Thesis (MPhil (Curriculum Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / A new Outcomes-based Education (OBE) system, as well as a new Further Education and Training (FET) framework, has been proposed by the government to address past inequalities and provide a skilled labour force. The introduction of OBE has necessitated a paradigm shift in both educational and assessment practices. The FET policies, led by the introduction of the Green Paper for FET in 1998, aimed to inform the FET institutions on the implementation of outcomes-based assessment. However, the implementation of these policies has posed many obstacles and challenges. Lecturers are unsure about the implementation strategies, and their attempts to cope with these uncertainties are seldom effective. Consequently, lecturers struggle to bring their assessment practices in line with the policies. This was the research problem of the study. The aim of the study was to determine discrepancies between the policies and the practices. The FET policies and related literature were consulted to determine how assessment practices should change. Subsequently, a questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to determine the current assessment practices of lecturers at the Klerksdorp campus of Vuselela College. Thereafter, the requirements of the policies and the current assessment practices of the lecturers were compared to determine the extent to which the lecturers had adopted the new assessment practices. Various discrepancies were found. The first discrepancy existed between the implementation strategies of the new FET curriculum and the actual implementation process at the college. No learnerships had been implemented in the N-courses and the implementation process had been delayed several times. A second discrepancy existed between the requirements for lecturers to be registered as assessors and the registration process. Lecturers completed the training courses but struggled to register as assessors. A bottleneck existed with the registration process because of the number of lecturers that had to be registered. In addition, the training did not provide the lecturers with sufficient knowledge to implement outcomes-based assessment while the training was presented on the wrong National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level. Another discrepancy existed with regard to the implementation of the learnerships and the implementation of outcomes-based assessment. Lecturers were only expected to implement outcomes-based assessment in courses where learnerships had been implemented. This meant that lecturers who lectured on N-courses were still required to use more traditional assessment methods. While some lecturers preferred paper-based assessment methods, other lecturers felt that the restrictions imposed by the DoE were depriving them of the opportunity to use more alternative methods. Problems such as an increase in the workload, administration and paperwork and learner numbers were also experienced. Regarding these discrepancies, it was firstly recommended that the DoE be realistic about implementation dates and be transparent about delays and problems. Lecturers could assist the DoE in the implementation process by writing unit standards. Secondly, it was recommended that the DoE should have an efficient structure in place to deal with the vast number of lecturers that would have to register as assessors. This can be done by employing extra human resources. Better training is necessary to support and empower lecturers to implement outcomes-based assessment. Thirdly, lecturers could be encouraged to implement the new assessment practices by giving them recognition for good work, providing them with assistance and appointing lecturers who act solely as assessors. These discrepancies are more related and the recommendations more useful to this particular college than the assistance that is provided by the DoE by making the college aware of the obstacles and challenges that the new assessment practices pose.

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / When CURRICULUM 2005, hereafter C2005 (Department of Education [DoE], 1997b), was implemented in Grade 7 in 2000 none of the in-service teachers were sufficiently trained to teach Life Orientation. Higher Education Institutions had only then started to adapt teacher-training programmes to meet the needs of an outcomesbased curriculum for all aspiring teachers. Some in-service teachers had been trained as subject specialists in some of the focus areas contained within Life Orientation, like Physical Education, Guidance and Religious Education, but no teacher had been trained, pre-service or in-service, to be a specialist in all of the focus areas contained within Life Orientation. The Department of Education prepared teachers for the implementation of C2005 (DoE, 1997b) by means of a weeklong orientation programme. Teachers were orientated to an outcomes-based philosophy and teaching approach, and to specific outcomes and assessment criteria, but no content training was offered. A Life Orientation teacher is expected to have a body of knowledge on a range of subjects or focus areas as prescribed by the specific outcomes (DoE, 1997b). This study is aimed at researching the Life Orientation learning area and investigating the ways and level of preparation teachers had received to equip them to implement Life Orientation in the Senior Phase of the General Education and Training Band. A case study was used as a research design and specific schools in the Education Management and Development Centre Metropole North were selected to participate in the case study. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained through questionnaires, interviews and observations. A descriptive research strategy was employed to capture, analyse and interpret the data. The research found that there were gaps in the preparation of Life Orientation teachers to implement C2005 (DoE, 1997b). Recommendation are made with regard to training and support programmes to ensure that teachers are adequately empowered to implement Life Orientation in the Revised National Curriculum Statement (DoE, 2002b) in the General Education and Training Band and in the National Curriculum Statement (DoE, 2003b) in the Further Education and Training Band.

