PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Initial Teacher Education is designed to prepare pre-service teachers to teach and also establish a platform on which continuing professional development (CPD) can be erected. This qualitative study explored forty-six pre-service teachers’ conceptualisation of teachers’ CPD. The pre-service teachers, taking Mathematics as their major subject of specialisation, were in their final year of their four-year degree programme at a selected university in the central province of Zambia. Data for the study were collected using an open-ended questionnaire and follow-up interviews. By analysing the collected data using thematic analysis, this study found that pre-service teachers presented four diverse conceptualizations of CPD: CPD as lifelong learning, CPD as meetings, CPD as furthering one’s studies and CPD as a programme mandate for teachers. The findings and their implications for mathematics teacher educators and initial teacher preparation programmes, with a role to prepare preservice teachers for CPD, are discussed.