne effect, pre-service teachers lacked
proper ways of disciplining them. The researcher observed that learners were willing to learn.
However, the pre-service teachers were unable to deliver the lessons appropriately. That led to the
disturbance of the teaching and learning. The pre-service teachers did not apply any of the
techniques of capturing the noise. They kept on teaching as if everything was normal.

6.2.4 Objective four: To determine what subject mentors consider as important aspects in preparing
pre-service teachers for the teaching profession.

In working towards the achievement of this objective, the study was guided by this research
question:
4. What do school based subject mentors consider as important aspects in preparing pre-
service teachers for the teaching profession?

Although the interviewed subject mentors did not know much about how to mentor pre-service
teachers, they were concerned about the tool used to evaluate pre-service teachers. They stated that it
does not cover some of the aspects that need to be evaluated such as, how do pre-service teachers
assess the learners. Are the questions asked relevant to the lesson taught as well as the adequacy
of the reflection of instruction?

6.2.5 Objective five: To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers consider practice
teaching to sufficiently prepare them for the teaching profession.

In order to achieve the above objective, the following question was asked:
5. Do third year pre- service teachers consider practice teaching to be sufficiently
preparing them for the teaching profession?

The study established that most pre-service teachers were satisfied about the duration of
teaching practice as well as teaching practice in general. Their main focus was on teaching and
did not consider other school activities such as, setting the test paper and marking it and invigilating
examination. However, only a few who stated that six weeks is not sufficient because it ends
before they are exposed to the different activities that are rendered by the schools.

120
6.3 CONCLUSION

This study was undertaken to evaluate pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. Fundamentally, it
has found that although pre-service teachers are provided with the opportunity to go to schools for
teaching practice; it seems to show that they are neither creative nor competent to implement quality
teaching in order to maximize learners’ learning. Most of them are least competent in curriculum
and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Therefore, it is evident that most of them exit the
programme underequipped to teach. Again, a number of them are not acquainted with most
activities that are performed in schools. The reason is that practice teaching session finishes before
they are exposed to all the activities that are offered in schools. Activities like setting and
supervision of examinations, marking of the examination scripts, writing of learners’ academic
reports and active involvement in extra-curricular activities of the school. Pre-service teachers need
to be well-versed with appropriate chalkboard usage as well as have a skill of designing questions
and integrate them with the content of the lesson taught. Subsequently, give feedback to the learners.
This will enhance professionalism in a full-fledged teaching career.

Finally, the readiness of pre-service teachers to teach can be achieved if the institutions of
higher learning and the schools can work collaboratively. It has emerged in this study that
subject mentors do not know what is expected of them when mentoring pre-service teachers.
Therefore, working collaboratively can help both pre-service teachers (university) and learners
(school) to understand their respective responsibilities. Moreover, both pre-service teachers and
interviewed subject mentors did not do self-examination and self-critical assessment to check
whether they have adequate competences. This means that it is not easy for them to transform for
the better.

121
6.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

First, as the study concentrated on the limited geographical locations and populations of King
Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude districts, one cannot interpret these results to make general
comments beyond the population where the sample was derived.

6.5 THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTUAL MODEL IS PERCEIVED IN THIS STUDY AS

SUITABLE FOR IMPROVING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’READINESS TO
TEACH

1. Disorientation
dilemma

2. Self-
10. Reintegration examination

3. Critical
assessment

9. Building of
competence and
self confidence

4. Recognition

8. Provisional
trying of role

5. Exploration

7. Planning of 6. Acquisition of
course of action knowledge

Figure 6.1: A structure of the proposed model for improving pre-service teachers’ readiness
to teach.

Mezirow (2008) believes that disorienting dilemma is caused by life crises or major life
transition. Meanwhile, Druggeri, Dempster and Hanna (2008) relate to disorientation dilemma as
anxiety and negative attitudes toward the unknown elements. They go further saying that it has
been attributed to poor interaction with other teachers and fears about particular subject abilities.
All this is caused by the fear of the unknown which leads to the second phase which
122
is the self-examination phase. When the pre-service teachers are in the self-examination phase, it is
because they are still in the unknown world. They are not sure of what is right or wrong. Hence, they
are trying to adjust themselves to the new environment which is the Faculty of Education.

In the third phase which is critical assessment, pre-service teachers are expected to be in deep
analysis of themselves which is based on the principal issues that created disorientation
dilemma. They have to start to do retrospection in order to alleviate the elements of disorientation
and accept themselves. Thereafter, the recognition phase occurs where they have to get identity of
their potential such as being able to understand the curriculum, and how to do critical assessment.
After they have found identity of their potential they are expected to move to another phase whereby
they begin to explore in order to acquire knowledge. These phases are critical because the pre-service
teachers have to add more responsibilities in themselves by looking for information independently
without the assistance of their subject mentors or university supervisors. However, Mezirow’s
10 phases of transformative learning claim that the exploration phase is followed by the planning of
the course of action.

