Chapter 4: Results
4.7 Teachers’ views on the adequacy and relevance of their training
4.7.1 Effectiveness of initial teacher training
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4.7 Teachers’ views on the adequacy and relevance of their
70 We never had that training.
4.7.1.2 Need for specialised training by experienced people
Some of the participants were sufficiently disappointed in their initial teacher training, that they felt the need to further their education and training in areas relevant to the types of learners that they were facing in their classroom daily. Some participants also attended content specific courses related to the curriculum and specific disorders while having been employed by the special needs schools that they were teaching in. This supported the need that the teachers felt to find successful strategies in having dealt with learners who displayed oppositional and defiant behaviour and to find alternative resources to assist them in their daily classroom experience. They placed a high value on their own practical experiences with these learners and on having learnt from the experiences of other teachers and experts in the field.
Participant E2 indicated that he had felt the need to complete a further qualification in order to understand and work with the oppositional and defiant learners in his class, as his initial training had not dealt with this issue:
No… that is why I did the advanced certificate in education, specialising in behaviour problems… to say we’ve been trained specifically with opposition dysfunction leaners, no.
Participant C1 indicated that she also felt the need to acquire further training and education, she listed her qualifications as:
I have a home economics degree, a Higher Education Diploma and a Diploma in Specialized Educational Needs.
Participant D2 said that when she had entered the special school that she teaches at, she attended a course to further her skills in dealing with these particular learners as her existing skills base had proven insufficient:
When I entered the school, we went on a course, I was just fortunate enough that there were offered a course and I did a very intense course on Inclusive Education.
Participant D3 also listed her qualifications and the additional qualification that she had completed in order to help learners who displayed oppositional and defiant behaviour:
I’ve got a Junior Primary teacher’s diploma… now I’ve got the HDE, I’ve got the B Ed Honours Inclusive Education.
71 Participant E1 had similar additional qualifications:
I’ve got umm, teaching diploma… I also hold a two postgrads degrees that is, and Honours in Psychology and Honours in Education, B Ed.
Participant E2 indicated that he had furthered his education, due to the need to understand the learners in his class. His qualifications were as follows:
I’ve got uh, a diploma in Education, uh I’ve got Advanced Certificate in Education… specialising in behavioural problems… and I’ve got an Honours degree in Educational Management.
Participant E3 also mentioned her qualifications and further studies that she had completed and was studying at the time:
I have my Psychology Honours and I have a PGCE, I have, I don’t know, it’s a year, it’s an art therapy and then a computers ICDL… I am currently studying AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication).
4.7.1.3 Recent versus earlier training
The participants provided varied responses as to how long they had been teaching and therefore how long ago they had received their initial teacher training. The teachers who had qualified a number of years ago, and those teachers that had qualified more recently, both indicated that the initial training that they had received had been inadequate for the learners that they had in their classrooms. The teachers who had been teaching for longer felt that their experience was valuable in dealing with learners who displayed oppositional and defiant behaviour and they were often willing to pass their experience on to younger or more recently qualified teachers. Both the recently qualified and longer serving teachers indicated that they experienced frustration and demotivation when having dealt with these learners.
Participant C1 (teaching for 32 years) indicated that she had not received any training on oppositional and defiant behaviour:
To be honest, 32 years back, I did not receive one single stitch of any sort… in my studies there was no provision made for any sort of behavioural, umm, difficulties or umm, defiant behaviour, none of that.
Participant C3 (teaching for 26 years) indicated that there had not been a focus on oppositional and defiant behaviour in her initial teacher training:
It’s so long ago, I can’t remember. I do remember finding sort of child psychology quite interesting, so there must have been something about it. Ja, but not much in the training.
72 Participant D1 (teaching for four years) said that there was a limited focus on special needs education in his initial teacher training and that strategies for dealing with these behaviours were not part of the training:
Ok as a concept, uh, explicitly it was not brought up, as far as special needs go, umm, they’re sort of kept giving us theory about full service schools and encouraging us to adapt, but uh, in terms, for example, if they brought up other conditions such as dyslexia, they didn’t say ok, they will tell us these are signs and symptoms but they didn’t say, if you have a learner like this in your classroom and you’re in a full service school, these are some of the strategies you need to use… It’s less practical training with special needs because, there just didn’t seem to be too much of a focus for it in the college at the time… in terms of training, there was very little for special needs.
4.7.1.4 Adequate training
Participant E1 said that she felt that she had been adequately trained during her initial teacher training as she had been trained in dealing with high school learners and the behaviours that they presented with. This participant completed two further qualifications after her initial teacher training to better help the learners in her special needs class.
Participant E1 indicated that she had found her training to be sufficient in dealing with these learners in her classroom:
Fortunately, I did umm Secondary, Secondary teaching diploma, so there is that section that talks about behaviour, you know teenagers and development, it runs through all the ages that, from this age to that age. It’s umm, they display that kind of particular behaviour and so on.
In general, the majority of the participants found that their initial teacher training did not prepare them for the learners that they were expected to teach. This was the case for oppositional and defiant learners and some of the participants felt the need to further their studies in order to help these learners and to personally cope better with the learners in their classrooms. Both more recently qualified teachers and long serving teachers felt that their initial training had been inadequate. With the policy of inclusive education having been rolled out in South African schools, this lack of training in the characteristics and experiences of learners with special needs could have impacted both mainstream teachers and special needs teachers. The more recently qualified teachers may have felt unprepared for the special needs learners that were placed in their mainstream classrooms, and teachers that entered special needs schools for the first time may have become demotivated and frustrated that the theory they were taught did not work on a practical level in the classroom. The teachers compared
73 the value of the training they had received to the value that they placed in actual classroom experience, this is presented below.