The study explored the effects of curriculum change on foundation phase teachers of Sikhulile Circuit of Mpumalanga in post-apartheid South Africa. Curriculum 2005 (C2005) was introduced in the post-apartheid South Africa followed by the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS), then Foundation for Learning (FFL) and lastly Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). All these curriculum changes had various implications on teaching particularly with reference to foundation phase teachers of South Africa in line with the purposes of this study. Four research questions guided the study. A qualitative interpretive research design was adopted in order to gain insight into the views of the teachers of Grade 1 to Grade 3 on curriculum changes they faced in their classrooms. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews and semi-structured questionnaires. The views expressed by the study participants were carefully analysed to find common patterns of the challenges faced by the foundation phase teachers in South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select the schools and study participants. The research findings indicate that many foundation phase teachers found these curriculum changes to be too frequent, confusing and demoralising. This scenario was exacerbated by the fact that teachers were not trained at all or minimally trained for the curriculum changes. Many showed lack of knowledge and skills on the constitution’s expectation of education as a lifelong experience. Teachers were teaching in overcrowded classrooms with limited resources thus they did not know what to teach and how to assess. In light of these extended classroom challenges, it is recommended that the grassroots model or the Social Interaction Model could be used to disseminate innovation from the focal point to the periphery as it allows consultation and communication between stakeholders, curriculum innovators and implementers, to effectively implement new curriculum initiatives. There needs to be extensive and effective piloting of new curriculum innovations before their implementation. Training of teachers on CAPS and other curricula introduced should be on going. Adequate dialogue between policy makers and teachers at ground level addresses challenges as encountered. Further studies of this nature should be carried out in other circuits, districts and provinces in order to identify common challenges and develop possible solutions to overcome these challenges on a broader national scale. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The study serves to explore teachers’ enactment of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in selected Free State Province schools. The data was collected by means of semi-structured individual interviews. The respondents were grade 11 teachers whose schools were chosen by the researcher because all the respondents had undergone a week long CAPS training. The study adopted a qualitative approach therefore a purposive non-probability sampling strategy was used to select the sample. The collected data from the respondents was analysed qualitatively and recommendations based on the research findings were made. In a nutshell, the teachers’ enactment of CAPS still remains a tall order for the South African teacher but with sufficient support and encouragement to the teacher from all stakeholders it can become a success story. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

South Africa has experienced significant curriculum transformation over the past ten years. Environment was introduced into C2005 as a phase organiser. Following the streamlining and strengthening of the curriculum, the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) has a more explicit environmental focus in all of the Learning Areas. This has created opportunities for teachers to address environmental health issues in a community context. I work in a rural school and the community around the school experience a number of environmental health issues. In my previous observations I noticed that teachers were not using Learning Teaching Support Materials (LTSM) effectively. In this study I wanted to investigate how LTSM can be used to address environmental health issues in the Foundation Phase. As Life Orientation Learning Outcome1 is a ‘backbone’ of the Life Skills Learning Programme in the Foundation Phase, I decided to focus on this Learning Outcome as it is the Health Promotion outcome in the NCS (R-9). It was my interest to investigate how LTSM are used in team planning and how this planning influences the use of LTSM in classrooms. In the research I observed the link between the activities and LTSM that were discussed in the planning session and those that were done in the classroom. To do this I documented the planning workshop, and I also observed three lessons undertaken in two classrooms, a grade 2 and a grade 3 classroom in my school, where I serve as a principal. I conducted this research as an interpretive case study, and I used workshop, interviews, focus group interviews and classroom observation as methods in the study. The study found that LTSM used in planning influences activities done in the classroom. It also found that use of LTSM helps to achieve the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Standards, and to improve the participation of learners in the learning process. Use of LTSM in planning also improves teachers’ Learning Area knowledge and their knowledge of curriculum development issues. Planning sessions also assisted teachers to address problems such as language used in LTSM and availability of LTSM. The study also found that teachers did not address formal assessment in the planning or in the way they used LTSM. The study concluded that use of LTSM in planning can strengthen classroom practice, and recommendations were made to take this work forward in the context of our school, as it addresses the gap between policy and practice.

