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Teachers, assessment and outcomes-based education: a philosophical enquiry

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1131
Date12 1900
CreatorsSlamat, Jerome Albert
ContributorsWaghid, Yusef, Berkhout, Sarie, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
PublisherStellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageUnknown
TypeThesis
RightsUniversity of Stellenbosch

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