BEd Colloquium 12 February 2014 Potchefstroom Academic Depth and Rigour in Initial Teacher...
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- BEd Colloquium 12 February 2014 Potchefstroom Academic Depth
and Rigour in Initial Teacher Education: A query Akademiese Diepte
en Nougesetheid in Aanvanklike Onderwysersopvoeding: 'n Vraagstuk
Opening Remarks and Introductory Presentation on SA Education
Context, to Guests of the Faculty of Education Sciences: Prof
Robert J. Balfour (Dean)
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- School system in crisis GRADEMATHEMATICS 2012MATHEMATICS 2013
168\60 25759 34153 437 53033 62739 91314
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- School system in crisis Subjects (Full-Time) 2010201120122013 W
rote Achieved 30% & Above % Achieved W rote Achieved 30% &
Above % Achieved W rote Achieved 30% & Above % Achieved W rote
Achieved 30% & Above % Achieved Mathematical Literacy 280
836241 576 86.0 275 380236 548 85.9 291 341254 611 87.4 324 097282
270 87.1 Mathematics 263 034124 749 47.4 224 635104 033 46.3 225
874121 970 54.0 241 509142 666 59.1 Physical Sciences 205 36498 260
47.8 180 58596 441 53.4 179 194109 918 61.3 184 383124 206 67.4
COMPARISON OF NSC CANDIDATES' PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED SUBJECTS
Table 19: Candidates' performance at 30% and abo5e in selected
subjects, 2010 - 2013
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- Higher Education not much better CHE report : A Proposal for
Undergraduate Curriculum Reform in South Africa: The Case for a
Flexible Curriculum Structure Table 1: Graduation in regulation
time, overall and by population group (%): 2006 first-time entering
cohort, excluding UNISA graduation in regulation time (%)Attrition
by end of regulation time (%)
AfricanColouredIndianWhiteAllAfricanColouredIndianWhiteAll 3-year
degrees20 2643293950373137 4-year degrees30283147364147433339
3-year diplomas 5 1627 382045 393844 All 3- and 4-year
qualifications 20242844274247393340
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- Higher Education not much better CHE report : A Proposal for
Undergraduate Curriculum Reform in South Africa: The Case for a
Flexible Curriculum Structure The proportion of the intake into
contact institutions that is well- enough prepared to complete
undergraduate curricula within the intended time is small only 27%,
or roughly only one in every four. It also shows the high rate of
attrition that has occurred by the end of regulation time: 40%
overall By the end of the regulation time in all three
qualification types, more students have been lost to failure and
dropout than have graduated more than twice as many in the case of
African and diploma students..
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- Framing 'quality & rigour': perspectives offered by the
Faculty of Education Sciences (internal) BEd Report 2012 SMK =
Subject Matter Knowledge PCK = Pedagogical Content Knowledge There
seems to be no common understanding with regard to how specialised
SMK or specialised PCK should be taught. The jury is also still out
as to whether the school subject should determine the content of
the equivalent subject in the BEd curriculum or whether the
academic discipline should determine the content of the equivalent
subject in the BEd curriculum. The dominant view is that the school
curriculum should not drive the content of the teacher-education
curriculum. There should be a dialogue between the school and
academic sister discipline to determine the content of the
teacher-education curriculum. Pedagogical knowledge should be
supported by a sound basis of content knowledge. Work-integrated
learning is considered to be the most important means of bridging
the gap between the world of teacher education and the world of the
school.
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- More from the FES- BEd Executive Report 2012 A National
Perspective On Teacher Education Three basic models for teacher
education: the consecutive the integrated the concurrent BEd:
integrated model BEd:Apart from UWC all the other universities
follow their own version of the integrated model. UWC uses an
adapted version of the consecutive model in the training of their
education students. During the first and second years of training
the academic subjects are completed with the faculties for basic
subject disciplines, while the education or professional subjects
are completed during the last two years with the faculty of
education.
