Towards a New Teacher-Training Model for ODL: The Challenges Faced by PGDE Students and Their Mentors and Supervisors During Teaching Practice

Teacher development through the conventional and Zimbabwe integrated teacher education course (ZINTEC) colleges has gone through several models since independence in 1980. Teacher shortages in many schools and poor student results continued to be the order of the day. When the government of Zimbabwe introduced the education capacity development programme for teachers in 2014, Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), as the only university mandated to offer open and distance learning (ODL), introduced within its Faculty of Arts and Education, and the Department of Teacher Development. Would ZOU be able to produce equally-trained or even better teachers than other colleges or universities? In light of this background, this study sought to investigate the challenges faced by ZOU students and their mentors and supervisors during teaching practice (TP). Of the postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) intake 13 students who had come to the Midlands Regional Campus to write their examinations, 50 were randomly sampled and asked to fill in open-ended questionnaires. Twelve mentors stationed at some schools in Gokwe District where TP visits were carried out and 10 TP supervisors at the Midlands Regional Campus filled in similar questionnaires. By quantifying similar responses, emerging patterns and themes were noted. The major conclusions were that the TP period was too short, school based mentors needed training, lecturers spent more time on rushed assessment than supervision and ZOU had to provide sufficient human and material resources and logistics in order to enhance viability and sustainability of TP mentoring and supervision. It is recommended that the challenges faced and solutions offered by the respondents be used to initiate further debate and insights towards coming up with a new teacher-training model for ODL.