Thesis (MEd) -- Stellenbosch University, 1981. / Bibliography / Theses -- Education / Dissertations -- Curriculum studies / Theses -- Curriculum studies / No abstract available

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a novice teacher I experienced many difficulties and obstacles in my first two years of teaching in a South African context. This experience was further disempowering as there were no support programmes like induction or mentoring programmes in place to support the transition from student to teacher and to grow professionally. It thus became my concern to ascertain the possibilities of professional development through reflective practice, to highlight some of the strategies which might bring about change, however imperfect, and to consider the human agency in all of this. The focus of the study is particularly on reflective practice as a potential process of professional development and a self-support mechanism for novice teachers. It thus is a study of processes to encourage and maintain a teacher’s professional development. I tell of my lived experience as a novice teacher through narrative inquiry. The data comprises of journal entries and field notes which were constructed from conversations and observations. Main ideas were developed within my narrative to analyse the narrated text. Four main themes emerged from my global analysis of data. These are: lack of support; lack of an induction programme; engaging in self-support activities to grow professionally; and the importance that agency plays in this process of personal and professional development. Based on this study of my personal experience as a novice teacher, it would seem that becoming a reflective practitioner could indeed contribute to a sense of empowerment and serve as a support mechanism in personal and professional development. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: As ‘n nuweling-onderwyser het ek baie probleme en struikelblokke in my eerste twee jaar van onderwys in ‘n Suid Afrikaanse konteks ervaar. Hierdie ervaring was verder ontmagtigend aangesien daar geen ondersteuningsprogramme soos induksie en mentorskap in plek was om die oorgang van student tot onderwyser en professionele groei te ondersteun nie. Ek het my dus daaroor begin ontferm om die moontlikhede van professionele ontwikkeling deur die praktyk van refleksie te ondersoek en lig te werp op strategieë wat moontlike veranderinge teweeg kon bring en menslike agentskap in alle betrokke prosesse kon inwerk. Die fokus van hierdie studie is op reflektiewe praktyk as ‘n potensiële proses vir professionele ontwikkeling en ‘n self-ondersteunende meganisme vir nuweling-onderwysers. Dit is dus ‘n studie van prosesse wat professionele ontwikkeling aanmoedig en volhou. Ek maak gebuik van narratiewe ondersoek om my beleefde ervaring as ‘n nuweling-onderwyser te deel. Die data bestaan uit joernaalinskrywings en veldnotas wat saamgestel is vanuit gesprekke en waarnemings. Kernidees is binne die narratief ontwikkel om die verhaalde teks te analiseer. Vier hooftemas is identifiseer vanuit die data-analise. Dit is onder andere: gebrek aan ondersteuning, gebrek aan ‘n induksieprogram, gebrek aan self-ondersteuning om professioneel te groei en die rol van agentskap in die proses van persoonlike en professionele ontwikkeling. Gebaseer op die studie van my persoonlike ervaring, wil dit voorkom dat indien ‘n nuweling-onderwyser ontwikkel as ‘n reflektiewe praktistyn, dit inderdaad tot ‘n sin van bemagtiging kan bydra en ook kan dien as ‘n self-ondersteunende meganisme in persoonlike en professionele ontwikkeling.

Thesis (MEd (Specialised Education))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The site for the study is a Western Cape school for industry that became a school of skills in 1999. According to the S.A. National Association for Specialised Education (SANASE) (2001:1), a school of skills, also referred to as a special school, caters for intellectually mildly disabled learners (IMD learners) who are characterised by their poor scholastic abilities in reading, writing and arithmetic skills, low self-esteem, poor self-concept, lack of motivation to study and their inability to cope with academically orientated work. These would be learners who were previously in mainstream schools but whose learning difficulties resulted in their being placed at special schools. These learners pose particular challenges to their school environments, and teachers who work with such special needs learners require specialised training to equip them for their tasks. Teachers at schools of skills, however, generally have no additional training. This study had as focus teachers' understanding of their roles at a school of skills. This study uses an ecosystemic approach within an interpretive research framework to obtain in-depth data on teachers' understanding of the learners' learning needs and the concomitant challenges to classroom learning and their teaching. It also explored teachers' interpretations of their professional positioning amidst the demands posed by an outcomes-based curriculum. The study found that, despite ongoing in-service training initiatives, teachers insist that they need learner-specific guidance as they were incapable of providing suitable learning to their learners. They believe that their learners will need life-long learning support. Such beliefs create barriers to successful learning and can also marginalize learners, preventing them from being part of the mainstream of community life. The study found that the successful implementation of inclusive classroom learning is left largely to teachers' personal initiative. Although some teachers achieved positive results, the majority of teachers at the site failed to provide successful learning. It seems that learning success at schools of skill is dependent on positive teacher expectations of learners learning.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosc, 2006. / This thesis explores the possibility of developing a mentorship programme for teachers through a reflexive democratic practice in order to support student teachers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Bellville Campus), when they do their internship in the host schools. It argues that critical dialogue and reflection are at the core of practices that are more democratic and that the development of a mentorship programme within the context of a community of practice holds transformative possibilities for teaching and learning. Aspects of current practice at the schools and at the academy, which may enhance or hinder the development of a reflexive democratic practice, are identified. It is hoped that a critical analysis and reflection of the research findings will contribute to the improvement of the practice teaching experience of the student teachers as well as contribute to the development of an effective mentorship programme.