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- FES-BEd Executive Report 2013 FES-BEd Executive Report 2013
recommendations A culture of scholarship and strong communities of
practice It is recommended that Faculty implement a programme to
develop a culture of scholarship and strong communities of
practice. Examples would typically include colloquia where topics
such as academic scholarship, academic rigour, authentic school
contexts, the intended, espoused and hidden curriculum, quality,
and so on, can be debated. Disciplinary knowledge and depth of
knowledge 1.Subject groups should critically evaluate the scope and
depth of the disciplinary knowledge that is being taught in every
academic subject or module; knowledge should be increased and/or
deepened where and when necessary;
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- FES- BEd Executive Report 2013: more FES- BEd Executive Report
2013: more recommendations about academic content and appropriate
level 2.Specialists in academic disciplines (from the faculties for
related disciplines, whether from the NWU or other universities)
should participate in the assessment and evaluation of the academic
subjects that are included in the teacher education programme and
such assessment and evaluation should form part of a particular
subject groups assessment and evaluation; 3.The academic rigour of
the content being taught should be improved where necessary; 4.An
assessment should be made of students content knowledge, depth of
knowledge and, in particular, higher-order thinking or cognitive
skills in novel and creative ways, in order to encourage them to
develop their own notes and summaries and to develop their own,
personal self-directed learning abilities.
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- JET Report on the NWU BEd: 2013 Content Knowledge Concern was
raised by several staff members that the courses offered by the
institution are too closely tied to the national curriculum and too
closely linked to whatever happens to be in the school curriculum.
The rationale provided for this close linkage is so that students
will be more familiar with what they have to teach during their
practicals. However, for some staff, this presents a barrier in
their attempts to offer content comparable to that offered in the
mother faculties.
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- JET Report on generic and specific pedagogic content knowledge
Pedagogy Many staff members acknowledge the importance of PCK but
the conception of teaching within this curriculum is consistently
presented as a generic activity that is applied to various
subjects. In the generic courses students are taught aspects like
conceptualization of lessons, assessment strategies, teaching
strategies and learning support in a generic way. Students and
staff are expected to apply these generic strategies in their
subject/phase specialization. However, there is very little contact
between the staff offering these core courses (from the School of
Education) with the phase and subject methodologists (from the
School of Curriculum Studies), and so the potential for
collaboration is not yet adequately exploited. Staff well aware of
this limitation, but seem unsure of how to initiate conversations,
always reluctant to step on one anothers toes.
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- JET Report on NWU BEd 2013: some data Teacher Educator Number
Large classes less individual attention, especially during
microteaching Poor literacy, conceptual knowledge/ understanding of
students entering programme Limited time available to make powerful
interventions Students entering teacher education who dont really
want to be teachers / low admission criteria for teacher education
Staff workload: High teaching, marking loads Problems within the
institutional structure; the way we structure / run our teacher
education programmes 2 1 1111 1 51 111 2011 1 3 1 12 1 14 1 4 1 10
1 1 19 11 Table 3: Perceptions of major challenges to producing
high-quality teachers
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- Questions to consider for the BEd Colloquium How do we
understand academic depth in relation to specialist content
knowledge? How do we measure academic rigour in relation to
pedagogic content knowledge (pck) and specialist content knowledge
(sck)? What kinds of measures do we need to put into place to
assure the quality of pck and sck? What kinds of academic
conversations do we need, and with which stakeholders, in relation
to the proper benchmarking of quality pck and sck? How do we
identify, select and include stakeholders in QA mechanisms?
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- FES- BEd Colloquium FES- BEd Colloquium12 Feb 2014 It gives us
as Faculty great pleasure to Welcome Prof Hamsa Venkat to address
the Colloquium on 12 Feb 2014. Prof Venkat holds the position of SA
Numeracy Chair at Wits focused on a 5-year research and development
project in primary mathematics. Her work in South Africa has been
in the areas of Mathematical Literacy and Primary Mathematics
teaching and learning. The Numeracy Chair work involves research,
and the development and trialling research-based interventions
across ten government primary schools in one Gauteng district. The
project runs from 2011-15. Prior to this, Hamsa was based in London
for many years, working initially as a high school mathematics
teacher in London comprehensive schools, before moving into teacher
education at the Institute of Education and research in mathematics
education at Kings College. She obtained her PhD at Kings College
London and is the winner of the 2005 British Educational Research
Association dissertation award for making the most significant
doctoral contribution to research in education in 2004.
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- Thank you