M.Ed. / This research dissertation sought to discover how teachers have interacted with the New Curriculum, it is, the newly designed Curriculum 2005 (C2005) and the subsequent Revised New Curriculum Statement that featured in the educational realm in South Africa in recent years. It was an attempt at discovering both the mental and physical attributes that teachers conveyed whilst implementing the Curriculum. The qualitative research approach was used in the study, which allowed for an in-depth insight into the day to day successes or failures that both teachers and learners experienced in the classroom. With the use of the interview guide, responses that surfaced, gave the researcher the opportunity to divulge further into the weaknesses or strengths that the New Curriculum possesses. The researcher discovered through this study that there were many controversial issues that surrounded the implementation of the New Curriculum. Thus, the focus remained on the how the most important stakeholders, the teachers, expressed their views pertaining to the Curriculum. The study provided evidence that suggests that teachers need to and should be included in all curriculum planning processes. / Dr. M.C. van Loggerenberg

M.Ed. / The focus of the study is aimed at the personal and professional identity of the educator in the ever-changing milieu of specialised education. Since 1994, numerous changes have started to take place within the South African teaching profession, resulting in far-reaching implications for all educators. These changes include: the introduction and implementation of outcomes based education, a newly structured curriculum, modified assessment practices, the redefinition of the roles of educators and renewed educator appraisal systems. All of these impacted on educators in specialised schools. With the announcement of the Education White Paper 6: Special Needs Education – Building an Inclusive Education and Training System, the education system changed to one National Inclusive Education System, which would henceforth acknowledge the fundamental right of each person. The Medical Model, used in the past as relevant classification model for learners with special needs, was replaced with a bio-ecological system theory with several new support structures. Educators in special education, having to redefine their personal and professional identities, experienced a sense of insecurity and personal frustration. Erik Erikson‟s psycho-social theory was used as literary reference, in order to determine whether the shaping of identity was influenced by the transformation process. The relevant study was approached from a qualitative, phenomenological basis, to ensure that the life experiences of the individuals in specialised education can be understood and interpreted. Selected educators and managers with a long-term commitment to specialised teaching, and involved with in-practice teaching institutions, took part in the study. Their descriptions, interpretations and critical self-reflection were captured using structured interviews, participatory education and personal journals. Autobiographical narration was used as a form of story-telling, in order to verbalise the deepest thought processes and feelings of the participants. Four alternating identity dimensions that influenced the shaping of the personal and professional identities of specialised educators, were identified. It was established that the fundamental , developing and transformative identity dimensions alternatively function as integral dimensions, while still promoting a certain personal and professional educator identity within the unique context. The argument, however, has arisen that the optimal ecosocial identity dimension has not been achieved. Hope, competence – which includes an v active caring for a fixed community – and the proficient concern to lobby for the survival of a certain group, has not been accomplished. Due to the fact that the unique group of educators can no longer function optimally in the social community and framework, and as a result of a disturbed and changing support network within the specialised education milieu, it has in conclusion been established that the disintegration of relationship structures has impacted negatively on the optimal shaping of identity.

M.Ed. / This study forms part of a larger ongoing research project on teacher competence and its assessment. The project aims at researching teacher opinion with regard to teacher competence identified by the initial research done by Van der Merwe & Grobler(1995). The areas being researched are teacher competence and competent feedback during and after appraisal. The research project involves research on teacher competence and its appraisal consisting of group research on each of the following factors: The learning environment. Professional commitment. Order and discipline. Educational foundation. Teacher reflection. Cooperative ability. Efficiency. Management style. Competent feedback on the appraisal process consisting of group research on each of the following factors: Transparent feedback. Tactful feedback. Invitational feedback. Cultural sensitivity feedback. Credible feedback. Invitational feedback has been conceptualized to consist of the following four aspects, namely: Respect. Self-Concept. Intentionality.

M.Ed.

M.Ed. (Sociology of Education) / The study aims to investigate the educators' perceptions of the implementation of the Life Orientation learning area in schools. The investigation arose from the fact that Life Orientation is a new learning area introduced in the Foundation and Senior Phase as part of Curriculum 2005. The aim of this learning area is to empower learners in a holistic manner to live meaningful lives in a society that demands rapid transformation. However, the implementation of the outcomes-based approach as expressed in Curriculum 2005 in general, and in particular in the newly developed Life Orientation learning area, has proved to be complex and resulted in negativity on the side of teachers. The question addressed in this study is: What are educators' perceptions of and experiences of the implementation of the Life Orientation learning area in their schools? The aim for this study is to provide curriculum developers and educational teacher trainers with a clearer picture of the facilitation of the Life Orientation learning area. »:> The research method used included literature review of the nature and aims of the Life Orientation learning area within the framework of Curriculum 2005. An empirical investigation of teacher's perceptions of the Life Orientation learning area and its implementation was performed using both the qualitative and the quantitative approaches. Respondents were selected from a purposeful sample of schools representing former Model C schools, informal settlement schools as well as township schools. The following findings from the investigation deserve mention: • • The majority of educators emphasised the need to improve the quality of training in the Life Orientation learning area. The training facilitators need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills, as well as relevant resources and teaching aids to provide effective training for educators. Most educators enjoyed teaching Life Orientation as they realised that it focussed on real life issues, coping skills as well as learner development in various aspects (physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual). The aim or purpose of teaching Life Orientation is to provide learners with useful skills to cope with useful skills to cope with life and its challenges, as well as to mould them to adulthood...

