Unit standard based learning material Guidelines · Web viewISETT SETA aims to help Learning material developers to develop material that is Unit Standard Based in order to help providers

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UNIT STANDARD BASED LEARNING UNIT STANDARD BASED LEARNING

MATERIAL MATERIAL

DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINESDEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

- DRAFT 1 -(Version 1)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 The National Qualifications Framework

3 Why has South Africa chosen a National Qualifications Framework

4 A Brief History of The NQF

5 The Objectives of The NQF

6 Relationship Between The NQF an Outcomes-based Education

7 Critical Outcomes

8 NQF Qualifications

9 How does SAQA ensure quality across the NQF

10 Competency

11 Assessment

12 Guidelines for Material Development

13 ISETT SETA Listing


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UNIT STANDARD BASED LEARNING MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

1. INTRODUCTION

ISETT SETA is a statutory public entity established in terms of the Skills Development Act of 1998. ISETT SETA in an Authority in promotion of Skills development and knowledge in the ICT sector.

The ICT sector comprises of Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunication Technologies. This sector is an ever-changing sector with rapid technological changers taking place at a pace at witch normal or traditional development of learning material may take a long time and not be affective the process of learning in ICT timing is important as there material may be out-dated even before being used.

South Africa is shifting from traditional approaches to training and focusing on out-comes based learning and training. This takes into account skills and knowledge learnt in any environment or situation. This requires that training and learning material be changed from classroom focused to suit any learning environment. It is for this reason that ISETT SETA gets involved in the process.

ISETT SETA aims to help Learning material developers to develop material that is Unit Standard Based in order to help providers and training institutions acquire Learning material ready for use ( Off the shelf product) as this will help in facilitating their accreditation by the SETA.

2. THE NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK

In order to understand the reasons for developing Unit Standard based learning material it is necessary to understand the development around education and qualifications in South Africa today and to do that we have to start at understanding what The National Qualification Framework is.

NQF is a framework i.e. it sets the boundaries - a set of principles and guidelines which provide a vision, a philosophical base and an organisational structure - for construction, in this case, of a qualifications system. Detailed development and implementation is carried out within these boundaries. It is national because it is a national resource, representing a national effort at integrating education and training into a unified structure of recognised qualifications. It is a framework of qualifications i.e. records of learner achievement.

In short, the NQF is the set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages life-long learning.


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3. WHY HAS SOUTH AFRICA CHOSEN A NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK?

In 1994 the international community witnessed the birth of a new democracy and welcomed the new South Africa as the most recent member of its global village. In accepting that honor, this country took on the associated challenges of that position.

Many countries all over the world are looking for better ways of educating their people and organising their education and training systems so that they might gain the edge in an increasingly competitive economic global environment. Furthermore, the world is an ever-changing place, politically, geographically and technologically. Indeed, the rapid technological advances of the twentieth century have placed education systems under extreme pressure as they try to adapt and incorporate these changes in an effort to produce more creative, effective and adaptable people. Success, or even survival, in such a world demands that South Africa should have a national education and training system that provides quality learning, is responsive to the ever-changing influences of the external environment and promotes the development of a nation that is committed to life-long learning.

When learners know that there are clear learning pathways which provide access to, and mobility and progression within education, training and career paths, they are more inclined to improve their skills and knowledge, as such improvements increase their employment opportunities. The increased skills base of the workforce has a wider implication namely the enhancement of the functional and intellectual capability of the nation, thereby increasing our chances for success in the global community.

Sir Christopher Ball (1996) in describing the kind of learner profile that is suited to the 21st century spoke about ‘flexible generalists’. Ball maintained that such people are needed to realise the goal of life-long learning which, with the ever-increasing human longevity, will characterise the successful citizenry of the next millennium. ‘Flexible generalists’ are people equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to adjust readily to multiple career changes and make, through their own personal development, a significant contribution to the life of this country and the world. The shift in thinking is from education for employment – developing the ability to do a specific job - to education for employability – developing the ability to adapt acquired skills to new working environments. The new education and training system must be able to support the notion of an adaptable workforce.

4. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NQF

The NQF traces its origins back to the labour movement of the early 1970s. From the early 1970s, black trade union demands for a living wage were repeatedly rejected by employers, on the grounds that workers were unskilled and therefore their demands were unjustified. This in turn led to black workers seeing training as a means to achieving their demands for better wages.


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The struggle to persuade employers to accede to worker demands continued into the 1980s and in 1989 the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), established a research group comprising workers and union officials, to formulate recommendations on training.

On the assumption that skills development would lead to better wages, an integrated proposal was formulated, based on a staged improvement in skills, linked to grading increments. The proposal stressed the need not only for basic education, without which workers would not be able to access the proposed system, but also for portability and national recognition of training so that workers would not be at the mercy of a single employer. The proposal was formally adopted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in July 1991.

The mid-1970s also witnessed a demand for change in education, spearheaded by the non-governmental education sector. Protest was epitomised in the Soweto student uprising of 1976, which was followed by nation-wide student protest. By the 1980s the entire education system had been discredited and rejected. Non-governmental education sector resistance resulted eventually in the formation of the National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI), which set about developing proposals for the restructuring of the formal education system. Drawing on discussions with a wide range of interested parties within the democratic alliance, the NEPI reports and framework, published in 1992, were premised upon the principles of non-racism, non-sexism, democracy and redress, and the need for a non-racial unitary system of education and training. COSATU was closely involved with the NEPI process – an alliance which continued through the period leading to the democratic elections of 1994.

Despite repeated resistance to worker and student demands for change, the government of the day came increasingly to appreciate the inappropriateness, and ultimately the unsustainability, of its rejection of such demands. The announcement by President de Klerk in 1990 of the government’s intention to dismantle apartheid gave added impetus to, and was symptomatic of, the change of policy towards worker and student demands. The Department of Manpower, through the National Training Board (NTB), embarked as far back as the 1980s upon a number of initiatives, notably the restructuring of the apprenticeship system into a competency-based modular training system run by autonomous industry training boards. However unions viewed the process as flawed, not only because it excluded workers, but also because the proposals emanating from the initiatives were narrowly focused on apprenticeship to the exclusion of basic education, which was seen as a point of access to the skills training. After an extended conflictual relationship, the Department of Manpower and the trade union federations reconvened in 1992 in an attempt to renew the process.

The Department of Education simultaneously initiated its own process of policy discussion, which culminated in the Education Renewal Strategy (ERS). The democratic alliance within the education sector was invited to participate in the process, but declined the invitation on the grounds that the initiative lacked legitimacy. Furthermore the ERS advocated three streams – academic, vocational, and vocationally-oriented – a system the democratic alliance found unpalatable.


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The education employer sector did, however, participate in the process, advocating a seamless framework similar to that adopted by Scotland and New Zealand.

The 1992 meeting of the Department of Manpower and the trade union federations resulted in the formation of a representative Task Team, which established eight working groups charged with developing a new national training strategy.

The working groups had representation from trade unions, employers, the State, providers of education and training, the ANC Education Department, and the democratic alliance. Working Group 2 reached agreement on a new integrated framework. 1994 saw the publication of three documents which laid the foundation for the SAQA Act (RSA, 1995): the ANC Policy Framework for Education and Training (1994); the Discussion Document on a National Training Strategy Initiative (1994); and the CEPD Implementation Plan for Education and Training (1994). White papers on Education and Training (1995) and on Reconstruction and Development (1994) followed, both of which underscored the need for the development and implementation of the NQF.

An Inter-Ministerial Working Group was established to draft the NQF Bill which was passed into law as the South African Qualifications Authority Act (No. 58 of 1995) on 4 October 1995. The appointments to the first Authority were made in May 1996 and the first meeting of the Authority under the chairmanship of Mr S B A Isaacs, was held in August 1996.

5. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NQF

The objectives of the NQF as outlined in the SAQA Act are as follows:

To create an integrated national framework for learning achievements; Facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within education, training and

career paths; Enhance the quality of education and training; Accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and

employment opportunities; Contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and

economic development of the nation at large.

6. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NQF AND OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION

Qualifications and standards registered on the NQF are described in terms of the learning outcomes that the qualifying learner is expected to have demonstrated. Hence there is an underlying commitment to a system of education and training that is organised around the notion of learning outcomes.


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Of the criticisms of the past system of education in South Africa was that certain institutions were privileged above others because of the policy of unequal allocation of resources to learning institutions, based on race. In addition, as a result of this financial discrimination, the perception grew that the standard of provision at these institutions was superior to that of other institutions. Consequently, students from these institutions were granted preferential treatment in access to further education opportunities and in the labour market. In other words, where the qualification was obtained was more important than what qualifying students actually knew and could do. In addition to problems of access, there was the problem of portability in that institutions arbitrarily chose to recognise or not to recognise qualifications achieved at other institutions; employers actively sought graduates from certain institutions and ignored graduates from other institutions.

The impact of such practice on the economic and social fabric of our society is self-evident. There is hence an historical imperative in the fragmentation of our society, to focus on what it is that a learner knows and can do rather than where the learner did his or her studying. It is necessary to address the inappropriate social use of qualifications that has been part of our history.

A further pressing imperative to base our NQF on outcomes has emerged from global trends and discussions. Ronald Barnett’s discussion of competence in higher education epitomises the kinds of transition that are taking place in education and training systems the world over:

The new vocabulary in higher education is a sign that modern society is reaching for other definitions of knowledge and reasoning. Notions of skill, vocationalism, transferability, competence, outcomes, experiential learning capability and enterprise, when taken together, are indications that traditional definitions of knowledge are felt to be inadequate for meeting the systems-wide problems faced by contemporary society.

Whereas those traditional definitions of knowledge have emphasised language, especially through writing, an open process of communication, and formal and discipline-bound conventions, the new terminology urges higher education to allow the term knowledge to embrace knowledge-through-action, particular outcomes of a learning transaction, and transdisciplinary forms of skill (Barnett, 1994: 71)

If South Africa is to take up its position in the global village, it needs to embrace the new vocabulary of which Barnett speaks: competence and outcomes. Countries in Europe, the Pacific Rim, Australasia, and North America have either adopted or moved in the direction of a national qualifications framework, underwritten by a commitment to outcomes-based education. South Africa cannot afford to ignore these developments. The South African NQF with its emphasis on the notion of applied competence – the ability to put into practice in the relevant context the learning outcomes acquired in obtaining a qualification - is already contributing to these debates and developments.

Associated with the recognition that knowledge needs redefinition is the recognition that sites of learning are many and varied.


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The traditional definitions of knowledge have implicitly designated formal institutions of learning as the primary site of learning. This perception has been re-enforced by the fact that in most instances, a qualification is awarded by an institution, before any further learning in a practical environment is obtained by the learner. In other words, the sub-text is that once the qualification has been awarded, learning is over - and unless a learner registers for a new, formal qualification, learning for life is over! This bias towards qualification-as-destination is at odds with reality and also with what the White Paper on Education and Training (1995: 15) identifies as the education and training requirement of a successful economy and society:

Successful modern economies and societies require the elimination of artificial hierarchies, in social organisation, in the organisation and management of work, and in the way in which learning is organised and certified.

They require citizens with a strong foundation of general education, the desire and ability to continue to learn, to adapt to and develop new knowledge, skills and technologies, to move flexibly between occupations, to take responsibility for personal performance, to set and achieve high standards, and to work co-operatively.

If one accepts that there is more than one dimension to knowledge and hence that learning continues both before and after a qualification has been awarded in a variety of sites of learning, then in order to achieve integration and coherence within the system so that access and portability can become a reality, it is necessary to clearly articulate the outcomes of learning achievements.

Finally the South African Qualifications Act (No. 58 of 1995) indicates that one of the functions of the South African Qualifications Authority is to ensure that standards and qualifications registered on the NQF are internationally comparable. Since the global trend is moving towards describing qualifications in terms of achieved learning outcomes, articulation of South African qualifications with their international counterparts is facilitated if our qualifications are described in terms of the learning outcomes.

