Mathematics Teacher Education Curriculum in Zambia: Lecturers’, Students’ and In-service Teachers’ Perspective

Abstract

Quality teaching of classroom mathematics in schools begin with exposing student teachers to a quality teacher education curriculum during their teacher education programme. The rationale for this study was to analyse the mathematics teacher education curriculum by reflecting on lecturers’, students and in-service teachers’ perceptions. Mixed methods design particularly the convergent parallel design was used. Questionnaires were distributed to former university students who were teaching mathematics in Lusaka and Kitwe district of Zambia as well as final year student teachers who were on the programme and had done their school teaching experience. In addition, some teachers, lecturers of mathematics content and mathematics teaching methods were interviewed. The researcher used description and thematic analysis in analysing qualitative data and quantitative data was analysed through the use of the statistical package for social sciences version 20 where means and independent samples t-tests were used. The study key findings reviewed that the way teachers of mathematics were prepared for their professional classroom job was inappropriate as the curriculum they were exposed to during their teacher education programme was loosely linked to what the student teachers were expected to teach upon graduation in Zambian schools. This affected the way mathematics was taught in secondary schools. Besides, the mismatch in the two curricula led to teachers of mathematics with diplomas to divert to other teaching subjects when upgrading their studies to a degree level. Hence, it was recommended that the higher institutions of learning needed to consider the ministerial directive by reviewing the mathematics teacher education curriculum after thoroughly conducting a job analysis. It was also recommended that the Ministry of Education needed to reinforce the already existing continuous professional development to bridge the gap between the two curricula.