TEACHING PRACTICE SUPERVISION AND ASSESSMENT AS A QUALITY
ASSURANCE TOOL IN TEACHER TRAINING: PERCEPTIONS OF PROSPECTIVE
TEACHERS AT MASVINGO TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES

TEACHING PRACTICE SUPERVISION AND ASSESSMENT AS A QUALITY
ASSURANCE TOOL IN TEACHER TRAINING: PERCEPTIONS OF PROSPECTIVE
TEACHERS AT MASVINGO TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES

ROSEMARY NGARA

RICHARD NGWARAI

RODGERS NGARA

eaching practice (T.P.) is a critical stage in the training of prospective teachers as it is a
process of producing a master teacher. There are many mechanisms that are put in place to
make T.P. a beneficial experience to trainee teachers and student supervision is a part of one of
such mechanisms. Supervision and assessment of the trainee teachers is done by the college and
mentors and members of the administration at the schools where students conduct their teaching
practice. There are, however, some problems associated with supervision. For instance,
supervisors give conflicting suggestions and sometimes supervision is ill-timed or delayed. A
survey was conducted in Masvingo urban schools to determine views of prospective teachers and
student teacher supervisors on the effectiveness of T.P supervision as a tool in quality assurance.
By and large, participants regarded supervision and assessment as an indispensable tool in
assuring quality in teacher training. Nevertheless, some variables were viewed as affecting the
effectiveness of supervision. Among them were delays in supervision, supervision being far-
spaced from each other, little or no dialogue and lack of consensus on the part of supervisors in
dealing with similar issues. Among other things, the study recommended the running of
workshops on T.P supervision by training colleges for Teaching Practice supervisors at all
levels

European Social Sciences Research Journal

2013