Browsing by Author "Saddington, James Anthony"

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    An evaluative study of a university course for professional adult educators using an experiential learning methodology
    (1985) Saddington, James Anthony
    This study explored the use of the experiential learning methodology and the concept of learner responsibility within a course for the professional preparation of adult educators at university level. The research methodology was illuminative evaluation using case study research and participant observation. The study described the problems and issues that arose when the students, on the 1982 Diploma Course for Educators of Adults at the University of Cape Town, were faced with the responsibility for the designing, managing and teaching of their own curriculum. The analysis of this showed an ability and willingness on the part of most students to engage in this responsibility. For some students the required role as "curriculum constructor" contradicted with their expected and preferred stance of a learner receiving mediated knowledge from a teacher. The role of assessment diminished the freedom to engage in responsibility, and the difficulties of decision making and management led ultimately to the formation of a management committee. The study went on to examine learner responsibility and experiential learning in more depth. The students' preference for other methodologies and their own perceived ability and confidence to engage with both learner responsibility and experiential learning were major hindrances for the course. The conflict of roles experienced by both the staff and students at a variety of points required a way of clarifying and resolving this conflict, otherwise it continued to block involvement for the students or staff. For learner responsibility the access to learning resources was a further problem. The introduction of experiential learning and the apparent non-openness of it to other methodologies were also problems experienced in practice. The research concluded with an attempt to address these problems. It was proposed that experiential learning and learner responsibility needed to be reconceptualised. Developments such as "learning contracts", "a learning community", new forms of assessment, "learning conversations" and increasing the reflective capacity of experiential learning were proposed. The research ended with a series of implications for practice for those adult education programmes which were committed to a learning process which maximised learner responsibility and autonomy and took seriously the life experience of the students.
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    Exploring learner and teacher roles in curriculum development in a process approach to a basic English as a second language programme for adults
    (1991) Clifford, Marian; Saddington, James Anthony
    This study explores the contribution that the learners and the teacher made to curriculum development in a process approach to English as a second language for adults. The research was carried out with a group of workers attending a basic English course in an adult education programme on the East Rand. This study covers the entire sixteen month period from 1986 to 1987, and was carried out by the teacher-as-researcher. The research methodology was a form of illuminative evaluation, using syllabus accounts. These accounts provided a record of what took place in the classroom and were organised into three main themes. Subsequent analysis of the accounts focussed on learner and teacher roles in determining the learning experiences generated in the classroom. These findings were then re-examined in the light of the literature on process approaches. Conclusions were drawn about these roles and the implications for teacher development and learner training. Subsequently these conclusions were presented as illuminative data to reflect upon the curriculum framework underlying process approaches. The conclusions drawn in this study challenge the assumption that learners and the teacher jointly and equally negotiate learning in a process approach. Instead they suggest that the teacher is very much in control as the overall manager of curriculum development, and that learners are secondary agents in this endeavour. The roles of both parties are also more complex and more interlinked than the literature implies. Following this, conclusions were drawn about the roles that learners and the teacher played in curriculum development in this study. The research went on to examine the broader implications of these findings, by assessing the feasibility of a process approach for large-scale adult basic education work in South Africa. From this assessment, a new 'hybrid' approach was proposed which retains important features of a process approach while modifying it to make it more accessible and appropriate for South Africa's needs. Finally, the study identified future research directions.