The introduction of outcomes-based education (OBE) in South Africa has led to a new learner-centred approach with an emphasis on the outcomes that the learners need to achieve. With this learner-centred focus has come a greater need for record keeping. It is now necessary to track each learner’s progress towards the attainment of the learning outcomes. This progress is tracked in relation to assessment standards that are defined for every learning outcome. These assessment standards define the results expected of learners at certain stages in their development. The new OBE system has emphasised accountability and this is expressed in a requirement to keep evidence to justify the assessment results given. The large numbers of learners and the increased managerial demand of OBE cause problems to educators who may find themselves unable to keep track of the learners’ progress under such conditions. This dissertation investigates the structure of the new OBE system as well as its assessment and evidence requirements. From this the features required from a support system for educators in an OBE environment are determined. The supporting processes needed to enable these features to be implemented, as well as the storage requirements of such a system are identified. In addition to OBE, the field of Computer Integrated Learning Environments (CILEs) and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are investigated and useful details identified are added to the requirements for an OBE support system. The dissertation then presents an object-oriented conceptual model of the items that need to be stored in order to allow the features of an OBE support system to be implemented. The relationships between these items are also indicated in this model.

This research is based on the hypothesis that response-based approaches to teaching literature and an outcomes-based system of education (OBE) are conceptually incompatible. This thesis claims that reader response involves processes that cannot be accommodated pedagogically within a system based on pre-determined outcomes. Furthermore, the kind of assessment prescribed by OBE is inappropriate to the nature of reader response. The hypothesis is based on three main premises. The first is that each reader brings a highly individual and complex set of personal schemata to the reading of imaginative texts, and these schemata have a decisive influence on the nature of a reader’s response. This means that response during imaginative engagements with literary texts tends to be idiosyncratic, and therefore largely unpredictable. Because of this, it would be inappropriate for a teacher, working within an OBE system, to try to teach towards pre-selected outcomes and to attempt to ensure that these outcomes, based on responses to literary texts, are in fact achieved. The second premise is that readers’ imaginative engagements with literary texts are essentially hidden events, which even the individual reader cannot fully bring to the surface and articulate. Because they are complex, and to some extent inaccessible, it would be inappropriate to assess the processes of response in the form of tangible evidence that a particular kind of response has taken place, or an outcome achieved. The third premise is that responses need time to grow and develop and do not merely happen quickly and cleanly. Consequently, aesthetic response, already a complex and inaccessible process, has no clearly distinguishable beginnings or endings. It would therefore be inappropriate to try to pinpoint the exact nature and parameters of a particular response or fragment it into a discrete unit of competence or knowledge. A two-dimensional problem emerges. The first is a conceptual one: whether there is an inherent tension between encouraging response to imaginative literature on the one hand, and accepting the rationale for OBE, on the other. The second dimension of the problem is empirical: whether teachers of literature experience any tension of either a conceptual or a practical nature when following response based approaches within the OBE system of Curriculum 2005, and if so, what they do in order to cope. In exploring the conceptual problem, the argument of this thesis is supported by reception theory and reader response criticism. The former provides key theoretical principles and insights that illuminate the nature of aesthetic reading, while the latter describes and analyses the nature, extent and manifestations of response in educational contexts, underpinned by both reception theory and empirical research. Together they offer evidence that personal response is determined by a complex range of processes, and is the core activity in reading for aesthetic purposes. This thesis also examines the conceptual basis and the structure of OBE as interpreted in both Curriculum 2005 and the revised National Curriculum Statement. The purpose of this is to establish the extent to which the philosophy and modus operandi of these curricula are rooted in notions of competence, and the requirement that learners give tangible demonstrations of pre-determined outcomes being achieved. If it is found that the curricula do lean heavily on pre-determined outcomes in regard to competencies that must be demonstrated, it may be concluded that 1) reader response activities are incompatible with OBE in a South African context, and 2) the potential exists for such incompatibility to create obstacles to creative and effective literature teaching. This can lead to difficulties for the teacher, who will then have to adopt acceptable strategies to cope with the situation. These strategies may ultimately be to the detriment of the pupils, particularly if the teacher seeks a compromise between genuine response and the kinds of activities that would yield precise, palpable measures of attainment that can be easily demonstrated. Exploring the empirical dimension of the problem involves investigating the responses of both teachers and teacher trainers to the experience of promoting response-based literature teaching and learning in an OBE environment. In order firstly investigated whether the practitioners do encourage reading response as a core activity in reading for aesthetic purposes. The extent to which practitioners have a sound grasp of the conceptual issues relevant to this research is also investigated. Insight into such issues depends on teachers and teacher trainers understanding the nature of reader response, on the one hand, and the rationale and structures of the relevant OBE curricula, on the other. Whether, and to what extent, practitioners experience tensions through their awareness of conceptual incompatibilities is also investigated. It should be borne in mind that practitioners work in real contexts in which a variety of complex factors play a role in determining how they respond to pressures from the environment. It cannot therefore be expected that teachers and others involved in delivering the curriculum will be able to reflect on purely conceptual issues without being influenced to an extent by more practical or logistical considerations. However, this study argues that the extent to which they are able to identify the relevant factors that affect the conceptual underpinnings of their practice will determine the degree to which their responses support the argument of this thesis. Together, the empirical and the theoretical findings offer qualitative evidence that should illuminate the nature and extent of the problem.

