Assessment of Preservice Science Teachers’ Support for Teaching Practice in the Context of Two Teachers’ Colleges in Zimbabwe

Using three objectives this study sought to: examine the extent to which mentors provided guidance to pre-service teachers, establish the support type and assess colleges’ support provision.An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was used to guide the collection and analysis of data. Data were sourced from 18 Science teacher educators and 108 final year Science student teachers through a semi-structured questionnaire, follow-up interviews, focus groups and documents. The findings show that support was in the form of (a) science-teaching theory (b) support materials such as handouts and handbooks with tips on lesson planning and other teaching practice requirements (c) placement in schools for practice (d) provision of mentors (e) occasional workshops and (f) clinical supervision. However, support that targeted science students’ unique requirements was largely found lacking, suggesting the need for practices such as field-based methods courses and educative mentoring that foster closer collaboration between colleges and schools.