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Design analysis of the Grade 9 technology curriculum in South Africa.Chapman, Gavin Ashley. January 2002 (has links)
During the years of apartheid (pre 1994) there were two main streams that one could follow while studying at school viz. academic or technical. The majority of
South African learners followed the more traditional academic stream allowing some to enter careers as doctors, lawyers, policemen/woman, school teachers
and the like, while the remainder ended up jobless. Those pupils who followed
the technical stream were considered by some of the more academically inclined persons, to be the 'duller' type of pupil, who could learn a trade and end up as a
blue-collar worker. As the cost of technical education has always been much
higher than the purely academic courses, the number of schools offering
technical subject courses in South Africa has always been in the minority.
The entire scene changed after the banning of apartheid (post 1994) and the
introduction of the notion of globalisation. Rapid developments suddenly appeared world-wide especially with the introduction of new technologies, mainly
in informatics. Suddenly the world seemed to be a much smaller place as one
could e-mail, fax, or use a cell phone anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. In order for South Africa to become part of the new world order, and to
think about global markets, certain essential changes had to be made firstly to the local environment. A depressed economy needed rejuvenation. There was a growing awareness that serious change was needed in the way children think
and learn at school and to start aligning ideas with international trends. To do
this, the Department of Education in Pretoria (DoE), decided to radically transform the education sector by introducing a new system of education known as outcomes-based education (OBE). The new OBE system brought with it mixed reactions from the South African public and from the teachers within the system. Many teachers did not want to accept that education could be done in a
different way than they had been used to, in the past twenty to forty years. Younger teachers on the other hand did embrace change but are still trying to get the right balance within the prescribed parameters laid down in national
education policy documents. To try and achieve such balance, the minister of
education called for an independent review committee to re-work the general
education and training phase curricula in order for them to be made more 'user-friendly'
as many complaints had been received about the policy documents being overly complicated and unmanageable in the normal classroom situation.
This process was concluded in May 2001 and Technology education remained
as one of the eight new learning areas within the general education and training phase (GET) of South African schooling.
The first draft of the Technology education curriculum was handed out for public comment in October 1997 and was used as the basis for a pilot study at selected
schools in 1998. This information was used as the basis for analyzing the design of the Technology curriculum at grade 9 level. Grade 9 was selected as it is the final exit from general education and training (GET) into further education and training (FET), and because it was the starting point for the pilot project in 1998.
Valuable data was available at the pilot project school sites to be used in this study. Not all the provinces were able to initiate a pilot project due to a number of reasons but those that did viz. Kwazulu/Natal, Gauteng, and the Western Cape
were visited individually to collect data. This study therefore 'unpacks' the Technology curriculum into component parts using an analysis tool developed
from a theoretical framework. This unpacking of the parts allows one the
opportunity to critically check whether or not certain important aspects of the
design were omitted either intentionally or unintentionally by the design team
(NTT).
Chapter one orientates the reader and sets the scene from where I, as
researcher, locate myself and what the prevailing conditions are like at South African schools. The study problem is highlighted as are the obstacles that have tended to have an impact on the final curriculum design.
Chapter two provides an overview of the related theory associated with the field of curriculum study. Technology education is discussed as broadly as possible
within the framework of the new OBE education system for South African schools.
Chapter three discusses the methodologies applied to ensure reliability and
validity of the findings. The design analysis tool is presented with an explanation
of each of the eight components. Chapter four relates an interesting story about the findings. A description of the
educational sites is presented together with descriptions of the educators at the
six pilot schools, as well as some background of the national technology design team (NTT). All recorded evidence was gathered during personal visits to the schools and individual meetings with the design team members.
Chapter five provides a discussion of the data to analyse the Technology curriculum. In this way the reader is directed to the problem areas that were identified and supported the purpose of this curriculum study.
Chapter six firstly answers the three critical questions posed in Chapter one. An
alternative model for curriculum design and development is presented. This
theoretical model is intended to reduce the weaknesses of the present curriculum
design if applied to any similar initiative in the future. This will allow educators
greater freedom to do what they do best - to teach from a curriculum policy that they clearly understand and are trained to deliver. In this way South African
schools and all learners will be rewarded by being well prepared for a variety of
challenging careers in the global world that we live in. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.
