Planning in education is a structured activity that includes several phases and steps that take into account several kinds of information (Steyn, Steyn, De Waal & Wolhuter, 2002: 146). One of the sets of information that are usually considered is the (so-called) "benchmarks" and "benchmarking" regarding the focus of a…

Many teacher education institutions across the world are now initiating and supporting international teaching practicums to better prepare their teaching graduates to teach for diversity. Recently, some of these practicums have embedded service-learning structures and discourses to further encourage pre-service teachers (PSTs) to think beyond…

In this study, we examined student teachers' learning during their teaching placement period in Finland and South Africa. The setting of the inquiry in both countries was a 'teaching' school, affiliated to a university teacher education programme. The teaching school is also referred to as an educational innovation that was transferred from the…

Developing programs that adequately prepare teachers to address the key challenges of quality and equity in schools remain an ongoing challenge in the new, democratic South Africa. This chapter reviews the changes effected in the Professional Studies theory and teaching practicum component to enhance student teachers' knowledge and skills for…

Research in self-directed learning (SDL) has become imperative for education and training in the international arena, and in South Africa. This is a result of the changing education landscape all over the world, initiated by the demands of the 21st century and the changes in knowledge and information production. Teacher-centred methods are still…

This paper reports on a planned, professional, postgraduate diploma that aims to develop educators and education officials professionally towards policy making and at the same time bring about transformation in the students' work environment. In order to focus particularly on this aim and also to instil reflexive practices, we will focus on two…

The study sought to investigate teachers' perspectives on how the teacher education curriculum could be transformed to be relevant for basic schooling and contribute to sustainable development. The objective was to understand the views of the university lecturers, teachers in schools and teacher trainees on the relevance of the curriculum offered…

This conceptual and exploratory article seeks to explore the implications of the University of South Africa's (Unisa) shift from open distance learning (ODL) to open distance e-learning (ODeL) on Teacher Education. In addition, the article problematizes the shift as a policy imperative. Unisa's mandate to provide teacher education opportunities to…

This article reports on students' experiences of learning to work together in a childhood teacher education programme at a university in South Africa. We were interested in how students from diverse backgrounds, with little shared understanding of a model or framework for collaborative working, would find their footing and learn how to…

Initial teacher education programmes such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in South Africa are undergoing significant changes with the introduction of a new policy regime. This paper briefly outlines the policy changes advanced for teacher education programmes in South Africa. It examines productive pedagogies as a conceptual…

That rural schools suffer from issues of "hard to staff" and "harder to stay" has been well documented in extant literature. However, the literature seems to indicate inadequate teacher preparation for work in rural schools. Literature also demonstrates that teaching in rural settings ostensibly requires relevant knowledge and,…

The effects of overcrowded classrooms are far-reaching for teachers and learners. Many parents base their decision on whether to send their child to a particular school on the prospective number of learners in the child's classroom (Mustafa, Mahmoud, Assaf, Al-Hamadi & Abdulhamid, 2014:178). All teacher training institutions ought to ascertain…

This study reports on an intervention that was aimed at improving the content knowledge of first-year intermediate-phase education students at a South African university. The study gives some insight into preservice teachers' perceptions of an online programme for the development of mathematics common content knowledge for teachers of mathematics…

This is the foundational book for the new series, Teacher Education, Learning Innovation and Accountability. The book canvasses research, practice and policy perspectives in teacher education across diverse geographic, social and political contexts. It explores the lifespan of teacher development from initial preparation through to graduate…

In an attempt to bring about a society in which individuals can realise their full potential, South African (SA) education has undergone fundamental reforms. However, despite these changes, the education system seems to remain hampered by ongoing systematic and institutional racism, and subsequent socio-economic structures of poverty and…