The purpose of this study is to establish the impact of curriculum
transformation on classroom practice in Northern Cape schools,
given the fact that the curriculum is deemed to be the vehicle
which will ensure that all South Africans, have the necessary
knowledge, values, skills and attitudes, which will facilitate social
and personal development and economic growth, as well as
strengthen the countryâs democracy.
A historical overview of the rationale for curriculum
transformation is provided, highlighting the features of the
education system prior to the first democratic elections. In
addition, the various curriculum policy options pre-1994 is
outlined, in an attempt to gain an understanding of the origins of
the outcomes-based curriculum.
It emerges that most of the proposals put on the table, favoured
an integration of education and training, as well as the promotion
of high levels of skills, needed for economic growth in the
country.
Curriculum 2005, which endorsed the ideas of an integrated
approach to education and training, and which emphasised life-long
learning, was unveiled in May 1997, for implementation in
1998.
Given the inequities of the past, it could be expected that teachers
would find difficulty in implementing the new curriculum.
Developments after implementation is traced, and the study
provides a comparison of the design features of the original
version of C2005 and the Revised National Curriculum
Statement, which is being phased in incrementally. The study also provides an account of the current learning and
teaching situation in schools in the country, by illustrating the
findings of various
research studies. These studies reveal that classroom practice is
still characteristic of activities which do not promote higher order
thinking skills, such as investigation, understanding relationships
and curiosity, lack of lesson structure and lesson material
prepared in graded sequence, and physical conditions in schools
leaves much to be desired.
Given the situation outlined above, the research investigated key
factors which are required to improve classroom practice. These
factors included; the dissemination of the curriculum, the quality
of transactions between teachers and learners in the current
teaching situation, methodologies currently used, provision and
use of resources and contextual realities at system and school
level.
During the study, key stakeholders, namely, learning area
managers, teachers and learners completed questionnaires on the
above mentioned aspects. Principals and representatives from
School Governing Bodies responded to questions during
interviews.
In conclusion, findings emanating from the literature study, as
well as the empirical research is presented. Based on these
findings, a practice-orientated curriculum implementation
strategy, focusing on classroom practice, is recommended, taking
the contextual realities of the system into account.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07052005-134645 |
| Date | 05 July 2005 |
| Creators | Ishmail, Michelle Ingrid |
| Contributors | Prof LP Louw |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07052005-134645/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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