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Lecturers as leaders? : a case study of a further education and training college.Mpangase, Beatrice Nelisiwe. January 2010 (has links)
The political, social and economic history of the Further Education and Training College Sector and that of the communities it serves influences the operation of these institutions. The history of „state aided‟ and the „state‟ technical colleges has resulted in some Rectors and some Campus Managers having different ideas regarding leadership and management. Campus managers who bring with them the style of a state technical college‟s past tends to follow a very rigid and autocratic management, while those who come from the state aided technical college‟s past tends to emphasize teamwork, delegation but autocracy as well. Getting these campus managers to devolve power to other lecturers in the FET College is somewhat a challenging task. With this in mind, the purpose of this dissertation is to determine the enactment of „lecturer leadership‟ by the classroom lecturers at one FET College, and to investigate what hinders lecturers‟ enactment of leadership in this context. Where leadership is enacted, I intend establishing factors that promote the successful enactment. From a theoretical perspective, distributed leadership theory underpins this study. As I have had little choice but to use the literature on teacher leadership within a schooling context, because there is no literature around the concept of lecturer leadership in the context of the FET College both locally and internationally that I came across. I have taken the liberty of adopting a term „lecturer leadership‟ which is most suited for the FET context. My study is situated within an interpretive paradigm because I worked from the premise that there are multiple truths and I wanted to understand the different interpretations of the world through the lecturer leaders‟ lenses. I aligned myself with Cohen, Manion and Morrison who write “the central endeavour in the context of the interpretive paradigm is to understand the subjective world of human experiences” (2007, p.21). Using a descriptive case study methodology allowed me to track the three lecturer leaders for six month period in the FET College where I worked to get a nuanced description of how lecturer leadership was enacted. The lecturers‟ responses were collected both as numerical data, through survey questionnaires, and textual data, through a focus group and individual interviews, journaling process, and observations. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.
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A study to investigate the effectiveness of the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grade 8-9 in Chesterville Secondary School.Mtheku, Maypher Priscilla. January 2004 (has links)
This study focuses on the effectiveness of the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in Grade 8 and Grade 9 in a Secondary School in Durban and it also investigates if
educators have moved away from traditional ways of teaching as required by Curriculum 2005. Teachers' knowledge of the new curriculum, reactions and attitudes play a major role in any curriculum change.
To make this study possible, the modules that introduced the concept of curriculum
innovation are Theorizing Curriculum, Curriculum Design and Development as well as Managing Curriculum Change. These modules preceded this study. The methods of data collection were Interviews, Questionnaires and Observation (informal). The data
collected suggests that educators are still experiencing problems with regard to the
implementation of Curriculum 2005.
Seemingly the cascading model had some discrepancies smce most educators who attended the workshops seem to be unclear of what they have to do in the classroom. It is
also evident that most educators that were trained to implement Curriculum 2005 are
not teaching Grade 8 and Grade 9 for various reasons like the policy of Redeployment
and Rationalization. Senior Phase Learning Areas are regarded as filler subjects which
means that, the Senior Phase Learning Areas are not given the same status as the
Learning Areas in Further Education and Training Phase. The school will rather allocate educators at Grade 10 to 12 first before considering the Senior Phase. The attendance of
Outcomes-Based Education workshops are not considered when allocating teaching loads. There is also no structure from the school or Department of Education that ensure that those educators that are trained remain in the Senior Phase so as to master the
outcomes-based approach. So every year a new teacher is exposed or introduced to new
ways of teaching without being trained.
On the basis of the findings, there is no effective implementation of Curriculum 2005 and
most teachers are still using traditional ways. The Department of Education has a great task to ensure that there is development and support of educators that are still battling
with the implementation process. It is also the responsibility of the Department of
Education to ensure that all children in South Africa receive quality education and
narrows the gap between previously advantage and previously disadvantage
communities. But all depends on the teachers' skills and knowledge of the new curriculum, structures to support the implementation process and the support from the
Department of Education. Without teachers' understanding and the necessary support structure, the intended outcomes will not be achieved. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.
