Elias Rajabalala Mathipa & S. M. Matlabe 
Reflections on Professionalism, Pedagogy and the Theoretical Underpinnings of Teaching Practice Revisited [PDF ebook] 

The chief editor, Professor ER Mathipa, holds the following professional and academic qualifications: a Junior Secondary Teacher’s Certificate (Hebron Training Institute); a BA degree (Unisa); a B.Ed. degree, and a BA Hons degree (former University of Bophuthatswana, now Northwest University); an MEd (former Vista University), and Ph D (University of Pretoria). He has taught at several high schools and rose through the ranks as a teacher, senior teacher, head of department, deputy principal and principal. He then joined colleges of education as Vice-Rector and later as Rector, and later on joined universities (1995) as a professor. Currently he is working at Unisa’s Department of Language Education, Arts and Culture and specialises in Philosophy of Education and Educational Management. In this book, the different authors attempt to deal with some of the issues raised by plucking the gaps and addressing the paucity of critical engagement by vigorously reflecting in a robust manner the burning issues that bedevil teaching practices. The chapters of this book address various topics concerning teaching practices with the goal of placing before the reader a variety of the authors’ experiences, perceptions and insights into teaching and learning in general. Teaching practices is an important bedrock component in initial teacher training programmes designed deliberately to capacitate future teachers with the requisite skills of teaching the learner with passion and commitment. Children as constituting the bulk of learners, are the future hope of a nation, and they need teachers who are skilsful, competent, compassionate and understand how/what it is to be a child. This book offers a variety of views, theories, beliefs, policies, experiences and suggestions that together strive to make a significant contribution to teaching practices. Among others, the authors argue that it is incumbent for universities to continuously evaluate their teaching practice programmes and models so as to keep abreast with new developments, and to also search for new ways and approaches that could improve teaching practices. It is imperative for teachers to remain active in the pursuit of scientific enquiry as a means of discovering and/or inventing new theories and methods of improving their teaching practices, so that the learners could benefit maximally. Furthermore, the various authors exchange ideas and also emphasize the necessity of first assessing the needs of a situation before venturing to a solution. Without being aware of the needs of their student teachers and the learners they teach, the lecturers may not be able to meet the demands of the teaching practice.Target Audience:The target audience for this book is first and foremost teacher education institutions and the prospective and practicing teachers. Finally, the educationists and scholars interested in doing research in teacher education in either ODL or contact institutional setting.