Education

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    Use of the process skills approach by ZATEC student teachers : the case of selected Basic Schools of Kitwe District in Zambia
    (2011-06-09) Mweshi, Emmanuel
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of process skills approach by student teachers from Kitwe College of Education who were on school experience in basic schools of Kitwe district. The objectives of the study were to: establish the student teachers understanding of the process skills approach, the extent to which they used the approach, and determine the constraints the student teachers faced in implementing the process skills approach. The research design was primarily a descriptive survey. The study employed the following data collecting instruments: self administered questionnaires for student teachers, observation schedule and semi-structured interview schedules for school mentors and lecturers. The target population was student teachers from Kitwe College of Teacher Education who were on school experience in 2005 in Kitwe district. The sample size was 45, of which 30 were student teachers on school experience, 10 mentors and 5 lecturers. The study found out that student teachers from Kitwe College of Education were inadequately prepared to use the process skills approach in teaching Integrated Science. They failed to translate the theoretical knowledge they acquired about the approach into practical lessons. The observed lessons revealed that much of the teaching and learning of Integrated Science focused heavily on the acquisition and reproduction of scientific knowledge. Some of the identified constraints to the use of the process skills approach were inadequate knowledge of the process skills approach by the student teachers, lack of learning and teaching materials in basic schools, large class sizes, over-loaded Integrated Science syllabus and inadequate knowledge on process skills by the mentors. The following recommendations are being made: • The government should improve on the supply of science learning and teaching materials to basic schools. • Government should limit the enrollment level in each class. • Teacher Education and Specialized Services should increase the duration of the ZATEC course from a two year certificate programme to a three year diploma course. The Mathematics and Science Education study area should have two components namely background and methodology. • The Curriculum Development Center should include objectives in Integrated Science documents that should state clearly the process skills to be developed in each topic or suggested activities.