In the past, curricula and courses of study have been mainly subject-oriented and based on the presentation of a body of knowledge in a particular discipline in a formal, logical sequence. Curricula of this nature did not necessarily take into account the personal differences and interests of the students. Presently, curriculum developers are considering both subject-oriented programs and those which are student-oriented. Students in student-oriented programs are allowed to choose freely from the given learning activities available to them. A student-oriented program may be organized in a variety of ways and methods. Examples of such programs include Project PLAN,' learning centers, independent study, criterion referenced testing, and student-developed goals and objectives.The primary purpose of the curriculum presented here is to provide guidelines for teaching American urban history at the secondary level; the program may also be used as a supplement to a United States history course. In both cases this curriculum is made up of several units with the content following a chronological progression. The units included treat urban life in relation to the colonial period, the American Revolution, the frontier period, Western expansion, the great waves of immigration, the rise of bossism, and the suburban thrust. In addition, there is a unit on the medieval city to be used as background material at the instructor's discretion. Cognitive and affective objectives are included in each unit. For each cognitive objective there are several learning activities designed to aid students in its achievement. The writer has suggested how many activities should be completed by each student in order to achieve the particular objectives. However, the final decision on how many activities are needed for each student should rest with the teacher and the student. Each unit also includes a pre-test and a post-test. The purpose for the pre-test is to determine individual learning needs, experiences, and current mastery of the subject in order for the instructor to formulate teaching strategies. In the writer's opinion the post-test should be used to determine whether students have acquired various concepts and generalizations from the activities. Should a student fail the post-test, the teacher is responsible for re-directing the student to another means for meeting the objective. Both the instructor and the learner must work together to aid the learner in understanding the goals and objectives.The philosophy behind this curriculum is based on the work of John Dewey who emphasized the importance of experience, experimentation, and learning by doing. Dewey's pedagogy, sometimes called experimentalism, relies on experiential learning. Experimentalism assumes ideals are tested and emerge from the stresses and strains of daily problem-solving. These ideals guide human decision-making processes and values. Urban history offers students a chance to examine their values and the ones which motivate the people around them. By providing knowledge, skills, and values in their proper perspective, this urban history course should establish a firm link between the individual and his perception of and behavior toward, social and civic affairs outside of the school.Although this curriculum has not been field-tested, curricula which have basic assumptions similar to this one, have been field-tested by a number of commercial firms. Project PLAN of the Westinghouse Learning Corporation has demonstrated that the objectives of this curriculum can be achieved if properly taught. This curriculum is unique in its emphasis of American urban history at the secondary level.'American Institutes For Research and The Westinghouse Learning Corporation, Pro ect PLAN (New York: Westinghouse Learning Corporation, 1973).

This study examines the teaching of primary and secondary sources in history at secondary and tertiary level. The various methods used to teach these aspects of the nature of history are compared to the Vista University teaching model. To establish the effectiveness of the vista Block A module for HIS100 students, two test instruments were devised to assess their skills in handling primary and secondary sources. Their skills in identifying relevant points from a passage of historical prose were also tested. A number of statistical techniques were applied to the data from the test instruments. This data was analysed in qualitative and quantitative terms. The results of this analysis suggested that students would probably benefit from a skills-orientated approach to studying history. On the basis of this study, it is recommended that the existing Vista teaching model be revised or amended so that a more effective method of teaching students about the nature of historical sources can be introduced.

