Thesis (MTech (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, 2007 / With the advent of implementing transformational outcomes-based education in South African schools, educators have had to adopt a standards-based assessment approach. Rubrics as an assessment scoring tool have been acclaimed as one of the most effective assessment tools with which standards-based assessment can be implemented and managed. This study explores the ways in which educators manage assessment in their classrooms whilst promoting the basic tenets of transformational outcomes-based education. The demand is on competencies that illustrate the ability to think and perform critically. Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain is put forward as an instrument to use in designing and using rubrics in order to achieve the desired learning outcomes. Effecting change is not an easy process and this study investigates the challenges educators are facing in implementing this aspect of educational reform.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / With the introduction of Outcomes Based Education (OBE), Technology became a new learning area which is compulsory in the General Education and Training band. Technology Education was not offered as a teaching subject in teacher education institutions and as a consequence most teachers received little or no training in technology education. The approach to the teaching of Technology, with its demands, could pose challenges or problems to teachers who did not receive adequate training in Technology Education. The purpose of this research is to investigate the manner in which technology teachers plan, teach and assess the technological process and the way the learners experience the teaching and assessment of the technological process. The main objective of the study is to enhance classroom practice by highlighting the challenges that face teachers and learners and by offering guidelines for teaching and assessing the technological process

M.Ed. / The general aim of this research project was to investigate the components of teacher competence and how these aspects can enhance teacher effectiveness. The group aim of this research project was to investigate the teacher's leadership and how this can enhance the management of teaching competence. It was the specific aim of this research paper to: determine the contribution of a professionally inviting classroom culture towards a teacher's leadership style; obtain teacher opinion as to the extent that teachers use a professionally inviting culture as an aspect of their leadership style; and devise a possible strategy whereby a professionally inviting classroom culture can support the teacher's leadership style and enhance teacher competence. South Africa is undergoing huge changes particularly in the educational sphere. One of the most urgent problems that needs to be addressed is that of teacher competency.

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.A. (Public Management and Governance) / The Preamble of the South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act 84 of 1996) states that it is the goal of the South African government to provide all learners with a high quality education. However, despite this goal, academics, scholars and social commentators concur that the public education system in South Africa is in crisis. Nevertheless, there is agreement that there has been an improvement in the numbers of learners enrolled at schools and the pass rates in public education, but not in the quality of education. In support of this statement, commentators refer to international surveys that show that the majority of learners are underachieving in key learning areas such as reading, mathematics and science. Many of the commentators ascribe the situation to the underperformance of educators. Research conducted by Van der Berg et al. (2011) suggests that a possible solution to the problem would be to help educators to improve their teaching outputs and outcomes in the classroom. This, in turn, implies that a tool such as a laptop loaded with the relevant and appropriate software and the additional required technology would assist educators in improving their teaching outputs and outcomes. Ms N Pandor, the former Minister of Education, announced the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI) in 2009. In his response to the State of the Nation’s address in June 2009 President Zuma endorsed this initiative and stated that the objective of the TLI is to provide every educator with both a laptop and access to the Internet and that the initiative should be seen as an incentive to help educators to improve the quality of education in schools. However, evidence shows that educators have not received the subsidies to procure the laptops as promised by government. The study sets out to investigate the implementation of the TLI and, thus, the aim of the research was to conduct a formative evaluation of the implementation of the TLI. The research was conducted within a qualitative research paradigm and the data were collected using both the TLI policy document and the findings resulting from the purposive, face-to-face interviews that were conducted with key stakeholders. This data were analysed through the application of the content analysis method.

M.Ed. / The influence of an outcomes-based education program on the study attitude of learners forms the theme for this research. During 1995, the management team of a Technical College took a strategic decision to implement pilot programs in outcomes-based education. The author was appointed as project manager for these pilot programs. This research is based on the pilot program in the following course: National Certificate: Orientation to N1-Engineering. The research has been undertaken to determine whether there is a significant difference in the study attitude of learners after they have completed an outcomesbased education course. From the literature survey on study attitude, a correlation was established between study attitude and academic performance. A high measure on a standardised study attitude scale would indicate a high measure of academic performance. The underpinning theory of outcomes-based education was identified in a literature survey. This underpinning theory formed the base for the design of the outcomesbased education pilot course. The research method consists of the application of study attitude-questionnaires to learners in both the experimental and control groups followed by a focus group interview with learners in the experimental group. After a thorough study of the results, the following conclusions were made: Learners that completed an outcomes-based education program choose to carry on with outcomes—based education programs rather than return to normal educational programs. Learners find the dynamics of working in groups conducive to learning and misses this aspect of outcomes-based education when placed back in a normal classroom. The lecturer as facilitator in the outcomes-based classroom is seen as approachable and helpful while the lecturer in the normal classroom is seen as authoritarian and unapproachable. Learners find being assessed on outcomes of learning in a holistic way, rather than purely writing tests and exams, very conducive to successful learning. Outcomes-based education can be a successful educational model for South Africa. This was my personal experience during this pilot course in working with learners from traditionally underprivileged groups.

M. Ed. (Educational Management) / The aim of this research study was to examine educator attitudes in the implementation of Curriculum 2005 at Katlehong Secondary Schools. The research study indicate that educators are faced with challenges in their endeavors to implement curriculum 2005. Research findings revealed that inadequate training of educators has a negative impact in the implementation of Curriculum 2005. Overcrowding in the classroom creates difficulties in the delivery of Curriculum. There is a need for well coordinated in-service training for educators.