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Report on the Implementation Evaluation of the National Curriculum Statement Grade R to 12 Focusing on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) Full Report
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... Large-scale studies to be discussed below have found that teachers struggle to implement the curriculum in the manner specified by the guidelines (DBE, 2015; Taylor, Van der Berg, & Mabogoane, 2013). Taylor (2017) reported that officials do not seem to be accountable for lack of school functionality, an issue to which we will return in the section below. ...
... The literacy component for the FP (Grades R-3) covers various aspects of early or emergent reading skills such as decoding, comprehension, vocabulary development and fluency (DBE, 2011a). Although the ANA tests attempt to cover both decoding and comprehension, they fail to provide benchmarked norms or standards against which to measure reading speed or vocabulary knowledge (Taylor, 2017). This is essential for teachers to be able to measure children's progress in literacy development in both the HLs and FALs. ...
... Literacy findings from these studies will be discussed in Section 4. Findings on issues arising from the broader educational context which impact learner and teacher performance will be presented here. The studies include the National School Effectiveness Study (Taylor et al., 2013); the Evaluation of Literacy Teaching in Primary Schools in Limpopo Province (Reeves, Prinsloo, & Heugh, 2008); the Report of the NEEDU (2012) and the Implementation Evaluation of the National Curriculum Statement Grade R to 12 focusing on the CAPS (Taylor, 2017). ...
South Africa's history of segregation and the privileging of English and Afrikaans as the only languages of teaching and learning beyond primary schooling, make the post-apartheid period a complex one, especially in light of the Constitutional commitment to multilingualism in the 11 official languages. Research on literacy and language teaching contextualises the impact of curriculum and language policy initiatives aimed at improving learner performance. We review research concerning the transition from the study of first additional language (FAL) as subject, to the use of FAL as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Also considered are major studies on learner performance nationally and South Africa's comparability globally. The impact of home language (HL) literacy development on performance in English as the LoLT links to research on language development in teacher education programmes, and shows connections between the capacity of teachers to develop languages for literacy and LoLT and learner success. Research on the development of early childhood literacy in the HL demonstrates the positive impact on literacy development in the LoLT.
... The latest Progress in Reading Literacy Study test (PIRLS)) showed that 78% of Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in any language (Howie et al. 2017). Large scale research in South Africa has identified various factors contributing to these poor outcomes, including lack of knowledge of the language of the text, lack of ability to decode the text and vocabulary size (Spaull, Pretorius, and Mohohlwane 2020), poor teacher content and pedagogical knowledge (Hoadley 2012;, inadequate curriculum coverage (Fleisch 2008;Taylor 2011;Shiora 2019); lack of parental involvement in their children's education and lack of focus on reading teaching in training courses (Taylor 2014(Taylor , 2017. ...
This article examines the visibility of an African language, isiZulu, in the public domain of education in South Africa. It explores synergies and disjunctures in language use and exposure for children across the continuum from home to ECD centre and early primary school, and how they affect children’s competence in reading in two languages by Grade 4. Our qualitative cross-sectional study finds isiZulu is visible in the homes, communities and at each grade level, along with other African languages; but use of, and exposure to, these African languages varies widely. In most homes, while storytelling is common, little reading is done; educational settings, in contrast, are print-rich environments, displaying isiZulu and English and making English highly visible very early on. Teaching of reading in both languages is done at a very slow pace, using restrictive pedagogies, and with little continuity across Grades, but enables Grades 3 and 4 children to read simple, connected text in both isiZulu and English. The article calls for language appropriate, specialised reading teaching that strengthens learners’ language and reading development bilingually, and increases and consolidates the visibility of the African language in the curriculum.