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Hospitality management students' understanding of and response to assignment feedback at a University of Technology.Singh, Evonne. January 2008 (has links)
This research is a case study investigating how students respond to formative assessment feedback. The study centres around gathering and analysing data on the way in which students perceive and interact with assignment feedback when it is provided to them in a process orientated, drafting-responding approach rather than a product approach. This study also aims to reveal whether the feedback provided by a lecturer is used by students to make changes to the overall quality of their revised assignment. Within this context, I also explore students' opinions and expectations of feedback. The participants in this study are students from the Hospitality Management Sciences Department based at the Durban University of Technology. The participants are from a diverse group in terms of demographics such as age, gender, racial breakdown and language. This research was informed by the interpretive research orientation with overlaps from the social constructivist and critical paradigms. Data collection involved two aspects. The first aspect consisted of document review, that is, copies of all student participants' assignment drafts and their revised copies along with the associated lecturer comments. The second aspect included transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with students between May and June, 2007. During the interviews, copies of the students' draft and revised assignments were used either as a point of reference or as tools to stimulate, tease out and probe each student's thoughts, perceptions, understanding and experiences of the feedback provided within the drafting-responding process. I used the data repertoire from my field texts to produce my research text and used Nvivo as a data management tool to identify, group and code recurring themes or to highlight any unique differences within the data transcripts. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts. Findings are that feedback is predominantly perceived by student participants as error correction rather than as a springboard to advance their learning via guidance from a more informed other. Moreover, high stakes assessments dominate the way students are assessed, from school through to tertiary level. This results in a student body that is mark and 'cue' orientated rather than learning focussed. These characteristics in turn, propel students' learning towards the competitive rather than focussing on learning from each other or learning as a community. Another theme that emerged is that students' lack of past experience in using feedback as a process-orientated approach meant that they were ill-equipped to deal optimally with the qualitative feedback provided in this research context. Several issues regarding conflicting literacy practices also emerged. For example, differing academic practices were observed between school and tertiary levels. Students also exhibited an inability to adopt the norms and values desired by the tertiary discipline due to a lack of shared understanding between lecturers and students, as well as difficulties resulting from differing mediums of feedback, including differing perceptions of feedback between lecturers and students. Despite these and other findings, students felt that they did benefit overall from having a drafting-responding process for their assignments. They especially welcomed the qualitative nature of comments provided, the combination of verbal and written comments, the combination of in text and cover comments, the ability to get timely clarity from the lecturer and the scope to dialogue and develop a 'relationship' with the lecturer. This study supports the need for assessments to be positioned for the purpose of learning rather than merely focussing on the assessment of learning. Essentially, when assessments shift from dominant high-stakes to low-stakes, it can encourage students to adopt a deep and active approach to learning (Elbow, 1997). A roll-over effect is that lecturing staff can realign their teaching to respond more fully to students' needs. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.
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Implementing OBE : a pilot study of grade one teachers' understanding of curriculum change.Russell, Elizabeth. January 1998 (has links)
No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed)-Universtiy of Natal, Durban, 1998.
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A study examining patterns of moral orientation with a group of adolescents at two high schools in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.Gagadelis, Mona. January 2006 (has links)
Beginning with Piaget, literature has accumulated indicating that children's moral
judgments pass through a series of stages culminating in the application of high order
general principles to practical judgments. Principled moral reasoning, therefore, has come
to be seen as similar in principle to other abstract sciences where less formal, narrative
forms of thinking are seen to be less abstract and more immature. Kohlberg's research as
inspired by the work of Piaget who had tried to connect the development of a child's
moral judgment to its overall cognitive development. Kohlberg believed that as the whole
human personality matures, our thinking about right and wrong starts at a
preconventional level, then progresses to a conventional level, then finally arrives at
postconventional thinking. Each of these three levels has two specific stages. Kohlberg's
research included subjects from many cultures, and therefore, he believed that he was
uncovering a universal innate developmental structure of the human personality. Carol
Gilligan has posed a serious threat to this general scheme by suggesting that a more
narrative contextual approach to moral reasoning, what she calls an "ethic of care", which
far from applying abstract moral rules to particular cases, treats each case in terms of a
host of considerations any or all of which may have some role in arriving at a judgment
or an action. She argues that such moral reasoning is as valid an orientation of moral
thinking as that based on the application of general, abstract rules, and furthermore, that
the bias towards this orientation is, at base, a gender based. A rich body of data has now
been collected congruent with these claims.