Meanwhile, this study recommends that exploration has to be followed by the phase of the acquisition
of knowledge where pre-service teachers explore their skills and knowledge which they have. After
they have acquired knowledge they start to become confident in their field of study, which in this
case is teaching and they have to engage in the planning of a course of action phase. In this phase, they
have to begin to unpack competences which they have acquired. That means that they have to start
to define what they are competent on. Provisional trying of roles is the next phase where pre-service
teachers should be in the learnership or internship level. It is where they should showcase their
competences which they have acquired. The only place where they can know whether they have
acquired adequate competences of teaching is during teaching practice session. The next phase is
the building of competence and self-confidence. This phase means that they have to be able to handle
their lessons successfully. For instance, among other things which they should know are, being able
to do lesson plan, apply pedagogical content knowledge, setting examination, reflect on instruction
as well as being able to manage the classes.

When pre-service teachers are competent in the above mentioned competences, their self-
confidence can be boosted. Hence, learning is a continuum. It needs to be reintegrated.
Reintegration is the last phase whereby pre-service teachers should keep on re-examining

themselves to make sure that they have adequate competences. If they see that some of them have
130
 not been acquired, they are expected to start critical assessment and move through all the above
mentioned phases until the last one, which is reintegration. However, if they see that they have
acquired adequate competences they should explore other avenues of teaching in order to be
effective teachers when they exit the programme.

6.6 RECOMMENDATIONS

This study has explored the readiness of a South African university third year B. Ed pre-service
teachers to teach in Senior Phase. The findings from data collected by means of triangulating in-
depth interviews and focus group interviews, observation and document analyses have led to the
drawing of the conclusion presented above. In view of the conclusions the study has identified
the following recommendations as critically important for the improvement of pre- service
teachers’ readiness to teach:

6.6.1 To establish whether pre-service teachers are able to facilitate the teaching and learning process
using various methods of teaching:

.
6.6.1.1 An authentic tool should be designed for evaluating pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach.
This performance tool has to examine the following abilities in the classroom situation:
 To plan
 To teach
 To assess
 To reflect on instruction

6.6.2 To ascertain whether the third year pre-service teachers have acquired adequate content
knowledge of their teaching subjects:

6.6.2.2 The Faculty of Education has always been known to have poor student performance. This is
due to the selection criteria during enrolment. In the end, students struggle to pass and this affects
their out-put during their service years. Hence, the criteria during enrolment of education
students should be standardised to ensure that only well-qualified candidates are admitted to study
education. This will help in the quality of teachers produced by the institutions of learning for the
society.

6.6.2.3 Teachers should be motivated to acquire at least an Honours degree in their subjects
of specialisations.
131
6.6.3 To determine what subject mentors consider as important aspects in preparing pre-service
teachers for the teaching profession:

6.6.3.1 Short courses about mentoring should be provided for subject mentors in order ascertain
that they know what is expected of them when mentoring pre-service teachers.

6.6.3.2 Subject mentors should be oriented on the need to desist from giving false positive responses
during interviews in favour of pre-service teachers.

6.6.3.3 Pre-service teachers have to be mentored by the seasoned and experience teachers who have
passion for their work.

6.6.3.4 The university-school relationship should be strengthened. The university is expected to

come with scholarly knowledge and the school is expected to come with teaching
profession knowledge in order to work collaboratively for the benefit of learners and the
society.

6.6.4 To determine the pre-service teachers’ ability to maintain order and discipline in the
classroom:

6.6.4.1 Teacher training institutions should be made to ascertain their offering of appropriate teacher
training programmes. The programmes should be targeted at equipping pre-service
teachers with skills to deal with numerous demands associated with the teaching
profession, among others, maintaining order and discipline.

6.6.4. To establish whether the third year pre-service teachers consider practice teaching
to sufficiently prepare them for the teaching profession.

6.6.4.1 The duration of teaching practice should be increased. Pre-service teachers should be made
to spend at least a year doing teaching practice. This would enable them to get acquainted
with learners’ needs, their characteristics, their levels of learning, some administration
duties as well as all other activities pertaining to the teaching profession (to be classroom
ready).

132
6.7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The suggestions for further studies are listed below:

The focus of this study was on the evaluation of pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach. From the
literature reviewed and the data collected of pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach, challenges
that prohibit them to be ready to teach kept on coming. It is very crucial that they should be
adequately addressed. The researcher believes it is imperative to do further research on the subject
using other institutions, countries and continent since this study was limited to a selected university
in South Africa.

