Davison Zireva

By Davison Zireva

Traditional education has ripple effects in education. The way the educator was taught is almost always the way the educator teaches the learners. Traditional education has a narration sickness (Freire, 2000) and the so-called educators are proselytising ideologues who are after the production of copy cats. Active learning in teacher education is anchored in reflective thinking on all practices. The teacher education student should be encouraged to embark on action research which makes one to be introspective. Thus action research makes the teacher involved in active life-long learning. The teacher who has been groomed in action research abhors routine and ritualistic methods of teaching. The action research oriented teacher makes learners active in learning episodes.

Part of the book: Active Learning

By Davison Zireva

One of the contemporary global education thrusts in teacher education is the generation of context-based theory through engagement in action research. While practicing in the classroom, the teacher education student is essentially in the laboratory creating procedural knowledge. Action research in the classroom involves reflective practice, which is indispensable to praxis. Despite the efficacy of action research in facilitating mathetics (learning how to learn), there are some militating situations that are fuelled by diehard traditional perceptions and practices. An exploration of teacher education students’ perceptions and experiences with action research was done with 16 informants who were selected purposively and exposed to in-depth interviews. The data were thematically analyzed and the findings were that some students develop agoraphobic dispositions toward action research due to some miseducative experiences that are largely attributed to traditional educational practices. The teacher education students are exposed to vices like technical rationality instead they should be oriented toward epistemic and pragmatic rationalities that are the linchpins of professional development. The experiences that precipitate agoraphobic dispositions in action research should be known and subsequently obliterated.

Part of the book: Active Learning

By Davison Zireva

Andragogy is beset by socioeconomic challenges that stifle performance of the learner. Barriers to optimal performance should be unveiled, explicated, and exterminated by mitigating options like online courses. The barriers are heterogeneous since they are influenced by the thrust of the particular national curricula. The socioeconomic status of a nation state has some influence on the adherence to traditional andragogy, which cherishes the status quo. The face-to-face tuition dominated by the lecturer is generally considered to be virtuous in traditional andragogy. During times of no turbulence in education, online courses are the penultimate option. Providential education turbulence caused by contagious pandemics like COVID-19 has precipitated the need for online courses. The online courses should not be reactively considered but should be embraced as the contemporary ‘normal’ in andragogy.

Part of the book: Massive Open Online Courses - Current Practice and Future Trends