This research study seeks to examine the impact of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE)from a developmental perspective in the Eastern Cape. Two schools were selected as research sites, one from a previously advantaged area and the other from a previously disadvantaged area. These schools were evaluated on their understanding of OBE and its relationship to development. OBE was introduced in South Africa under controversial circumstances because of the legacy of apartheid education from which we are coming. Because of that, schools in South Africa reflect the inequalities that are resulting from apartheid legislation. In 1994 the government introduced the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to eradicate all the discrepancies resulting from apartheid. On the educational sphere, OBE was the curriculum policy aimed at eradicating the legacy of apartheid education. The then Minister of Education was convinced that OBE or Curriculum 2005 would be a developmental approach to education and would take South Africa into the 21st century. Ever since its introduction, educators have encountered many problems with the implementation of OBE, especially in the previously disadvantaged areas of the Eastern Cape. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to collect data from the respondents. However, one set of questionnaires was prepared for the educators, students, parents and education government officials. Because of the qualitative nature of the questionnaire the data collected was also analyzed qualitatively. Each question was analyzed from each of the focus groups and the researcher established findings that were analyzed in relation to the literature review. The researcher then was able to reach his own conclusions on the impact that OBE has on the South African education system and recommendations on what could be done for OBE to be successfully implemented and to be developmentally effective in previously disadvantaged areas of South Africa. The recommendations propose useful interventions, which could be made by the government to assist all the stakeholders involved in education in both an understanding and better implementation of OBE in Previously Disadvantaged Areas (PDA’s). They include provision of support to stakeholders and that teachers should be taught about the relationship between OBE and reconstruction. The research study focuses mainly on OBE and its relationship to development in urban or Previously Advantaged Areas (PAA’s) of two Eastern Cape schools. It will be relevant to the Eastern Cape Education Department in its efforts to implement OBE in schools and it could be a source of knowledge to educators. The conclusion that has been reached, however, is that there is a lot of ignorance about this new system of education to both educators and parents. There is also evidence of ignorance to matters pertaining to the relationship between OBE and it’s relationship to the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). A major recommendation that is made then is that for OBE to be relevant in the South African context, it should help to improve the lives of ordinary people in South Africa, especially in Previously Disadvantaged Areas.

This study explores the potential for critical pedagogical innovation to expand student learning activity, meaning making and learning agency of first year undergraduate students. The study is located in a larger critical project. Rather than looking to support ‘unprepared’ students to better adapt to the current culture of higher education, the larger critical project looks to the generative potential of new students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study emanates from a process of reflective self-critique of one higher education institution in South Africa serving a student population with little access to educational advantage. The emerging critique was located at the interface of institutional practice, student learning activity and the meaning making processes mediating the two domains. This critique gave birth to the pedagogical innovation at the centre of this study. The pedagogical innovation took the form of an activity system, with three sets of pedagogical tools mediating the system: tools to expand the learning practice of students, symbolic tools to expand the critical meaning making toolkit available, and tools designed to build a new learning community better aligned with interactive learning activity. This study is an intervention case study, theoretically grounded in the work of activity and socio-cultural theorists. The pedagogy was embedded within a semester long credit-bearing core course for entering first year students. The study follows the experience of the 652 students participating in the 2010 pilot experience. Upwards of 70% of students suggest that their reading (76%) and writing (71%) practice had changed by the end of the course. Over 80% indicated that the course made them better readers (85%) and writers (84%.) Students suggest that they read and write more and enjoy reading and writing more. They suggest that as motive expanded, activity of reading and writing expanded, complimentary activity expanded (e.g. expression and critical engagement), and participation across a number of domains expanded. Students with less historical access to educational advantage made stronger claims about the pedagogical toolkit than students with more access to educational advantage. This study suggests that under the right conditions, critical pedagogy focusing on student learning activity and meaning making can expand learning practice and meaning making of first year undergraduate students, contributing to an expanding claim on learning agency. It tentatively suggests that this type of learning architecture is well aligned for appropriation of students with less access to historical socio-educational learning privilege, but remains sensitive to the situated nature of historic disadvantage (for example, in campus sites.) The study points to the specific potential of three toolkits: toolkits to mediate expanded learning activity, toolkits to expand meaning making, and toolkits designed to directly reconstitute the learning community itself. The study concludes by extracting some lessons for critical pedagogical innovation serving first year studies into the future. It points to the importance of the domain of learning activity and meaning making, and suggests the kind of changes within the culture of higher education required to better unleash innovation in this area. It points to the generative potential of methods that better combine students and lecturers within pedagogical innovation processes. The study concludes by pointing to the relatively unoccupied area of critical research, whereby the work to expand the learning activity of first year students is aligned to the potential of students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study points to three specific research areas: research building stronger pedagogical tools for first year students; research to better understand the critical meaning making project of students; and research to better understand the transformation of the pedagogical inheritance within higher education.

