This study determined whether there was a relationship between the responses of teachers to teacher competency tests, measures of self-concept, and locus of control. The study was designed to investigate the issue of student and cooperating teachers responses toward testing. Fifty-five student teachers from Old Dominion University and Virginia Wesleyan College were paired with cooperating teachers from the school systems of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, Virginia. To determine their responses toward competency testing of teachers, a critiqued questionnaire was administered to this population. The Rotter Locus Of Control (1965) was given to determine if an individual viewed control of one's life from an internal or external perspective. In order to ascertain an individual's self-concept, the Tennessee Self Concept Scale was administered. The results from the instruments were analyzed using percentages and comparisons using the chi square test. Results indicated that there was no significant difference (< .05) in responses of teachers toward testing of teachers. No significant differences were found in how internals and externals viewed testing; nor were there significant differences found between those with high and low self concepts. Conclusions from the study indicate that student and cooperating teachers are not opposed to competency testing of teachers. The respondents felt that persons will not be encouraged or discouraged from entering the teaching profession because of their feelings about teacher testing or because of personality characteristics such as locus of control or self-concept. / Ed. D.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 T37 / Master of Science

Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The core question that is addressed in this dissertation is: “How can we think differently about education in order to transcend the predicament that outcomes-based assessment poses for teachers and the practice of teaching?” This question is addressed against the background of my own narrative and experience in education in South Africa and in dialogue with the ideas of a number of contemporary philosophers. I assume an internal link between the outcomes-based discourse and its attendant assessment system. I argue that although outcomes-based education is proclaimed to be a progressive pedagogy, an alternative argument can be made that characterises it as an old behaviourist, management theory, overlain by a new policy technology called performativity. Thereafter, I engage critically with outcomes-based assessment as a prime example of performativity. In the next step I explore the ways in which outcomes-based assessment poses a predicament to teachers and to the practice of teaching. I then construct an alternative view of education that, in my opinion, provides a way to transcend the predicament that outcomes-based assessment poses for teachers and the practice of teaching. I also compare my alternative view of education with a new notion of education as therapy and standing in need of therapy, which is also presented as an alternative to instrumental approaches to education. Thereafter I consider the implications of my alternative view of education for teachers and assessment. I consider potential critiques against my argument at various stages in this dissertation. In the final chapter, I anticipate five more potential critiques against the argument developed in this dissertation and give initial responses to these. At the end of this dissertation I extend an invitation to deliberation in the spirit of my alternative view of education. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kernvraag wat in hierdie proefskrif aan bod kom, is: “Hoe kan ons anders dink oor onderwys sodat die penarie wat uitkomsgebaseerde assessering vir onderwysers en die onderwyspraktyk meebring, oorkom kan word? Die vraag word beredeneer teen die agtergrond van my eie narratief en ervaring in onderwys in Suid-Afrika en in dialoog met die idees van ’n aantal kontemporêre filosowe. Ek veronderstel ’n interne skakel tussen die uitkomsgebaseerde diskoers en die verbandhoudende assesseringstelsel. Ek voer aan dat hoewel uitkomsgebaseerde onderwys as ’n progressiewe pedagogie voorgehou word, ’n alternatiewe argument gemaak kan word wat dit as ’n ou, behavioristiese bestuursteorie beskryf, wat oordek is met ’n nuwe beleidstegnologie genaamd performatiwiteit. Daarna gaan ek krities om met uitkomsgebaseerde assessering as ’n primêre voorbeeld van performatiwiteit. In die volgende stap verken ek die maniere waarop uitkomsgebaseerde assessering ’n penarie vir onderwysers en die onderwyspraktyk voorhou. Ek ontwikkel dan ’n alternatiewe beskouing van opvoeding wat, na my mening, ’n manier verskaf om die penarie wat assessering vir onderwysers en die onderwyspraktyk veroorsaak, te oorkom. Ek vergelyk ook my alternatiewe beskouing van onderwys met ’n nuwe konsep van onderwys as terapie en as behoeftig aan terapie, wat ook as ’n alternatief vir instrumentele benaderings tot onderwys aangebied word. Daarna oorweeg ek die implikasies van my alternatiewe beskouing van onderwys vir onderwysers en assessering. Ek oorweeg op verskillende stadiums in hierdie proefskrif potensiële punte van kritiek teen my argument. In die laaste hoofstuk antisipeer ek vyf bykomende potensiële punte van kritiek teen die argument wat in hierdie proefskrif ontwikkel is en gee aanvanklike reaksies daarop. Teen die einde van hierdie proefskrif rig ek ’n uitnodiging tot beraadslaging in die gees van my alternatiewe beskouing van opvoeding.

Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The numerous changes to the South African education system since January 1998 have had far reaching effects on schools and the training of educators (Government Gazette, 31 May 2002:13). Changes in subject content have occurred in various subjects, and the General Science (now Natural Science) syllabus is no exception. The General Science syllabus previously catered mainly for Chemistry, Physics and Biology, but the Curriculum 2005 (C2005) Natural Science syllabus includes subject matter on Physical Geography (Climatology, Astronomy, and Geomorphology) (Department of Education, 2002b:6). The problem with this is that educators that previously taught General Science are not necessarily qualified to present the Physical Geography component of the new syllabus. This study investigates the impact of the changes in the new curriculum. The review of existing literature on curriculum development in Natural Science education in South Africa emphasises key changes made in the development and implementation of C2005 and the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). It also explores the characteristic features of misconceptions, before considering specific misconceptions in Natural Sciences. The first part of the two-tiered empirical investigation is based on the results of questionnaires and interviews completed by different groups of Natural Sciences educators. The questionnaires, which drew in part on existing questionnaires used in similar studies, were based on information used for the literature review. The second part of the empirical investigation consisted of interviews conducted with Natural Sciences Departmental Heads at randomly selected schools. An attempt was made to determine how these senior educators experienced the implementation of C2005 and RNCS and what their attitude to the new curriculum were. The data obtained from the questionnaires and the subsequent interviews were categorised, interpreted and coded for statistical processing.