South Africa faces a deepening crisis due to underachievement in science at secondary school level. High failure rates in science at Grade 12 have resulted in the subject being an unpopular choice in the Cofimvaba District, resulting in fewer learners electing to take the subject at Further Education and Training (FET) level. As a result acute shortages of scientific oriented professionals such as engineers, technologists, skilled artisans, technicians, doctors and chartered accountants derail the development of South Africa. Hence, this study seeks to investigate issues that affect Grade 9 learner performance in the Natural Sciences in the Cofimvaba District. A qualitative research design using observations and interviews with learners and teachers as instruments were conducted to gain an insight into the barriers to teaching and learning in South African rural schools. The findings of this study reveal direct and indirect factors commensurate with the findings of Mji and Makgato (2006:264). They included: classroom climate, the Language of Teaching and Learning (LoLT) in Natural Science classrooms, practical work, teacher subject specialisation and the socio-economic background of the learners. Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that the quality of teachers, a lack of resources, neglect of the practical component, home conditions and parental absence all contribute as barriers to learner performance in the Natural Sciences.

M.Ed. / The aim of conducting my research is to establish the impact of INSET on the implementation of OBE in the Foundation Phase. I believe that OBE was implemented before the Foundation Phase teachers were thoroughly serviced through INSET programmes conducted by the Curriculum Advisory Section. In my research exercise I conducted interviews with the Foundation Phase teachers and I am also going to request them to completed by classroom observations. The main reason of my research is the fact that the Foundation Phase is the base on which future learning activities are to be built on. If the foundation or base is not well laid out, a lot is going to be affected in the educational process. I discussed my research problem and claim in detail. This is followed by an explanation about how I collected and analysed data. Finally I gave my findings and concluded by some recommendations. I would like to use my findings to guide me on the future arrangement and conduction of INSET programmes with the Senior Phase teachers in order to make it to be more effective.

D.Phil. / With the demise of apartheid and the ushering in of a new political dispensation, many changes have taken place in South Africa. The field of education, which was one of the most volatile areas of concern for the apartheid regime and has been described by some academics at the University of Natal as being a miasmic morass marked by systemic crisis, has been quick to purge itself of some of its apartheid legacies. For instance, to offset the harmful effects of the 'Bantu Education Act', a new school curriculum - Curriculum 2005- has been introduced. It is hoped by the education authorities that Curriculum 2005, which has its roots in Outcomes-based Education (OBE) and an accompanying pedago91 based on a constructivist methodology, will help considerably in preparing students adequately for the challenges of adulthood. This is something that has hitherto been denied them by the obnoxious 'Bantu Education Act'. This study is undertaken on the premise that without being able to crawl, a child cannot walk, let alone run. Against this background, teachers should first of all undergo an intensive re-training programme to bring their knowledge and competency levels to acceptable standards. It is only after this, that they can be eased into the otherwise complex, contradictory and sometimes unintelligible concepts being branded as OBE. Without this, there would be a case of 'tissue rejection' or the proverbial 'the body is willing but the spirit is weak' as teachers would not be able to cope with the demands of Curriculum 2005. The focus of this study is particularly on the (English) language teacher, whose task has been made all the more difficult by the constitutional stipulation that eleven of the languages spoken in the Republic of South Africa should be considered as official languages - an unnecessary drain on the fragile economy. Besides, as there is no clear-cut directive from the national Department of Education, English language teachers are faced with a situation in which they do not know which variety of English to teach. The problem is further compounded by the obvious lack of training for the teachers in second language teaching techniques and their own communication competence. Teachers in rural areas are the worse hit, as they are not exposed to any of the advances in modern technology, which could easily compensate for their inadequacies. The study postulates that until serious attempts are made to remedy and solve such problems, the introduction of Curriculum 2005 and/or any other curriculum innovations will be an exercise in futility. The investigation conducted to examine this claim has delivered findings that support this claim. It has also shown that the sample of teachers drawn from a rural population have little linguistic awareness, limited competence in English and practise a pedagogy that borders on a fraudulent use of so-called 'OBE techniques', without sufficient knowledge and/or understanding.