Submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instructional Studies
at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / This study is aimed at understanding the efficacy of the implementation of the national curriculum
innovations called “Foundations for Learning Campaign” in schools under uThungulu District, within the
province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Furthermore, it included assessing the level of preparedness
of educators in their teaching of basic skills in the classroom and identifying the gaps in the dissemination
and implementation of curriculum innovations. The view upheld within this study was that ‘the use of
alternative strategies to implement national curriculum innovations in schools is of no use if the school
practitioners are sidelined in the development, planning and organisation processes of the innovation.”
The study targeted foundation and intermediate phase teachers from grades one to six teaching
numeracy/literacy and languages/mathematics, from whom a sample of 120 teachers was purposefully
selected as they were the initial focus of the Foundations for Learning Campaign. Both qualitative and
quantitative methods were employed in the collection of data.
The findings revealed that majority of the educators were not adequately equipped with skills and
expertise to implement the Foundations for Learning Campaign effectively and efficiently in the
classroom. Inadequate preparation was due to the following reasons: lack of sufficient time allocated for
training, inappropriate and irrelevant training and inadequately trained facilitators. In addition, there is a
lack of professional development programmes and school-based activities to enhance the teaching and
learning of basic skills. Inadequate supervision, monitoring and support from both the staff management
team and subject advisors/specialists predominantly prevailed during the implementation of the
Foundations for Learning Campaign. Furthermore, the model used to cascade the national curriculum
innovation to schools identified within the study was inadequate for the efficacious implementation of the
Foundations for Learning Campaign.
The study recommends that: teacher orientation, training and support processes should be refined; a high
teacher-pupil ratio needs to be phased out and discouraged; a variety of quality Learner Teacher Support
Material should be readily available and easily accessible to educators in the classroom to enhance the
teaching and learning of languages and mathematics; on-going supervision, monitoring and support from
the staff management team and subject advisors/specialists are necessary with regards to curriculum
implementation; and finally professional development programmes and school based activities currently
in place need to be evaluated and reviewed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1325 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Govender, Samantha |
| Contributors | Khuzwayo, M.E., Khuzwayo, H.B. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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