M.Ed. / The aim and purpose of the study is to explore the Natural Science (NS) teachers' perceptions of their teaching competence in Senior Phase township schools in Soweto. An in-depth literature review on theoretical perspective in Natural Science teachers' perceptions of their teaching competence in Senior Phase indicated that these partially addressed the key questions of the study, namely: what are the perceptions ofNatural Science teachers' about their teaching competence in Senior Phase township schools? What competences are perceived to enhance and contribute to Natural Science teaching in Senior Phase schools m Soweto? This study identifies a number of motivational competences that have been derived from current theories. The theory developed from the literature on NS teachers' competences review, facilitated the development of an empirical research. Qualitative research was conducted to explore NS teachers' perceptions of their teaching competence in Senior Phase schools in Soweto. This was with a view to facilitating the improvement thereof wherever necessary. Seven NS teachers from three Diepkloof Senior Phase schools were sampled. It also emerged from the findings of the research that there are, teachers who are not qualified to teach NS subject at the Senior Phase level. There also seems to be a lack of competent N.S. teachers in Senior Phase schools in Soweto. The high numbers of learners in NS classes create challenges for NS teachers to provide individual attention to learners. NS laboratories are poorly equipped and that the district officials do not provide sufficient support to NS teachers so that they can be more effective in their teaching. The study gave the researcher the opportunity to explore the teaching competence ofNS teachers in three Senior Phase township schools in Soweto, where the competence gap had already been expressed. There were many challenges identified by the findings. A comprehensive picture of the many inter-dependant aspects affecting the NS teaching competencies was acquired. The research conducted gave the researcher the motivational framework to establish both the current level ofNS teaching competence and the ideal levels of competences to which the three schools and other schools nationwide could aspire.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This dissertation, which was motivated by high failure rate in senior secondary history, is primarily an attempt at identifying some of the possible causes for poor performance in high school history in Transkei schools. One possible cause of the weak performance was identified as outmoded teaching methods which were encouraged by lack of adequate facilities and resources for history teaching and learning. The investigation took the form of a survey of both human and material resources in 30 of the then 210 senior secondary schools in Transkei. The survey questionnaire, which was directed to history teachers, covered aspects on personal information about the teachers, material resources and facilities for teaching history, and teaching methods related to history teaching. A total of 55 teachers responded to the questionnaire. The survey included all the three senior secondary school class levels, that is standard 8, 9 and 10. By looking at the nature of history as a discipline and the way in which students learn, it was discovered that at school level history could be learnt best through the 'experiential' approach. This is mainly because in dealing with time-past as it has to, history usually comes up with 'strange' concepts which cannot be easily grasped by present-day senior secondary teenagers. This is because understanding of historical concepts tends to develop slower than would generally be expected, unless it is re-enforced. In Transkei schools this problem of concepts understanding is made worse by the foreign language medium (English) in which the subject is taught. It is felt that these constraints could be partly aleviated with the use of audio-visual aids and self-activity teaching methods. However, this study revealed a gross inadequacy not only in facilities for teaching history but also of both human and material resources. This automatically discourages the 'new history' approach and teachers (most of whom are underqualified) tend to cling to the old-style lecture-textbook method to the detriment of their students. This study suggests that to improve this situation it is essential to upgrade both pre-service and in-service teachers' academic and professional standards. In addition history facilities and audio-visual materials should be generously supplied to afford ample opportunities for pupil activity. This then would be line with modern history teaching theories and, hopefully, would improve performance in history in this region.

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Each day countless numbers of high school students remain standing at the threshold of the door to meaningful learning in art history because of traditional authoritative instructional methods and content. With the keys of feminist pedagogy, interactive teaching methods, and the new art histories, the teacher can now unlock that door and lead students to personally relevant learning on the other side. A case study using both qualitative and quantitative research methods was conducted in a secondary art history classroom to examine the teacher's pedagogical choices and the degree to which they enable meaningful and relevant student learning. The analysis of multiple sources of data, including classroom observations, revealed statistically significant correlations between the teacher's instructional methods and the content, as well as their impact on student meaning-making.

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Bibliography: pages 91-96. / The current debates about curriculum policy decision making and the empirical investigation into the teaching of history in South Africa undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council (1989-1991) have prompted this study. The research undertaken attempts to examine how history teachers' opinions can be collected, interpreted and utilised for curriculum policy formulation. The dissertation initially considers participation m curriculum decision-making and presents the case for the inclusion of teachers in decision making structures and processes. Recent initiatives in South Africa which have attempted to involve teachers in curriculum policy formulation are then examined. A research project was undertaken which surveyed the opinions of history teachers and the Cape Peninsula by means of questionnaires and interviews. Its results demonstrate that the research methodology employed impacts strongly on the information that is gathered and on the way that it can be utilised in curriculum policy formulation. The main conclusions reached were that teacher participation could contribute to a less technicist and more person-centered approach in curriculum development. This approach could improve the quality of the product (syllabus documents) and its subsequent adoption and implementation. The degree to which a school identifies with the syllabuses would be far greater, which would ensure flexibility and willingness to adapt to policies in which teachers have a sense of ownership.

Since textbooks are a standard feature of social studies classrooms and frequently are considered the central tools of social studies instruction, their content and manner of presentation are critical issues for the social studies. This study concentrated on identification and analysis of the individual people appearing by name in selected secondary world history textbooks. The written words and illustrations of twelve secondary world history textbooks were analyzed for their selection of, and the way in which they portray, individual men and women of world history. Content of the textbooks was analyzed to determine which people are included, which receive the greatest amount of space devoted to them, and the general characteristics of these people as attributed to them by the textbooks. Those who have the most space devoted to them, the most significant people of world history, were further analyzed to determine which people are portrayed as possessing characteristics which identify them as heroes or as villains. The selected textbooks were compared to determine the amount of agreement among them. The study found a large number of individual people identified by name in the selected textbooks. These people represent every corner of the world, area of endeavor, and time period of history. However, some places, events, and times receive greater emphasis than others in all the textbooks studied. These people of world history textbooks are predominately western European, male, and political leaders who are written of in terms of their actions. The limited number of most significant people share the general characteristics of all who are named, but the greater anl0unt of information provided the basis for analysis of the selection of information and the style of writing. This analysis provided a description of those most significant people who share common characteristics which match the characteristics of heroes and of villains. A few of the people exhibit characteristics of both heroes and villains. The textbooks studied are remarkably similar in these emphases. What is different among the textbooks is the exact people included in them and how much narrative text is used to describe and explain them. / Ph. D.