Browsing by Subject "curriculum development"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    'Cascading participation' and the role of teachers in a collaborative HIV and Aids curriculum development project
    (2014) Scott, Duncan; Cooper, Adam; Swartz, Sharlene
    This paper presents findings of four Grade 6 teachers' involvement as facilitators of a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted in three South African primary schools. Based on the results of Phase One research which indicated that Grade 6s learn about sexuality, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from multiple sources, the Phase Two project designers developed a toolkit to help Life Orientation (LO) teachers consult learners on what they know and how they want to be taught. In each school, a curriculum development group comprising the participating teacher, learners, parents and an HIV and Aids specialist worked to enhance the official HIV and Aids curriculum using the information gathered each week by the teacher. This dialogue between the study participants represents the culmination of what we describe as the project's 'cascading participation' research model, a term denoting the multiple levels of participant involvement in the study. Although theories of participation often depict a binary relationship between those with power and those without it, the implementation of this project shows how the official curriculum, cultural norms and low parent involvement can exert pressure at different levels to diminish teachers' ability to facilitate social and educational change.
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    Enhancing students' learning through practical knowledge taught by industry professionals
    (Clute Institute, 2013) Rajaratnam, Kanshukan; Campbell, Anita
    A topic of interest in teaching business courses is incorporating the practical aspect of the subject matter into teaching as this helps to bridge theory and real-world practice. Research indicates that students gain a deeper understanding of material when theory is contextualized through real-life practical examples. However, given the traditional career-path of academics in finance in countries such as South Africa, a significant proportion of finance lecturers have little or no relevant practical experience in the subject matter. In this paper, we discuss a strategy implemented in finance courses at sophomore and senior levels in order to link theory and practice. Guest speakers were invited from industry to contextualize the topics for the students. Students' perceptions on the benefit they derived from the speakers were deduced from statistical analyses of student evaluations. The results indicate that the experience was positive and aided in their understanding of the subject.
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    Kindling fires: examining the potential for cumulative learning in a journalism curriculum
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Kilpert, Leigh; Shay, Suellen
    This study investigated context-dependency of learning as an indicator for students’ potential to continue learning after graduation. We used Maton’s theoretical concepts of 'cumulative' and 'egmented' learning, and 'semantic gravity', to look for context-independent learning in students' assessments in a Journalism curriculum. We postulated whether the curriculum constrained or enabled cumulative learning. Students' responses to assessments were coded by their degree of context-dependency, or semantic gravity. We found that, firstly, students are overly successful in producing context-dependent answers but struggle to deliver context-independent responses. Secondly, students were not effective when they used higher level knowledge principles without the foundation of lower level ones. Lastly, the marking criteria were encouraging markers to reward context-dependent answers over context-independent ones. This study has implications for educators interested in curriculum design that enables cumulative learning in discipline specific contexts.