Peer Review

Being a Teacher: Professional Challenges and Choices.

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Overview:: Saide, the South African Institute for Distance Education contributes to the development of new models of open and distance education practice, that accord with and take forward the values, principles, and goals of the evolving education systems in the Southern African region. Including the use of technology in education. They establish this collection of materials by creating the website OER Africa to promote the development and sharing of OER on the African continent. Being a Teacher: Professional Challenges and Choices is a tutorial set up in modules that guide potential and practicing teachers in a variety of scenarios.
Type of Material:: Tutorial in PDF format
Recommended Uses:: This tutorial might be of interest to current teachers interested in learning about international education or teachers of pre-service teachers.
Technical Requirements:: Any device with internet access and PDF reader.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Their mission is “to increase equitable and meaningful access to knowledge, skills and learning through the adoption of open learning principles and distance education methods." In the interest of completing their mission, this page provides a guide for novice teachers to compare their experiences with experienced teachers.
Target Student Population:: Higher Education; Pre-service K-12 Teacher Education, Graduate Students
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None

Rating:
Strengths:: The material allows for student/teacher interaction with a variety of scenarios from teaching as a career choice to challenges in the teaching profession.
Concerns:: Created for South African teacher preparation/professional development but applicable to all teachers and teacher educators.

Rating:
Strengths:: It’s easy to create lessons/activities for use in teacher education coursework or professional development workshops. Students would benefit from the experience of their mentors.
Concerns:: None.

Rating:
Strengths:: There is a built-in flexibility in use of documents for teaching, learning, and professional development. The modules are set up in a manner that allows for flow between steps/stages.
Concerns:: PDF format should be easily downloadable; however, on the day of the addition of this review to MERLOT II, the PDF resource file would not download either via the link or via Save the Link As. The PDF file is the main source of information for this site. Also it would seem that the PDF (when working) should be available on the Materials tab rather than the Overview tab.

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a great tool for teaching, learning, and professional development for teacher education. Tasks can be set up for individual or group work. The PDF link is an issue.
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