The NQF with its commitment to outcomes-based education and training is the means that South Africa has chosen to bring about systemic change in the nature of the education and training system. This systemic change is intended to transform the manner in which the education and training system works as a system, how it is organised and the vision that drives participants within the system as they perform their own particular roles and functions within that system.

7. CRITICAL OUTCOMES

The Critical Cross-field Education and Training Outcomes, commonly known as the Critical Outcomes, are an additional mechanism through which coherence is achieved in the framework.


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These Critical Outcomes describe the qualities which the NQF identifies for development in students within the education and training system, regardless of the specific area or content of learning i.e. those outcomes that are deemed critical for the development of the capacity for life-long learning. These outcomes are intended to direct the thinking of policy makers, curriculum designers, and facilitators of learning as well as the learners themselves.

It is mandatory for standards setters to incorporate at least some of the Critical Outcomes in the standards that they recommend and proposers of qualifications must ensure that all Critical Outcomes have been addressed appropriately at the level concerned within the qualifications being proposed.

The Critical Outcomes adopted by SAQA are as follows:

Identify and solve problems in which responses display that responsible decisions using critical and creative thinking have been made;

Work effectively with others as a member of a team, group, organisation, community;

Organise and manage oneself and one’s activities responsibly and effectively; Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information; Communicate effectively using visual, mathematical and/or language skills in the

modes of oral and/or written presentation; Use science and technology effectively and critically, showing responsibility

towards the environment and health of others; Demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by

recognising that problem-solving contexts do not exist in isolation;

In order to contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and economic development of the society at large, it must be the intention underlying any programme of learning to make an individual aware of the importance of:

Reflecting on and exploring a variety of strategies to learn more effectively; Participating as responsible citizens in the life of local, national and global

communities; Being culturally and aesthetically sensitive across a range of social contexts; Exploring education and career opportunities, and Developing entrepreneurial opportunities.

8. NQF QUALIFICATIONS

The NSB regulations indicate that a qualification shall:

Represent a planned combination of learning outcomes which has a defined purpose and which is intended to provide qualifying learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning;


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Add value to the qualifying learner by providing status, recognition, enhancing marketability and employability;

Provide benefits to society and the economy; Comply with the objectives of the NQF; Include both specific and critical cross-field outcomes that promote life-long

learning; Where applicable, be internationally comparable; Incorporate integrated assessment appropriately to ensure that the purpose of the

qualification is achieved. Assessment should include a range of formative and summative assessment methods such as portfolios, simulations, workplace assessments and also written and oral examinations;

Indicate in the rules governing the award of the qualification that the qualification may be achieved in whole or in part through the recognition of prior learning, which concept includes but is not limited to learning outcomes achieved through formal, informal and non-formal learning and work experience.

There is provision in the regulations for the registration of qualifications constructed from unit standards as well as the registration of whole qualifications, not constructed from unit standards. Unit standard means registered statements of desired education and training outcomes and their associated assessment criteria together with administrative and other information as specified in the regulations.

Both formats of qualification structure however require the specification of learning outcomes, the latter format requiring the articulation of exit level outcomes and associated assessment criteria.

There is much debate about the ability or desirability of reaching agreement on learning outcomes at a national level, and furthermore, about describing learning outcomes in the form of applied competence standards. SAQA has placed the requirement for participation in national stakeholder processes only for those qualifications and standards that are to be registered on the NQF – national recognition requires acceptance by national stakeholders. Furthermore constructors of qualifications and standards can choose to be rigid or choose to be flexible in the construction of the qualifications and standards, allowing for choice or not. The strength of the NQF processes is that representatives of all key stakeholders in the learning area and not just a select few will make those decisions. Furthermore, through the required process of review all qualifications and standards must be reviewed regularly to ensure that the agreed criteria and requirements are feasible, relevant and desirable. If there is agreement that changes are necessary, there is ample opportunity for those changes to be adopted.

A more complex issue is raised by the notion of learning outcomes and competence standards. Some people raise the problem that the learning outcomes of certain qualifications and standards can relatively easily be described by in the form of competence standards e.g. the draft standards for Engineering qualifications. However, in the case of other qualifications, this is more difficult because the learning outcomes are less obvious or less precise.


