USING EDUCATIONAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESSES: A CASE OF TRAINEE TEACHERS AT AFRICA UNIVERSITY

This paper is an outcome of an analysis of secondary school trainee teachers’ views and their use of Educational Media and Technology (EMT) during teaching practice. It also sought their trainers’ views on how the students used EMT. Sixty undergraduate education students from Africa University who had undergone a Teaching Practice (Practicum) programme, in secondary schools, and their fifteen lecturers were involved in this study. A mixed methodologies approach was used, hence questionnaires, interviews and observations were used to collect data. Responses were analysed using frequency counts for the quantitative data while opinionated views were qualitatively analysed. The results indicate that while trainees appreciated the role of EMT in teaching and learning, the majority of the trainees did not however, use EMT during their teaching, and that there were inadequate and functioning EMT facilities in the practicing schools. Resources were limited for both teachers and pupils, with the exception of printed materials and some obsolete equipment that lacked compatibility with modern technologies. Text books, where available, were mostly foreign and hence not suitable for Zimbabwean conditions. Suggestions on how to promote the utilisation of EMT by teachers are made as part of the study’s recommendations