Learning to teach secondary school mathematics from practice: an exploration of the Zimbabwean pre-service teachers’ year-long field experiences

𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 Previous research in teacher education has examined teaching practice (TP) as an important part of teacher preparation. Accordingly, a number of Zimbabwean researchers have also focused on teaching practice in order to explore its influence on ‘learning to teach’ generally. In mathematics education, the focus on TP partly reflects the belief that ‘learning to teach’ mathematics without practice would be difficult, if not impossible. Despite the importance that is attached to mathematics as a subject and teaching practice as playing a pivotal role in the improvement of mathematics teaching, pre-service teachers’ training has not been helpful in addressing performance deficits in secondary school mathematics. Student achievement in mathematics has remained low in Zimbabwe and across the world. In search of possible solutions to this challenge of poor performance in mathematics, the present study explored the significance and possible contribution of teaching practice to teacher knowledge and expertise which are required to improve secondary school mathematics in Zimbabwe. A mixed methods research approach, based on a sequential explanatory design, was selected for the study. Pre-service teachers and school-based mentors answered questionnaires and focus group interviews. At the same time, college supervisors participated in semi-structured interviews on the connections between pre-service teachers’ expectations and experiences of TP. The first set of findings from the study suggests that before going on TP, pre-service teachers have positive, but perhaps exaggerated, expectations about teaching mathematics and these expectations seem to affect the way they teach in the classroom during TP. The study thus recommends that teacher education needs to address these expectations more directly prior to school placement. The second set of findings point to the apparent discord between the mathematics content that is taught to pre-service teachers during teacher preparation and what they are expected to teach in schools during TP. A better alignment between the college mathematics curriculum and the school curriculum is suggested. This does not mean teaching the high school curriculum in college, but points to the need to align topics and/or themes between the two sets of curricula. Thirdly, the study uncovered a disturbing imbalance between the focus on content knowledge (CK) on the one hand and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and curriculum knowledge on the other. It is therefore suggested that for effective mathematics teaching during TP, the development of mathematics teachers needs to be approached in a holistic manner where content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and curriculum knowledge are integrated deliberately during teacher preparation. Finally, the findings suggest that there is a difference between pre-service teachers’ expectations before TP and their experiences during TP. The pre-service teachers’ struggle with the transfer of learned skills into classroom practice and the variable quality of the school-based mentorship practices by supervisors explain much of the differences between the expectations and actual experiences. A review of the college syllabus to include more mathematics pedagogy is thus called for, together with a more robust training programme for school and college-based supervisors, in addition to improved incentives for school-based supervision. In conclusion, the current study re-affirms the importance of teaching practice in teacher education in Zimbabwe, as it is in other countries. Teaching practice provides opportunities for mathematics pre-service teachers to spend time in real classrooms and ‘learn to teach’ from experience. However, the study has also established that teaching practice is not just about the time spent in the field, but more about the development of skills and competences for effective teaching and application of principles studied to teach and to bring about change in practice.