Reflective practice is a crucial element of professional growth that is gaining in popularity in teacher education, yet the ability to reflect is a skill that is neither natural nor easy to develop. This paper reports on an investigation that sought to establish if pre-service teachers at a South African university -- in the process of learning to…

Background: Initial teacher education (ITE) research in South Africa shows gaps in preservice teachers' (PSTs) primary mathematics knowledge. Aim: We study the mental mathematics understandings and teaching experiences of three PSTs who achieved high gains for learners they taught mental mathematics to using the Mental Starters Assessment Project…

Despite a renewed interest in music teacher education practices with real-world implications, the heterogeneity of learners is often daunting to early-career educators. There is a lack of specific and adequate coursework in undergraduate music education programs to prepare preservice music teachers (PSMTs) for teaching diverse learner populations,…

Transformative pedagogy is based on the principle that learning requires concerted effort to critically examine beliefs, values, and assumptions, and places learners at the heart of the learning process. The development of pre-service teachers' lesson planning skills is considered key in raising effective teachers to close the gap between theory…

Aim/Purpose: This article aimed to explore student perceptions and experiences of migrating to a fully online mode during COVID-19. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the mode of delivery from face-to-face or blended learning to fully distance learning. The introduction of the Disaster Management Act (2020) in South Africa forced all…

In this paper we probe prospective mathematics teachers' thinking as displayed in their solutions to a geometry content knowledge-based task. Geometry content knowledge is examined in terms of connections made by these prospective teachers between the geometric configurations and the geometric principles established through visualization and…

The education and professional development of pre-service mathematics teachers occur across different contexts. Key contexts of mathematics learning and learning to teach are school, university undergraduate mathematics and mathematics teaching-related learning in teacher education courses. International literature suggests that each of these…

Background: Music as one of the creative arts offers an ideal vehicle to implement alternative teaching and learning strategies, including the implementation of purposeful but playful pedagogies that are increasingly being acknowledged as the most appropriate way of teaching young children. However, within higher educational institutions, it is…

Background: Universities, specifically faculties of education, have the responsibility to ensure that student teachers are introduced to the complexities involved in planning conceptually sound, coherent and cohesive lessons. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine how prepared students teachers are to plan children's literature…

The role of higher education in improving educational practices and access through research in technology innovations across the wider spectrum of schooling has especially increased in the information driven 21st century lifestyle. Pre-service teacher training plays a significant role in this transformation. For South Africa, research in…

A plethora of debates about intellectual imagination regarding decolonised curriculum development has dominated the South African higher education discourses. There is a need to purge Africa of the marginalisation that has been perpetuated by curricula established during the past century. The aim of this research was to add a practical dimension…

This paper focuses on the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education's (SAARMSTE's) role as a platform supporting research dissemination and connecting researchers in early grades mathematics (EGM) in the Southern African region. A review of the Long Papers in SAARMSTE over the last 20 years supports…

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice science teachers' proficiency levels regarding their practical knowledge of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK-P). A sample of 103 third- and fourth-year participants from a South African university were surveyed on their TPACK-P proficiency levels using a 17-item…

Isolation, lack of connection and/or belonging, difficulty maintaining engagement and motivation for learning are common complaints for students separated from teaching and support staff in distance education. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article utilises dimensions of student engagement: cognitive, emotional and social behaviour to argue…

The purpose with this article is to amplify the significance of effective mentoring of pre-service teachers in order to address classroom matters and situational issues associated with teaching practice. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 pre-service teachers about the ways in which they experienced mentoring during their teaching…