MEd / Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management

South African educators have experienced problems understanding and implementing various previous curriculum policies such as Curriculum 2005 and the Revised National Curriculum Statement. These problems have made it necessary for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to introduce the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in 2012. CAPS was intended to improve teaching and learning, but as with the implementation of any new curriculum it implies the following: The need for educator training; Need for new resources; Change in policy; An increased workload. This qualitative study which was conducted at a primary school in the Imfolozi Circuit aimed to determine how CAPS is implemented and its implications on teaching and learning. Data collected from focus group interviews and document analysis revealed that while educators welcomed the introduction of CAPS for its clarity, structure, clear guidelines and time frames however they experienced challenges related to the quality and the amount of training, inadequate resources, increased workload and the impact of rapid pace of the curriculum on teaching and learning. Based on these results recommendations are made for the improvement of the implementation of CAPS. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / South African educators have experienced problems understanding and implementing various previous curriculum policies such as Curriculum 2005 and the Revised National Curriculum Statement. These problems have made it necessary for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to introduce the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in 2012. The purpose of this study was to explore the challenges experienced by secondary school teachers in implementation of CAPS in Mankweng Circuit of Limpopo Province. This qualitative study conducted at two secondary schools in Mankweng Circuit, Limpopo province aimed to  Identify resources needed by secondary school teachers in Mankweng Circuit on the implementation of Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement.  Investigate the kind of training the Department of Basic Education provides to secondary school teachers in Mankweng Circuit when implementing Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement.  To investigate how secondary school teachers conduct assessment when implementing Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement.  Identify mechanisms that are used by secondary school teachers in the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement. The study embedded within interpretivist paradigm. It also adopted a qualitative approach and the case study design was employed, where document analysis, semi structured interviews and observations were data-collection instruments used. Two secondary schools with their respective school heads were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Two principals, six Heads of Department and Eight teachers comprised the purposefully selected participants. Data collected from document analysis, semi structured interviews and observations revealed that while educators welcomed the introduction of CAPS for its clarity, structure, clear guidelines and time frames, they however experienced challenges related to CAPS implementation, quality and the amount of training, inadequate resources, increased assessment activities and the impact of rapid pace of the curriculum on teaching and learning. Based on these results, recommendations are made for the improvement of the implementation of CAPS. The study findings revealed that while teachers welcomed the introduction of CAPS for its clarity, structure, clear guidelines and time frames, they however experienced challenges related to the quality and the amount of training, inadequate resources, increased assessment activities and the impact of rapid pace of the curriculum on teaching and learning. Based on these results recommendations are made for the improvement of the implementation of CAPS. The implication of this study is that, CAPS is a viable policy in theory, but its implementation is erroneous, from the planning stage to the implementation stage. Key resources, for example, suitable human resources, infrastructure, textbooks were not taken into serious consideration.

Educational Studies / D. Ed.(Psychology of Education)Educational Studies

The dynamics of the social interaction within the cooperative learning group are accepted and considered to be one of the aspects that will influence the individual learner's feelings regarding the group activity. The impact of the groupings on the quality and quantity of the observable learning within the class is considered. For this study the cooperative learning groupings were manipulated, considering aspects of the learner's social relationships uncovered with the use of a social questionnaire, which the learners completed. These details were summarised by means of a sociometric table and a sociogram. This study approaches the topic from two main perspectives. Primarily observation and naive sketches, from the learners, formed the source of the data and provided the initial perspective on the area of study. From the viewpoint provided in this information specific grouping paramaters were applied to later groups of learners, and a survey conducted. / Educational Studies / M. Ed (Socio-Education)