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Any effort to try and establish national agreement will result in a loss of creativity and originality when in fact, it is that very creativity and originality that gives them value. SAQA is of the opinion that the description of a NQF qualification addresses this question i.e. a qualification shall represent a planned combination of learning outcomes which has a defined purpose and which is intended to provide qualifying learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning.

In describing the purpose of qualification, standards setters will have to give consideration as to what the purpose of the qualification is and how it contributes to the learner’s development and further learning.

Furthermore the notion of applied competence suggests a broadening of the notions of knowledge usually associated with outcomes and competence models. Applied competence suggests that foundational competence, practical competence and reflexive competence are all necessary for the meaningful accomplishment of a task in any real world context. Foundational competence is described as an understanding of what is being done and why. Practical competence is described as a demonstrated ability to do a particular thing. Reflexive competence is described as a demonstrated ability to integrate or connect performance with the understanding of that performance so as to learn from the actions and adapt to change and unforeseen circumstances.

Hence the challenge for standards setters is the attainment of a balance between society’s needs and the needs of the individual; the development of learning outcomes that are precise enough to indicate the purpose of the qualification but general enough to permit flexibility in delivery, choice of content, assessment methodology; a balance between the need for practical competence and the need for foundational and reflexive competence; the adoption of qualification construction, possibly through electives, that encourages creativity, originality and experimentation without jeopardising the primary purpose of the qualification.

Qualifications and standards are registered at specific levels of the framework and have a credit value. Learners, in the course of study, may accumulate credits over time towards a qualification.

9. HOW DOES SAQA ENSURE QUALITY ACROSS THE NQF?

The objectives of the NQF underpin the notion of quality in the new system. Moreover the NQF supports a comprehensive quality cycle which includes standards setting and quality assurance. Every standard and qualification before being registered on the NQF is measured against the principles enunciated in the objectives of the NQF, to ensure that it meets the criteria for an integrated qualifications framework that supports life-long learning. In the same way, the foundation for national and international assurance of achievement of these standards rests upon the way in which they reflect these same principles and objectives.


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By bringing these principles together in the social construction process, the standards developed through the participatory and representative structures and processes of the NSBs and SGBs and then registered on the framework, will have their delivery and achievement assured, for all users of the learning system through the ETQA system. This system in turn, reflects participatory and representative structures and processes. It is in assuring the quality of both the standards and achievements that the quality cycle of the framework is closed. It is through closing the cycle that the system allows ongoing improvements both in the construction of standards and qualifications and in the delivery and assessment of these standards and qualifications, by the users of those standards and qualifications. In other words, the NQF is a system of assuring and continually re-assuring learners and other users of the education and training system that credits, awards or certificates issued during the learning process adhere to the standard registered on the framework, and that all forms of provision deliver learning to the same standards for accreditation purposes. The inclusive nature of the quality cycle ensures that the responsibility for setting standards and for delivery of quality education and training rests with the education and training stakeholders who participate in the SAQA processes.

10. COMPETENCY

Competency is defined in terms of what a person is required to do (performance), under what conditions it is done and how well it is done (Standard) It is more than just a description of work, task or activity. It encompasses measures of competency, addresses the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for a person to perform a task to a required standard

11. ASSESSMENT

The assessment process is used to determine the competency of learner and is divided into two types viz Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a process, is generally continuous and describes development of a leaner during training.

Summative Assessment

It is the final assessment of a learner and describes the competence of the learner at the end of learning program.


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12. GUIDELINES FOR LEARNING MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

Learning material should:

Learner Material

Show the relevant unit standard/s that it covers by chapter and or section. Be aligned to Outcomes of Unit standards.

Program outcomes

Facilitator Guide

Assessment techniques that will be used for both Formative and Summative assessments.

13. ISETT SETA LISTING

The SETA undertakes to list on its Web site all material that is Unit Standard Aligned.

Material developers may use the ISETT SETA log as approved learning material suppliers.

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Documents

Unit standard based learning material Guidelines · Web viewISETT SETA aims to help Learning material developers to develop material that is Unit Standard Based in order to help providers