Browsing by Subject "Educational change - South Africa"

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    The development of an effective multi-media distance education programme for in-service teachers
    (1996) Van der Wolk, Karen Anne; Flanagan, Wendy
    This dissertation is a report of my work in schools in the Eastern Cape while assisting the Primary Education project (PREP) to develop a resource pack for in-service education. In-service education has received much attention in recent years in South Africa. Both the state sector and non-government organisations have provided various in-service interventions in an attempt to improve both the qualifications of teachers and the results of pupils in schools. However, the dismal state of education in ex-DET schools bears witness to the fact that such interventions have by and large been ineffectual. This study shows how one project developed and trialled parts of a distance learning in-service course in conjunction with junior primary farm school teachers. The need for innovative and creative models of distance education is explored and our understanding of the nature of distance learning is detailed. The study goes on to include an analysis of the political economy of farm schools. It also details the constraints acting upon teachers in such schools and shows how these impacted on the study. The research procedures and methods of data collection are outlined and a framework for analysing the data is developed and justified. The actual data generated during the study is then measured against this framework in order to gauge its effectiveness as an in-service intervention. Finally, I draw conclusions and make certain recommendations based on the evidence presented. Whilst these recommendations are tentative, they may have relevance in terms of future in-service education policies and procedures.
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    Literature education for transformation : a critical pedagogy for literature teaching
    (1997) Behari, Kasturi; Bakker, Nigel
    As the new South African national ethos is borne, education assumes the inenviable role of reconciliator and liberator amidst the programme of the redressing of past imbalances. Stakeholders everywhere are looking to the field of education for national reconstruction and nation building through the development of young minds into productive, active and creative citizens. Indeed, the responsibility that education bears is a moral one. The broad field of this dissertation identifies Literature Education as a tool for transformation within the specific context of present post-apartheid South Africa. A paradigmatic analysis of literature teaching is provided to establish a theoretical framework for teachers to critically appreciate the underpinnings of their methodological practice, within which to locate their current literature teaching trends. Making a paradigmatic shift in literature teaching implies a change in our beliefs concerning knowledge and meaning; power and authority and learning and teaching in society. The thesis posits that Literature Education must necessarily be located within a critical paradigm of teaching, so that as a critical pedagogy, it may facilitate the self and social transformation of pupils and practitioners alike. Within the critical paradigm of literature teaching, reading is reconceptualised as an interactive process between reader and text. The reader's status is elevated to meaning-maker, without whom the act of reading would be void. Adequate literary theory is advanced on Schema Theory as a model of reading analyses of a reader's or pupil's Personal-Mental Schemata. The theory of Additive Schemata is proposed as the means to effect the transformation in pupils through Schema Refreshment or Schema Alteration. The critical teacher using Additive Schemata inputs, is in a position to maximise the potential that the learner has for transformation. Transformation, however is not guaranteed as it depends on a variety of factors such as a learner's flexibility, logical reasoning and a need to be transformed. In order to validate this proposal a research project was conducted in an English Literature class, the dynamics of which are detailed in Chapter Three in their entirety. The findings reveal that Additive Schemata have a positive influence on a learner's personal-mental Schemata leading in most cases to a transformation within pupils who engaged critically with the Additive Schemata approach. The research acknowledges that a learner's point of entry is not the same as the point of departure within the Additive Schemata approach. Learners are not being introduced to a new moral order; the Additive Schemata offers learner's a new moral choice. In so doing, literature teaching, following the Additive schemata approach, embodies the central tenets of a critical pedagogy offering pupils a process that is self-liberating and socially empowering.
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    The pedagogy of large classes : challenging the "large class equals gutter education" myth
    (1997) Maged, Shireen; Flanagan, Wendy
    The study takes the work of three teachers to examine whether the popular belief of "small is better" is substantiated in the practice of these teachers. The study observes and analyses the classroom instruction of each of these teachers in a small class as well as in a large class. The observation is done with the use of an observation schedule, and the analysis of data is done within a Vygotskian framework. The study shows that the pedagogy and the teaching style of the three teachers does not change when they teach differently sized classes. In other words, their classroom practice is the same for both the small and large classes. The study further shows that the pedagogy of the teacher determines the effectiveness or quality of instruction, and that class size does not impact, either positively (in the case of the small class) or negatively (in the case of a large class) on the effectiveness or quality of instruction.