professional development and teacher learning at an open distance learning university (odl) in south africa

Quality education requires quality training internationally and nationally.Professional development of staff for student learning is thus essential in a fast-changing, complex,globalisedknowledge environment. This paper explores howone open-distance learning (ODL) university in South Africa plansprofessionaldevelopment for the training of undergraduate teachers to improve teachingpractices, leading to students learning more.Usinga qualitative research paradigmand a phenomenological design, data were collected from six purposely selected,fourth-year undergraduate student teachers and analysed according to Giorgi’sphenomenological methods. The results confirm previous studies, fortheparticipantsfeltthatit wasimportantto establishcommunitiesof practicewithintheirindividualsubjectareas,to enable themto sharetheirexperiencesandmaintaintheirpassionforteaching.This study recommends thatthe IT supportpersonnel in the Department of Basic Education, provides learning materialsneededbyschools and assist in the training of teachers forquality training.