In order to explore the relationship between this alternate proposal and Gilligan's
"justice" and "care" orientations, this study was designed to examine the moral
orientation with a group of adolescents, fifteen boys and fifteen girls, at two high schools
in Durban. The participants live in a working class, housing estate that has high levels of
crime and violence. The adolescences were requested to reflect upon two scenarios
depicting real life dilemmas, and then engage in moral judgments and decision-making in
response to probing questions put to them in an interview situation. Results have shown
that, contrary to Gilligan's view; across age and gender the adolescences responses
reflected a higher moral orientation to justice than care. 66% of boys' responses show
greater use of a justice orientation in their reasoning than care orientation 34%. A similar
pattern was evident with girls across the age ranges: 53% of girls' responses were justice
oriented as against to 47 % that were care oriented. An interesting finding was that girls'
use of a justice orientation increased with age, and the use of moral reasoning that
reflected a care orientation decreased with age. However, in line with Gilligan's theory,
boys' responses across age ranges reflected a higher orientation to justice than to care.
Based on previous research findings (Gilligan & Attanucci, 1988; Johnston, 1988), it was
hypothesized that female learners would demonstrate higher ethic of care scores than
men. The results from this study fell in line with this hypothesis. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.
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Curriculum change and outcomes-based education : a case study of two primary schools in Reservoir Hills.Naicker, Shalina. January 1998 (has links)
This study attempts to explore, through a qualitative approach, teachers' attitudes towards curriculum change in general and OBE in particular as a curriculum innovation. Teachers' perceptions, understandings of and readiness to implement OBE are assessed. The research attempted to explore their problems and fears concerning their role in this process of curriculum change. Curriculum change as a process and outcomes-based education as a new innovation is explored in relation to the peculiarities or two schools in particular and the South
African context in general. The argument centres around the past curriculum and the post (1994) curriculum in relation to outcomes based education and briefly considers what lies ahead for the future curriculum. The practicality of implementation in the
present, in schools, like and similar to those in this study and the views of several scholars, especially those of Fullan (1982), Bishop (1986) and Jansen (1997) on the process of curriculum change is examined. The impact of politics on educational transformations in general and in the South African context in particular is debated. The role of curriculum change in such a
milieu and the impact it has on the teacher as implementor is examined through the views of the participants in this case study. Socio-economic criteria also influences what happens within schools, and this study shows that poverty hampers the process of curriculum change. A case study approach was used so that, an in-depth study of the schools could be done. The study focused on how the teachers in two schools in Reservoir Hills are
engaged in the actual implementation of OBE including the question of what in-service training they received and how effective and relevant it has been thus far. This study served as an enlightening exercise for myself. A discussion of the
participants views and my own observations and recommendations are presented. The constraints I encountered and the limitations of such a study are also outlined. I hope that this study adds to the pool of research data that is rapidly developing, in this particular area of study in our context, and inspires others to further the research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.
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Curriculum development in South African technikons : towards a process of modularisation at M.L. Sultan Technikon.Cooke, Lesley Anne. January 2001 (has links)
In this qualitative study the fundamental principles of credit-based modular
education are investigated from the perspective of international experience in
Britain and the United States (US). The evolution of a mass higher education
system, with multi-access and multi-exit pOints, in both Britain and the US, is
outlined. The main concepts and principles, approaches, strengths and
weaknesses, exemplars of good practice, and the potential problems of
modularisation are elucidated. The purpose of the study is to identify the
cardinal strategic issues to be considered in the process of implementing
modularisation by M L Sultan Technikon.
The data from three chief sources are triangulated: the literature; fieldwork at
five universities in Britain; and documentation provided by these five
universities. From these data, in particular that from interviews with academic
staff in Britain with personal experiences of the process of modularisation, a
plurality of interpretations, values, perceptions, opinions, and approaches is
revealed. The study does not attempt to propose a single model for
modularisation for universal application.
The common themes to emerge as findings in this study illuminate the many
complex and interrelated issues pertinent to modularisation that the
respondents across the five universities identified. From these themes a
series of critical questions to be posed by an institution in making decisions about modularisation is suggested. The implications of the themes and
questions are explored, and a possible model for their integration is
suggested. The model draws together the perspective of two contrasting
orientations to curriculum and the dialectic between a managerial and an
educational rationale for 'going modular'. This model forms the basis for an
exploration of the implications for developing a credit-based modular system
in the context of M L Sultan Technikon. The following important broader
issues to emerge related to modularisation are briefly discussed: assessment;
credit; awards; student counselling and guidance; management;
administration; semesterisation; and change. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2001.
