Challenges Experienced by Pre-Service Teachers in the Post Graduate Certificate in Education Programme at a South African University

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to better understand the complex nature of tertiary learning by exploring challenges experienced by a group of students who have enrolled for the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme as a pathway to a teaching career. This study’s aim is to identify challenges experienced by pre-service teachers in the PGCE programme at a South African University with an attempt to propose and test a research instrument that captures such challenges and to determine how the identified challenges vary among different fields of study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 pre-service teachers enrolled in the PGCE programme at South African university in 2012. The questionnaire was analysed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and descriptive statistics. Findings of this study showed that challenges experienced by pre-service teachers can be classified into 3 categories: namely, challenges related to terminologies and learning style used in education, challenges related to the structure of the PGCE programme and challenges associated academic background from undergraduate qualification. This study further revealed that most of the challenges were reported among commerce and science pre-service teachers. Findings of this study are important in understanding flexible educational planning for the PGCE students at the university.

Keywords: Challenges, pre-service teachers, PGCE programme, university, South Africa