Browsing by Author "Yeld, Nan"

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    Assessment, equity and language of learning : key issues for higher education selection in South Africa
    (2001) Yeld, Nan; Muller, Johan; Dunne, Tim
    The central problem investigated by this study arises from the fact that South African Senior Certificate results are not, for the majority of educationally disadvantaged candidates, reliable predictors of academic success in Higher Education. Despite this limitation, however, the Senior Certificate examination plays a vital role in the education system. The aims of the study are thus to investigate procedures that could be used in addition to, rather than instead of, the Senior Certificate, and that would provide useful information about the future academic performance of educationally disadvantaged candidates. The purpose of these procedures is to widen effective access opportunities for such students. It is clear that such procedures need to provide different information from that provided by the Senior Certificate which, like all achievement tests, aims to test learners' understandings in terms of the knowledge and skills covered in a preceding course of instruction. In contexts where great educational disparities exist, as is the case in the South African education system, it is neither fair nor defensible to base key gate-keeping events (such as entry to Higher Education) entirely on performance on such an examination. Apart from issues of fairness, however, for students whose prior opportunities to learn have been grossly inadequate, achievement (curriculum-aligned) tests yield little useful information about candidates' underlying capacities and abilities. The study therefore investigates alternatives to achievement tests, and concludes that non curriculum-aligned testing of core skills and abilities could provide a workable alternative. However, moving from curriculum-aligned to non curriculum-aligned tests can not in itself address the assessment challenge posed in identifying talented students in highly heterogeneous populations, in terms of educational preparation. In such contexts, educationally disadvantaged students will inevitably perform poorly in competition with their more advantaged peers, regardless of the basis of the tests. The study therefore reviews various approaches to what has become known as dynamic assessment, and concludes that non curriculum-aligned, core skills tests developed as far as possible on dynamic lines may represent the most effective and fair approach to assessment in this context. After reviewing major theories of knowing and learning, the roles of language in teaching and learning processes, and the history and possibilities of language testing, a set of specifications (a construct) is developed and proposed as the basis for an academic literacy test designed on dynamic lines. The study then sets out to examine the Placement Tests in English for Educational Purposes (PTEEP), developed by the Alternative Admissions Research Project at the University of Cape Town. These tests aim to provide access opportunities for students whose Senior Certificate results do not necessarily reveal their potential to succeed at UCT. The investigation focuses on the extent to which the tests can be said to be (i) valid in terms of the construct established earlier, and (ii) useful in terms of providing useful, additional information about educationally disadvantaged candidates for selection purposes. In other words, the first part of the study is devoted to developing, on the basis of an extensive literature review, a set of requirements for an academic literacy test for selection to Higher Education in South Africa. The second part of the study assesses the extent to which a series of tests developed by the author and currently being used for selection in this context, can be considered to be valid in terms of the construct established in part one. Given the importance of English Second Language Higher Grade (ESL-HG) as the largest single subject registration in the Senior Certificate, and of English as language of learning, the study includes an investigation of the validity of the ESL-HG examinations, and of the usefulness of ESL-HG results for selection purposes. . The investigation employs both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. in summary, the analysis leads to the following major conclusions: + overall, the PTEEP tests can be considered to be valid in terms of construct and content validity; + the use of scaffolding within a test, for talented educationally disadvantaged candidates, can significantly enhance test performance; + on the basis of survival analysis techniques (Polakow 1999), the PTEEP tests are effective in predicting academic success at UCT. That is, students who score in the top quintile of their candidate pool are significantly less likely to be excluded than are comparable students who are admitted on the basis of their Senior Certificate resits alone. Students who score in the bottom quintile, however, have a very significantly higher risk of exclusion than their peers admitted on the basis of their Senior Certificate results alone; + the PTEEP tests and the ESL-HG examinations exhibit divergent validity (that is, they are not positively associated, but reveal either random or inverse correlations); and + ESL-HG and performance at UCT are not significantly associated. On the basis of these conclusions, the study recommends that Higher Education institutions include, as part of their selection criteria and in addition to Senior Certificate results, a test that is non curriculum-aligned; based on the domain of academic literacy as defined in the study; and developed on the basis of dynamic principles. The study also recommends that the potential contribution of such a test to strengthen quality assurance at the school-leaving/Higher Education interface be investigated by the national Department of Education. Finally, it is recommended that as a matter of urgency, the examining of ESL-HG be investigated, with particular reference to the extent to which the examination targets (and therefore contributes to promoting the development of) cognitive academic language proficiency.
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    A bridge too far for school leavers
    (2014-08-04) Yeld, Nan; Prince, Robert
    This is an article written in 2012 by Nan Yeld and Robert Prince outlining the worrying decrease in the capacity of South African matriculants to pursue higher education.
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    Critical questions? Some responses to issues raised in relation to the national benchmark tests project
    (Unisa Press, 2007) Yeld, Nan
    The project represents an attempt to provide both schooling and higher education with important information on the competencies of their exiting (in the case of schools) and entering (in the case of universities) students: information that does not duplicate the essential information delivered by the school-leaving examination, but that provides an important extra dimension.
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    A participant observation study of the feasibility of enhancing student-teacher supervision procedures using Flanders' Interaction Analysis Categories
    (1987) Yeld, Nan; Young, Douglas
    The dissertation concerns the procedure of teacher supervision as presently conducted at the University of Cape Town's School of Education, and suggests ways in which this can be improved. It is argued that teacher education should be situated in the paradigm of Action Research, and within that, in the approach known as Participant Observation. The language of the classroom is chosen as the means whereby classroom practices can be investigated. A detailed account is provided of a full sequence of clinical supervision, and use is made of complete lesson and subsequent interview transcriptions in this account. The methodological techniques of participant observation, interviews, 'triangulation' procedures and fieldnotes to supplement the analysis of transcripts and interviews, are used. In addition, three different ways of analysing classroom language are described, viz . discourse analysis, insightful observation and coding schemes, and their appropriacy for teacher supervision purposes assessed. Finally, teacher conclusions are drawn regarding an effective model for supervision. It is suggested that FIAC (Flanders' Interaction Analysis Categories) be used in combination with lesson transcriptions, and stress is laid on the need for teacher trainees and trainers to observe at all times the criteria for participant observation. Suggestions are put forward concerning possible implementation of recommendations made, and the need for future research in this area is emphasised.
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    Standard setting lessons learned in the South African context: implications for international implementation
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Pitoniak, Mary J; Yeld, Nan
    Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In this article, experience gained from conducting several standard setting studies in South Africa is shared. The legacy of the apartheid era, in which segregation and discrimination were institutionalized, affects the attitudes of South Africans toward assessment and placing students into performance levels. These issues played out as panelists were asked to make judgments related to students' likely performance in higher education. Although the instantiation of panelists' reluctance to label students may be different in South Africa compared to the United States or other countries, lessons can be learned about how the effects of these beliefs and anxieties may be addressed during standard setting activities.