In South Africa, the lack of teacher training in parent involvement is compounded by the teacher shortage in general and the overall shortfall of qualified teachers. This article describes a project developed for one of the communities in South Africa to enhance students' knowledge of and comfort with parent involvement. This study aims to answer…

Evidence in literature indicates that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of teachers is essential in creating effective schools. Since 2001 the implementation of education legislation and policies has progressively shifted the new agenda within a transformation framework aimed at reconstructing the education system to the fore. The many…

Teacher mobility has become a common feature of the cross-border flows and transnational networks that constitute globalisation. International and intraregional migration of teachers is an important factor in education provision and management in countries in the Southern Africa region, for example Botswana and South Africa. In an increasingly…

This article contributes to the debate regarding the preferred model for teacher education to provide for teacher shortages. The models commonly referred to are the consecutive model, the integrated model and the concurrent model for teacher training. The aim of this article is to determine if the integrated model for teacher education is an…

In the drive to achieve universal primary education as one of the Millennium Development Goals, there is an increasing recognition of the urgency of focusing on teacher education to both meet the demand for more than one million qualified teachers required to achieve this goal within sub-Saharan Africa, as well as to combat the sometimes poor…

It is essential for teacher training institutions to reflect continually on changes in education policy with the view of ensuring that teacher training programmes that take the present needs and policies into account are in place. This article describes a four-year process through which a particular faculty of education went in search of an…

Recognizing that teacher commitments are consequential for classroom practice, this research seeks to understand the beliefs, perceptions and attitudes among student teachers towards diversity in their classroom. Using evocative case studies drawn from everyday classroom practice, this study draws out the existing understandings and commitments of…

The establishment of an online community is widely held as the most important prerequisite for successful course completion and depends on an interaction between a peer group and a facilitator. Beaudoin reasoned that online students sometimes engage and learn even when not taking part in online discussions. The context of this study was an online…

The importance of the role of language in teacher education programmes and in children's learning is crucial. This study focuses on the use of English as the language of learning and teaching and its impact on the language development of English second language (ESL) student teachers and ESL learners. Against the background of major theories in…

We examined the viability of using feedback from a learning environment instrument to guide improvements in the teaching practices of in-service teachers undertaking a distance-education programme. The 31 teachers involved administered a primary school version of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC-Primary) questionnaire to their 1,077…

Although pair programming has proved its usefulness in teaching and learning programming skills, it is difficult to assess the individual roles and abilities of students whilst programming in pairs. (Note that within this manuscript, the term assessment refers to evaluating individual student performance.) Assessing only the outcomes of a pair…

This article describes an investigation into mathematics for teaching in current teacher education practice in South Africa. The study focuses on formal evaluative events across mathematics teacher education courses in a range of institutions. Its theoretical orientation is informed by Bernstein's educational code theory and the analytic frame…

A South African nursing school's problem-based undergraduate curriculum is based on experiential learning with collective and critical reflection in health care. A master's program in progressive education was implemented to prepare educators of health professionals to teach this new curriculum. (SK)

Describes study of 32 "Educare" facilities for African children in urban areas, townships, and rural homelands in South Africa. Assesses training of Educare teachers by nongovernment organizations with assistance from USAID. Overall, the training improved teachers' ability to provide a healthy, safe, learning environment. Contains 36…

The article discusses the training of teachers for gifted children with an emphasis on the need for developing a better process for identifying and educating gifted Black children in South Africa. The curriculum for a comprehensive and holistic four-year teacher training program is suggested and social, economic, and political influences…