Assessing student teachers’ knowledge of English to inform curriculum design in initial teacher education
South African Journal of Childhood Education
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Assessing student teachers’ knowledge of English to inform curriculum design in initial teacher education | |
| Creator | Roberts, Nicky Moloi, Qetelo M. Mort, Thelma | |
| Description | Background: In Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, there are concerns about student teachers’ English language proficiency.Aim: To discuss the first iteration of the PrimTEd English language and literacy test and analyse the results for information about the test instrument and about student teacher attainment.Setting: South African student teachers in BEd programmes preparing for teaching in primary schools, across six public universities, participated in the test from 2020 to 2022.Methods: The student results for the PrimTEd English assessment were analysed using basic statistics, focussing on the largest samples of first-year and fourth-year students who took both the subtests. The items in each subtest were coded according to their underlying language constructs, and each subtest was subjected to Rasch analysis before the test was considered as a whole.Results: The initial test showed the attainment of fourth-year students (mean = 55%, standard deviation [SD] = 21%, n = 731) was only 3 percentage points higher than that of first-year students (mean = 52%, SD = 20%, n = 1177).Conclusion: The similarities between the first- and fourth-year students’ test results is concerning. There remains much work to be done in building student teachers’ English language proficiency in BEd programmes.Contribution: The findings and recommendations should be useful to ITE lecturers in designing programmes that enable progressive development of English language and literacy competence from first year to graduation. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2024-09-16 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajce.v14i1.1538 | |
| Source | South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 14, No 1 (2024); 11 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1538/3138
https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1538/3139
https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1538/3140
https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1538/3141
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