Teacher preparation at the university of Zambia: is peer teaching still a useful strategy?.

Peer teaching or micro teaching is a common practical exercise in teacher education programmes
yet its usefulness is under continuous study. Like in many other teacher education programmes, peer teaching is
an activity where student teachers practice to teach in a made up classroom in which peers act as learners as
well as observers. This study sought to establish whether or not, peer teaching was still a useful technique in
introducing student teachers to practicalities of teaching. A qualitative method was used and 16 teacher
educators and 40 final year students were interviewed. The study established that while peer teaching was
useful, its implementation was faced with a lot of challenges and inconsistencies which made it less effective.
Other than suggesting how peer teaching can be strengthened at the University of Zambia, the study also
suggests other strategies which can work in tandem with peer teaching in order to strengthen teacher education
at the University