Towards a cost-effective model for quality supervision of student teachers during teaching practice in public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Teacher education is paramount in the development of human resource for the achievement of quality education to enhance sustainable development in Kenya. It is concerned with the provision of varied learning opportunities and experiences to student teachers to enable them acquire, practice, and refine their knowledge, teaching skills and instructional strategies and attitudes and develop commitment to the profession. The opportunity to demonstrate the mastery of the competencies provided in the programme comes during Teaching Practice, a resource intensive exercise which is seen as an integral and most valuable part of teacher education hence a prerequisite. Most public universities in Kenya place student teachers in schools countrywide for practice. The strategies adopted by each University for supervision, puts into question not only the cost effectiveness of the exercise but also the quality of supervision and consequently the quality of the teachers. It is based on this premise that this paper proposes ‘a cost-effective model’ in which Universities collaborate and pool resources both financial and human for quality supervision of student teachers. This dynamic model is guided by the cost-effectiveness analysis framework; an assessment of essential quality indicators vis-à-vis the costs using a hypothetical scenario derived from the current practice in Kenya which will be empirically determined in a study which is underway