With the implementation of Curriculum 2005 (C2005) in South Africa profound changes were also made to technical education. For example, the name technical education made way for the name technology education, the senior secondary phase was replaced with the Further Education and Training band (FET), the syllabuses made way for curricula and all technical subjects were restructured, reduced and re-curriculated to four new subjects. These four new subjects are defined in the New Curriculum Statement (NCS) documents and should be taught according to the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) principles. This study was undertaken to determine the nature of technology education in the phase, what competencies these teachers should have and what the perceptions of final year students in this phase are, regarding their vocational competencies. The above named objectives were aimed at contributing guidelines with the purpose of improving the training of FET technology teachers.
In order to answer the above named questions a literature review, a qualitative and a
quantitative study was undertaken. The literature revealed that technology teaching in the FET phase in South Africa has to do with education that focuses on the teaching of technological knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. The technology education in this phase focuses on electrical, mechanical, civil and design fields, with emphasis on problem solutions and the achievement of four well-defined outcomes. The implementation of FET technology in South Africa follows the international
trend to place all training with a technical or technology bias under the banner of technology education because teaching only knowledge and skills were no longer sufficient. Because South Africa is still a developing country, there are unique and distinctive problems facing the effective teaching of technology. In order to train teachers effectively for the new curriculum the opinions of practicing school 'principals and experienced teachers in FET technology should be asked to determine what is expected from these novice teachers in practise.
A qualitative study revealed that principals and other senior staff members of technical
schools (FET) have certain expectations with regard to the competencies and capabilities of their technology teachers. These requirements, for example, includes professional competencies, general, teaching and practical skills and abilities such as subject knowledge and didactical knowledge. In a qualitative study, in which 20 of the final year FET technology students participated, it was found that according to them, they are, to a great extent, equipped for their task as teachers. With few exceptions, the students felt that they were well-equipped in terms of professional, general, teaching and practical skills as they were properly guided in subject and didactic knowledge.
As for the training of technical teachers in the FET phase, it was found that the training to a large extent meets the demands of education and the needs of schools, but that there are one or two areas of training that might be improved on and that there are certain misconceptions when students need to judge the value of certain modules. These misconceptions or problem areas mainly focus on the educational programme, practical teaching, education administration and training in practical skills. Specific recommendations are made regarding the training of technical teachers for the FET phase:
Recommendations from this study focus on:
• Better planned, more effective and relevant workshop practical training.
• Greater exposure to, or better planned exposure to, practical education.
• Better definition or tuition of educational and didactical modules.
• Specific modules exposing students to more imitated administrative tasks.
• Promotion of workshop safety.
This study focused on the nature of technology education in the FET band in South Africa,
the training of teachers who must be able to teach technology in the FET band and the
unique abilities they should possess. Recommendations from this study can thus contribute in improving FET technology training in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/4275 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Benadé, Gerhardus Petrus |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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