Mathematics and Science Student Teachers’ Self-Reported Pedagogies: A Case of Copperbelt University

Abstract

This descriptive survey study was aimed at exploring mathematics and science student teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) during teaching practice. The PCK surveyed focused on the pedagogies the student teachers used during their teaching practice. The sample comprised 106 mathematics and science student teachers from Copperbelt University in Zambia. This sample included mathematics, biology, physics, and chemistry education student teachers. Data were collected using a questionnaire designed by the authors. The results show that the most common pedagogies student teachers used were group discussion, lecture, demonstration, Question and Answer, and Problem Based Learning. The reasons they gave for using such pedagogies were that the pedagogies encourage interaction among learners, promote retention of knowledge, lack of adequate resources, and over enrolment. However, when using these pedagogies, they faced challenges such as class management due to over enrolment, inadequate teaching and learning resources, and inadequate time. These challenges prevented the student teachers from using their preferred pedagogies such as field trip, computer simulations, experiments, and inquiry. These results have implications to teacher education and pupils’ understanding of concepts.

Keywords: pedagogy, pedagogical content knowledge, teaching practice, student teachers