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Exploration , discovery, reflection : journeys of understanding : life histories of first-year students and the impact on their interactions in a higher education and residence environment.Cruickshank, Gillian. January 2007 (has links)
This study is a qualitative inquiry into the lives of first-year residence students at the Durban University of Technology. Six students volunteered to be participants in this study, and they discussed their life stories freely and frankly. Interviews were conducted as conversations rather than formal question-and-answer sessions, and this method elicited rich and vibrant material. This dissertation considers the specific stories of two of these students, Student A and Student B, and how their life experiences have affected them. The study looks at what these experiences have been whilst the students were at home and at school; what their experiences are as first-year students residing in an institutional residence; and how all these experiences have impacted on their transition to life at university. The theory of development and the search for identity are at the core of this investigation. Their life stories have illustrated the role that development plays in their individual growth and development through the adolescent and young adult years. Their search for their own identity as African youth in post-apartheid South Africa has direct relevance and bearing on the reality of life in the country today. The students identify issues that cause them difficulty and concerns, such as family relationships, homesickness, cultural conflicts, and peer pressure. They talk at length about specific incidents and situations that have caused them stress and worry, and through their stories we can see how they are developing their own identity as they try to make sense of their world at home, at university, and in residence. The conclusion highlights the themes that have risen through the analysis of their stories: the commonalities, the pressures, the worries and concerns, and the interventions that could be made to ease the transition phase. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.
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A comparison of students' responses to automated and manual computer literacy assessments.Pillay, Chantal. January 2009 (has links)
The aim of this research was to determine the differences in student responses of two forms of assessment, automated and manual in terms of measuring student capability in the computer literacy programme, The International Computer Drivers Licence. Computer Literacy studies are an integral part of many academic programmes and have become a basic requirement for securing certain employment. Many academic programmes utilise recognised computer literacy qualifications rather than developing their own. In this case study, assessment within one of the most prestigious programmes, the International Computer Drivers Licence (ICDL), is the focus of attention. This qualification has become a benchmark for such computer literacy certification. Formal assessments are conducted to complete the certification. The certifying body, The ICDL Foundation, that controls this qualification, allows institutions to select from two modes of assessments. The modes of assessment are paper- based ‘manual’ (traditional) assessments or approved automated assessment software that is commercially available through different software suppliers. Manual assessments are available from the ICDL Foundation and conducted by external examiners, whilst the automated assessments are designed by software companies and approved by the ICDL Foundation. This case study looks at a comparison between students’ responses of the automated assessments that uses simulation of major software packages such as Microsoft Word and Excel and a manual assessment. The focus of this study was to gain some insight into students’ experience when taking the automated assessment and how it compares to a manual assessment. A case study was conducted in which a group of volunteer students were requested to take two assessments on a particular section of computer literacy. The first assessment was the automated assessment followed by a manual assessment which assessed the same outcomes as the automated assessment. During these assessments certain phenomena were observed and recorded. These observations were then qualitatively analysed and organised into themes. Scores of these two assessments were also compared to establish if the students showed marked differences between the two assessments. However the small sample size means that no conclusions could be made based on statistical differences. Immediately after the two different forms of assessment, six of the students were interviewed. These interviews were conducted using semi-structured questions. The questions revolved around the students’ perceptions of their responses to the automated and manual assessments and in particular how the students perceived both assessments. The transcriptions of these interviews were then qualitatively analysed and common themes were extrapolated. The results of the study show that students’ abilities were not always being assessed accurately in the automated assessment. The data in this study also shows that the automated assessment, whilst highly reliable and objective, does not present an authentic assessment environment. This resulted in high scores being awarded where students were not able to perform the same tasks successfully in the manual assessment. This calls into question the validity of the automated assessment and its ability to assess students’ practical skills accurately. The interview data also suggests that the use of multiple choice questions and discrete tasks in the automated assessment further resulted in students adopting a surface approach to learning in their preparation for this summative assessment.ses / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.
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