ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4887-6744
Current Organisation
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
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Publisher: Academy of Science of South Africa
Date: 25-07-2022
DOI: 10.17159/2520-9868/I87A03
Abstract: Since the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa's education system has undergone four curriculum revisions. In each of these iterations, the teachers who were among the first in line to implement change were the Foundation Phase (FP) teachers. However, since then, the low numeracy and literacy levels of primary school learners have been of increasing concern. In this context, in 2017, a series of continuous professional development (CPD) workshops were run with 18 Grade 3 FP teachers from five no-fee primary schools in the Cape Winelands to enhance their use of assessment to improve teaching and learning. This professional development model comprised six monthly workshops, in which the teachers were introduced to various assessment for learning (AfL) techniques and strategies. Each workshop was subsequently supplemented with a classroom support visit by one of the workshop presenters. A few months after the conclusion of the workshops and support visits, the participating teachers, subject advisers, management, and district officials were interviewed about programme efficacy. What emerged was that although all stakeholders saw value in this CPD initiative, the subject advisers and teachers felt that they had particularly benefitted from the programme in terms of the training received, the training model, materials, and follow-up support visits. However, despite the teachers' enthusiasm, there was a varied level of implementation of AfL practices in classrooms-shaped by the context in which the schools were located and their internal dynamics. Affecting the efficacy of the programme-and thus having implications for sustainability-were extraneous factors such as programme timing, competing priorities, and school dynamics. This suggests that for any such CPD programme to succeed, the various factors that could inhibit programme success need to be noted and circumvented.
Publisher: Academic Conferences International Ltd
Date: 15-08-2023
Abstract: Educators and students were unprepared for the suspension of face-to-face (f2f) educational activities due to Covid-19, specifically those less experienced in online teaching and learning. Students and educators were traumatised by the sudden switch to online teaching and learning. As such the transition from f2f to exclusive online learning prompted adjusted pedagogical methods and assumed measures of self-regulated e-learning (SRL). During this period researchers embarked on a longitudinal project in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) called the 21st Century Project (21CP). The purpose of the study was to explore the SRL behaviours of pre-service teachers in online learning and to understand the extent to which a curriculum for technology integration alongside contextual factors influences SRL. As such our conceptualisation of the SRL framework adds two moderating constructs, these are, context and intervention to the core constructs of SRL. The s le of sixty six (66) students were drawn from a volunteer cohort of 166, 4th year pre-service students. Data were collected through interviews, surveys and online journal entries. The data was analysed qualitatively using narrative methods in which themes were identified and reported. The findings revealed that: the ICT integration curriculum represented a cornerstone for SRL development and shaped students’ SRL behaviours there were differences in the SRL practices that could be attributed to students’ learning habits and attitudes to the ICT-based interventions. The findings of this study provide an understanding of interrelationships among SRL, context, and the design of an online curriculum. The study made three contributions to policy and practice. Firstly, SRL can be improved by providing activities that include clear guidelines for engagement through guided instructional methodologies. Secondly, the faculty curriculum developers should formulate guidelines to ensure that curricular iterations are developed as blended f2f/online modes to enable a quick and seamless transition for exclusive online use. Finally, course creators can improve student engagement by aligning learning outcomes and related activities with learning events.
Publisher: Academy of Science of South Africa
Date: 25-07-2022
DOI: 10.17159/2520-9868/I87A01
Abstract: The focus of the South African Education Research Association's Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG's members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities of effecting change, increasing discourse on, as well as relevant critique of, policies and practices that fail to improve learning and teaching, enhances possibilities for implementing enabling assessment policy and practice that seek to address the elusive challenge of equity and quality within the education system.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-08-2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 31-03-2023
Publisher: Academic Conferences International Ltd
Date: 20-07-2022
Abstract: Using a qualitative historical research approach, this paper examines the South African (SA) e-Education (referred to as White paper 7 (WP7)) policy formulation’s contextual influences and their possible impacts on the policy implementation. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was conducted on both the policy itself and data collected through semi-structured interviews (SSI) with purposefully selected participants. Findings of the study reveal tacit contradictions and tensions that depict a policy that is in contradiction with itself. That is from its textual, discourse and process perspectives. The study reveals that, from its textual perspective, WP7’s formulation was influenced by the post-apartheid’s government desire to make use of Education and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as quick fixers in response to the dire socioeconomic situation of the majority of citizens. Yet, its discourse perspective points to the fact that its formulation’s motive was merely to coordinate donations in hardware, software and funding from interest groups (IGs). While the donations in question were premised by IGs’ ultimate aim of maximizing profit through an anticipated government funded massive rollout of ICT resources to schools. This resulted in the formulation of WP7 being excessively influenced by contextual factors that had little to do with the policy’s vision of transforming teaching and learning (TL) through ICT. This situation may have contributed to the policy’s failure to reach its set objectives by 2013 as envisaged, at least from the point of view of policy as text.
Location: South Africa
No related grants have been discovered for Osman Sadeck.