Compuestos volátiles

4.3.3 Sources, nature and degree of help received 4.3.4 Lack of induction and mentoring support 4.3.5 Knowledge and skills of teaching gained 4.4 Participants‟ perceptions of the knowledge

and skills gained through the TITP as a formal teacher education programme.

4.4.1 Achieving a broader range of knowledge and skills in

teaching

4.4.2 Greater understanding of pupils 4.4.3 Deeper knowledge of teaching methods 4.5 Changes in the participants‟ attitudes to

teaching and teaching practices.

4.5.1 Attitudes and feelings towards teaching

4.5.2 Greater appreciation of the need for preparation and

commitment to teaching

4.5.3 The nature of pupils‟ understanding 4.5.4 Improved confidence as practising teachers 4.6 Participants‟ perceptions of their

preparedness to teach in Solomon Islands schools as fully qualified professionals.

4.6.1 The effectiveness of the TITP in preparing the

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4.3.1 Reasons for choosing teaching

Despite the possible challenges that the participants would encounter as UQTs, they gave compelling reasons for taking up the challenge of becoming teachers. Some of the reasons that influence those decisions were personal as well as being inspired by other people. In this section, I present the participants‟ reasons for choosing teaching in four significant categories:

4.3.1.1 Enhancing children’s need for education

The decision of three of the participants P01, P02 and P05, to become UQTs was influenced socially by their feeling of closeness to the children and a desire to help children to have formal education. On that note, P01, the only participant from a rural school (S01 School), expressed that she became a teacher when she saw that there were not enough teachers in her home village, and so somebody had to take up the responsibility of looking after the children and providing them with the education that they deserved. Initially she had no intention to teach:

Firstly I would say that I was not intending to become a teacher, but when I saw the need of the children at home to have proper formal education . . . I decided to become a teacher. (P01/F)

Meanwhile, P05 seemed to extend the sentiment that P01 had expressed, stating that she became an UQT because of her interest in helping to shape and mould children to become good citizens in the future. This response seems to display a civic-minded view of becoming a teacher. She said:

I became a teacher . . . because of my interest in helping the children in order to grow and become good citizens in the future. (P05/F)

P02, on the other hand, associated her reason for becoming a teacher with being a parent. She clearly explained that, as a mother, her experience in teaching her own children and learning from them at home had encouraged her to become a teacher so that she could help other children to learn from her just like her own children. In schools, pupils not only learn from what the teachers teach them. It can also happen that they will be fascinated and inspired by the way the teachers teach them, and that may make them to want to become teachers themselves as the next reason for becoming a teacher states.

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4.3.1.2 Being fascinated and inspired by former teachers

Three participants, P04, P05, and P01, stated that they became interested in becoming teachers because they were inspired by the way their former teachers had taught them when they were secondary school students themselves. On that point P04 said:

When I was a secondary school student, I was fascinated by the way one of our Social Science teachers taught us. I liked the way he used body language and interacted with us. His approach was very humane. For those simple reasons, I decided to become an untrained teacher. I wanted to teach like him. (P04/M)

Similarly, P05 said:

I started to develop an interest to teach when I saw how my teachers taught me in class when I was a student myself. The teachings of some teachers were very interesting, giving us the opportunity to be involved more in our own learning which was what I liked the most. (P05/F)

Likewise, P01 became interested in becoming a teacher when she saw how her teachers had taught her and thought that she could teach like them, or even better.

What made me want to become a teacher was that when I was a student I saw how my teachers taught me, and I thought that I could do well just like them or even better. (P01/F)

What these participants said may indicate that there are teachers who have the ability to teach in a way that will not only inspire pupils but may encourage them to become teachers. However, other people may have the confidence in themselves to become teachers because of certain experiences they may already have.

4.3.1.3 Self – confidence

If people are confident in doing what they want to do, there must be something that makes them to feel that way. On this point, P04 gave his leadership roles when he was a student as the reason he had the courage and confidence to take up teaching as an unqualified teacher (UQT). As a student leader, he had held two important and demanding roles:

As the head boy and president of the Students‟ Scripture Union of the school, thus a student leader, I had to help in looking

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after a large number of students . . . It was a very challenging task for me, but because of the responsibilities and my ability to carry out my tasks successfully and the experiences that I had at that time gave me a lot of courage and confidence to become an untrained teacher. (P04/M)

Another participant, P07, relied on her prior knowledge of her subject‟s content, science, through having gained a Bachelor of Science degree, as her reason for having the confidence to teach:

The content knowledge that I have and the experiences in Science that I gained during my time at the university all those years were enough to give me confidence to teach. With the experience and my content knowledge in pure Science, whenever students asked me questions in and outside of the classroom, I knew that I would be able to respond to them pretty well. (P07/F)

4.3.1.4 Lack of job opportunities

When two of the participants, P03 and P07 returned to the Solomon Islands after successfully completing their university studies, the ethnic tension in the Solomon Islands was at its height. Businesses were forced to close down, causing job losses and reduced job opportunities. Because of that, they took up teaching as an alternative to the jobs they were intending to do because teaching vacancies were available. It was also a means of doing something worthwhile, and an opportunity to earn some money, as P03 explains:

I came back to the country during the ethnic tension in 2001. Job opportunities in the Solomon Islands at that time were scarce . . . so I had to try my best to do something useful to earn some money. It so happened that teaching vacancies were advertised, so I applied and got one. I would say here that I became a teacher, not by choice, but because the opportunity to venturing out to do other jobs was not possible. (P03/M)

P07 also experienced the effects of the ethnic tension. She was intending to work in the mining industry upon returning to the Solomon Islands but just stayed home with her aunty because the mining company that she was intending to work for had closed down:

When I came back to the country, my aim was to work in a mining company. This was during when the ethnic tension took place. Almost everything was closed. I just stayed with my aunty . . . It was during that time that I learned that this school

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[referring to where she was teaching when the interviews were conducted] needed a Science teacher. My aunty asked me if I could avail myself to take up the post since I was not doing anything concrete. I accepted the offer just to do something useful and to keep me busy. (P07/F)