Mantoetse Jobo

Mrs. Jobo is a Lecturer in Agriculture and Environmental Education at the Lesotho College of Education, Maseru, Lesotho. 

Research Topic:

The working title for Mrs Jobos’s research is ‘Teacher Educators as Agents of change for Education for Sustainable Development – The Case of Lesotho College of Education’. 

World governments including the Government of Lesotho have regarded education as the main focus for addressing global environmental problems. Since 1970, the emphasis of GOL has been to equip teachers with knowledge, skills, and commitment to effectively integrate environmental issues across curricula. This study which is based on a participatory action research will critically explore how teacher educators respond to Environmental Education/ Education for Sustainable Development on personal and professional levels. In particular the study will explore the practice of Education for Sustainable Development in one teacher education college with a view to informing policy and practice in Southern Africa through regional and national environmental education networks.

Puleng Mapuru

Ms. Mapuru is a Lecturer in Biology at the Lesotho College of Education, Maseru, Lesotho.

Reseach Topic:

The working title for Ms Maperu’s research is ‘Improving students’ understanding of genetics in senior secondary biology teaching using ICT’. 

Genetics is recognized as an important topic in biology. Good ground work in genetics brings about key advances in agriculture and medicine through fields like genomics, biotechnology and genetic engineering. The importance of this topic is observed by its inclusion in the school curricular of several countries that include Australia, USA, Netherlands, UK, South Africa and Lesotho. There are, however, challenges regarding the teaching and learning genetics that need to be addressed in order to bring about desirable learning outcomes.

According to Martin (1998), studies that were conducted in Australia, USA, Netherlands, UK revealed that students found the study of genetic difficult as they perceived several concepts as abstract and the applications as having little or no relevance to their lives. Martin noted that such studies showed that teachers found genetics among the most difficult of biological concepts to teach. However, Martin also indicated that they found that exposure of students to computer based activities had improved students’ learning outcomes. Kinnear (1983) observed that there was a weakness in sequencing the related concepts in a way that would connect reproduction to inheritance and make the relationships between meiosis and inheritance explicit.

Nkosinathi Mpalami

Mr. Mpalami is a Lecturer in Mathematics at the Lesotho College of Education, Maseru, Lesotho.

Research Topic:

Mr Mpalami’s proposal for his PhD is ‘Student teachers’ understanding of mathematical representations and their use of such representations when teaching – A study with college student teachers enrolled for Diploma in Education Primary at Lesotho College of Education’.

The proposed study is intended to explore student teachers’ understanding of mathematical representations and the way they choose and use such representations when teaching. The study will further examine the effect of the use of some mathematical representations by student teachers in the study group on primary school learners’ understanding of mathematics concepts. The current system at Lesotho College of Education is such that student teachers spend the first year of their study at the college doing both content and methods courses. In the second year they go for TP, which lasts for a year.