The study revealed that pre-service teachers’ subject mentors are over-protecting them. They give
false positive responses when interviewed about the performance of pre-service teachers. There are
various reasons which might cause them to give false positive responses. For instance, it might
be because they do not do their work properly of observing pre-service teachers when teaching
or they just shift all their responsibilities or they think that if they report the incompetence of
pre-service teachers, they would be hindering the future of teachers. The reasons for this should
be investigated.

This study also did not sample the former model C schools. Future work should compare the
situation in former model C schools with those in this study.

133
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 Appendices
APPENDIX A: FOCUS GROUP GUIDE

161
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Research question S

Fncus group inlet·vicw n nd document analysis will be used to eJicit more infonmtt ion
from the 1u-e--service le-achel"'8 nbout whcCbcr l hc)'considtw tcttching practice snfflcierHly
ru·cpnt·c them fnr the fcnching ()l'(lfcssion. Tht sub bendings of this rc eat·ch ques.Hon is
the following:

• liucu s group inhwviews: Studeut teachers' pe·rccr:.t ior t ol' teaching prncf ice
:> Ar·e yo\1 comfortable with tbc dumtion of te.1ching pmctice?
}> Do you gain anything fr<lm tenc.hirlf.! rrocticc? Exp:diatc

)> Did subject mentors give you su fficient lime- to observe them teaching?
) Did you create tim-e with your mentots to h ave mini confCrcnccs to
discuss whu t you tuught?
e l>ocmuent l'UIAI,ysis: LCS.SOII t>l:ln
);. Displaysevidence of ound prei>Or'a(ion:

• Ol'ganjsaeiou of te-aching file

? Nea lne.o;.
)' Layout of the documents found in lhc Ule; tOr exam ple, learners'
u ttendLmce register school pol icies, etc.

The inccrvicwcr is going lO lhank the interviewees find assure them of the confidcntiaUty of
t'el:i)..-xmscs. '11rc in(crvicwccs will 00 given a chance to a!lk tmy questions relalcd to their
I>M1icip-atio n in the s1ltd)'. The •-e n:h r will tlum infonn lhe imervie\vee.:; of how she is
goin g to dissem inntc infol'matiorl in thestudy.

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APPENDIX B : INFORMED CONSENT FORM FOR PRE-
SERVICE TEACHERS

164
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APPENDIX C: INFORM CONSENT FOR SUBJECT
MENTORS

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APPENDIX D: OBSERVATION SCHEDULE

168
169
170
 APPENDIX E

EVALUATING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ READINESS TO TEACH: A CASE STUDY

OF UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
(INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW)

171
172
APPENDIX F: FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

173
AI'I'ENDIX F

IWA LUATING PRE-SERVICI!: T ACU I!S' READINESS TO TEACH: A CA.SR

STUDY OF A SOUTit AFIUCAN UNIV£l!SITY

mcus CROUl' INTERVffiW

Thnnk you for c-Omins for lhis discussion meeting. \Ve will bcgiu om discu.•Biou hy t ulkina
gcncmlly about your perception of t<mclling prltcticc. f.n yout· own pcr.;pt.--.c.::tlvc. is leaching
proctke a wort hwh ile um;k;rtnki ng?

Thcnl t: 1: Dw-ntion or lt-"chifl¥ nr HCticr

PROBES:

I. Did you gel suffteietll cxpcricn« duringteaelting practi<:c of bow tho :ochuol dpc:nttcs

Theme 2: \Vorkiog w-HhI he uhjed mrutnr

!•!Willi:

l . \Ve1'e you doi• g le.o;. m:; l>rCJ>anu lon wilh your •nc:ntors?
2. Were you given sufficient tilne b)' your su bject mcnlt)t'S to (t:w,:.h'/
3. Were you holding mini cmlfCJ'Cnecs with your mentors to discuss Jessous t uught?

Theme 3: Leuon nreparor!on

PROBES:

I. What is lbe irnpotlancc of doint olc=on planning bcforc going lo "'""'tote<teh?

2. Wbal is !he impottancc of irteludingthe objcclh-.s in <he lesson planning?
3. Why is il nccc:ssary lo include the ICllcbers and learners ac1ivi1ies when plannina o
le.Wln

\Ve have discu ed quite a umnbcr uf issi.K's regarding lesson pl:tnni.ng and its prcscntfllion .1J1
your view. what do you uudcts.tnnd by profe ionali'>rn?

PROll liS:

1. Why proi ionnlism needs to be empl1nsisl.xl in this profession?

CLOSURE

Thank you \"el')' mucJ1 for sharing your views wlth me. 1 really apprcc;iute your views,
collliDCDIS and suggcslions. Beli>re we go. pl08SC lei us enjoy lhe refresbmenls.

174
APPENDIX G: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS CHECKLIST

175
176
APPENDIX H: PERMISSION TO CONDUCT RESEARCH IN
KZN DoE INSTITUTIONS

177
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APPENDIX I: ETHICAL CLEARANCE

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