Professional Enhancement or Needless Baggage: Attitudes of Undergraduate In-Service Secondary School Student Teachers towards Educational Psychology in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study explored the attitudes of undergraduate secondary school student teachers towards Psychology of Education modules against the backdrop that the students once studied Psychology of Education at length during their initial teacher-training. A whole array of psychological theories from the psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive, trait and humanistic paradigms was used to anchor the study. The mixed method approach involving the descriptive survey research design and the chi square test was employed. Questionnaires, interviews and observations were used to gather data during the empirical investigation. The stratified random sampling method was used to generate a sample of 66 respondents comprising six Psychology of Education lecturers and 60 secondary school undergraduate in-service student teachers. The study established that lecturers believed that a significant proportion of secondary school undergraduate in-service student teachers seemed to treat Psychology of Education modules as comparatively inferior to their main subject modules. The student teachers themselves seemed to occur with the sentiments of the lecturers although some of them professed enjoying Psychology of Education modules. Some in-service secondary school student teachers indicated that their attitudes towards Psychology of Education modules were dampened by the fact that they studied the modules in large groups in which they could not get undivided attention from the lecturers. The researchers recommended that time needed to be taken to convince these student teachers that Psychology of Education modules remain crucial in enhancing their professional acumen regardless of their field of academic specialisation.