Thesis (MEdPsych (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / According to the latest available statistics, 9 million people in South Africa are illiterate. A large number of these people did not attend school. This can be attributed to a number of factors, amongst others no entry to any form of schooling, economic realities and a expectation of low quality of life It is especially after 1994 that Adult Basic Education and Training was scrutinized in order to address the backlogs. A more closer investigation has shown that the adult education centres at a convenient sample of 3 secondary schools in the Western Cape (N = 18) are merely an extension of mainstream education, without taking into account the notion of the Andragogy (The Teaching of Adults). This study aims to determine guidelines to assist the educator of adults on the path to empowerment, in order to help to ensure the above scientific accountability

<p>Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust is an organisation that trains and supervises a team of women counsellors who provide a counselling service to women rape survivors. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of the counsellors and the counselling co-ordinator regarding their perceptions on whether the training provided by the personal growth and counselling skills course is adequate in dealing with rape and its complexities.</p>

M.Ed. / Renewal represents an improvement in accepted existing practice. This implies that the old practice is just not good enough any longer. Similarly, the knowledge and training base of lecturers at technical colleges fell short with the introduction of the new National Intermediate Certificate, as well as the National Senior Certificate in 1992. The subject-related problems which emerged, could have been solved by various techniques. The quality circle, self-directed work team and support groups, are three group-related problem-solving techniques to be assessed in this study. The three techniques share group participation as a common characteristic. Each of these techniques still maintains a unique approach and method in solving a problem. One would have a remarkable problem-solving technique if one could capitalise on all the positive aspects of the various techniques. The introduction of the new National Intermediate Certificate and the National Senior Certificate, is a direct result of adherence to community needs. The new courses demanded implementation of computer training in various fields of study at technical colleges. A curriculum analysis focusing on Parktown College, led to the identification of three fields of study affected by the introduction of the computer. Lecturers responsible for computer training experienced and still experience various problems. These problems were identified by means of a focus group interview.

A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2016 / This study investigates how primary school mathematics in-service teachers respond to learners’ offers, over time, during classroom interactions. The study was a follow-up to a one-year long in-service ‘maths for teaching’ professional development course in which 33 teachers participated in 2012. Four teachers from that course were tracked in this follow-up study. Data sources within this study consisted of two cycles of observations of lessons taught by the four teachers in 2013 and 2014, and an interim video-stimulated recall (VSR) interview with each teacher, with reflections guided by the structure of Rowland et al.’s ‘knowledge quartet’. A total of 18 lessons from the four teachers were video-recorded across the 2013 and 2014 observations. The notion of ‘elaboration’ was used in this study as an interpretive lens to examine and characterise responsive teaching actions in the South African context, with the focus narrowing over the course of the PhD to contingency situations within the knowledge quartet framework, focused on responses to learner offers. In the South African literature, the terrain of elaboration is characterised by extensive gaps in teachers’ mathematical knowledge, incoherent talk, and frequent lack of evaluation of learners’ offers in the classroom. Using a grounded theory approach, I propose an ‘elaboration’ framework with three situations of responsive teaching (breakdown, sophistication and individuation/ collectivisation), which can be used as a tool to support the development of more responsive teaching in the South African context (and perhaps in other contexts where similar problems prevail). In this way, the study has contributed in terms of identifying some important ‘stages of implementation’ (Schweisfurth, 2011) that might be required to move towards the ideals of more responsive teaching that are described in the international literature, and yet remain distant from the realities of South African schooling. Using the three markers of shifts (extent, breadth and quality) in elaboration recruited in this study, drawn from the ways in which the dimensions of responsive teaching were conceptualised, I report on the different patterns of shifts in elaboration by the four teachers. The results of this analysis indicated that all four teachers made shifts in their responses to learners’ offers from 2013 to 2014 lessons in at least one or more dimensions of responsive teaching, in relation to extent, breadth and quality of elaborations. Findings from VSR interviews indicated associations between shifts in teachers’ reflective awareness, and shifts in responsive teaching actions. Theoretically, the study contributes through characterising responsive teaching actions in contexts of evidence of limited evaluation within the elaboration framework, with a language of description for identifying and developing more responsive teaching actions in a resource constrained context