Abstract:
The study examined challenges that confront lecturers and student teachers at colleges
of primary teacher education in Zimbabwe in the use of action research as a teaching
and learning strategy. The study focused on lecturer competency, personal dispositions
of students towards mastery of action research skills and institutional challenges. The
mixed methods research design was used in this study. A combination of the two
research approaches exhibits complementary strengths and non-overlapping
weaknesses of the techniques, methods and processes involved. Purposive sampling
technique was employed to choose one principal and 9 heads of departments while
simple random sampling was used to select 140 student teachers. Qualitative data was
generated through interviews, observation and documentary analysis. A survey was
administered to obtain quantitative data. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse
narrative data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used for
statistical information. It was established that student teachers have limited practical
experience in action research prior to proceeding on teaching practice as well as weak
communication skills to support its conduct. The study recommends that lecturers
should cater for the characteristics and experiences of student teachers when planning
and delivering lectures in order to improve their acquisition of action research skills.