For several decades, English had enjoyed high esteem as the language of education in various higher education institutions in South Africa. The dawn of democracy paved ways for previously marginalised indigenous African languages to be utilised in teaching and learning in South African education system. Underpinned by Krashen's theory of second language acquisition, thisarticle sought to examine students' experiences on using English second language for knowledge acquisition at a rural based university. The article employed qualitative research method to purposively select twelve first-year students to solicit their experiences, views, and opinions regarding the research problem and objective. Data collected through unstructured interviews were analysed through thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that first-year students had difficulties with grammar, words pronunciation, expression, comprehension of module contents, and interferences of first language when using English second language for teaching and learning purposes.This translated to poor academic performance, inactive participation, and high failure rate among first-yearstudentsat rural based universities. To deal with these inadequacies the article recommended for the rural based universities to strongly enforce various academic and student support programmes to assist First-year students to swiftly adjust to the university standards for teaching and learning.
Trust and accountability are often positioned as opposites, the argument being that accountability is based on distrust and correction of identified deficiencies. Yet, trust is also important in order for accountability to lead to improvement; only when teachers and principals are open about the quality of their teaching and their school can there be a meaningful discussion about change. How can we overcome this dilemma? This paper will address the inextricable interaction between trust and accountability, presenting examples from a study in South Africa of how external control in a setting of distrust can undermine agency and improvement, and how high levels of trust can promote more effective accountability relationships. Our study provides relevant insights into why some education systems are unable to generate, evaluate and scale innovations in learning when a lack of trust and capacity leads to strong opposition to external accountability, and when strong bureaucratic accountability creates further inefficiencies in pressurizing educators across the education system to report and monitor on various aspects of education where these efforts do not actually improve the quality of teaching in the classroom or provide information on good practices.
Since 2011, the Department of Basic Education (DBE), has provided all Grade 1 to 6 learners in public schools with literacy/language, numeracy/mathematics and life skills workbooks. This study provides an assessment of the purpose to which the workbooks are best suited by analysing the Grade 3 Mathematics and Home Language English workbooks for 2015 in the light of the DBE’s intentions for the workbooks. The study considers alignment of the workbooks with the official national curriculum, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy (CAPS), as well as ‘conceptual signalling’ and progression in the content of the workbooks. We then evaluate the kind of ‘curriculum tool’ the workbooks in their current format conform to. We explore three possibilities in the light of the DBE’s proposals for the workbook use: a practice tool; an assessment tool; and a monitoring tool. We also reflect on the workbooks as a teaching tool. Our analysis suggests that, in line with the DBE’s intended purpose for the workbooks, that the workbooks best represent a practice curriculum tool. We highlight the significance of the high level of curriculum compliance of the workbook, and indicate that this would render them an effective monitoring tool for assessing the quantitative coverage of the curriculum at a systemic level.
There is much concern in South Africa about the low levels of mathematics achievement amongst learners. Aligned to this issue is that of mathematics teachers' proficiency in mathematics. The purpose of this study was to explore mathematics teachers' proficiency in the mathematics that they teach. A sample of 253 teachers' responses to a shortened Grade 12 examination was analysed using the Rasch model. When the teachers' proficiency and item location are represented on one scale, as is the case in Rasch measurement theory, it is expected that the teachers should be located beyond the difficulty level of the items as they teach the content to their learners. However, in this study, the teachers' proficiency was located close to the mean of the item locations. Furthermore, the levels of almost one-third of the group were below that of all the Level 3 and Level 4 items in the test. If such a result holds across other groups of teachers, it may explain why higher levels of passes in mathematics are not achieved. A second aim of this study was to illustrate how the application of the Rasch model can be used to contribute to a more informative and fair assessment. In line with Rasch measurement theory, the test was subjected to various analyses and the results were used to improve the fit of the items and the test.
This article reports the findings of a review of classroom-based studies in order to discern what the existing knowledge base around teaching and learning is in South African primary schools. Educational research on classrooms has been criticised on a number of grounds, including the fact that it is generally small-scale, qualitative and that it lacks methodological rigour. Although these criticisms would appear to be valid, and there certainly are methodological limitations to the majority of these studies, this article highlights two strengths of the literature when viewed cumulatively. The first is that there is a remarkable consistency across studies regarding what is going on (and generally going wrong) in classrooms. The second is that the research has recently begun to identify very specific features or dimensions of classroom practice, which appear to affect student learning. In other words, the research has moved a long way from broad characterisations, such as ‘learner-centred’ and ‘teacher-centred’, to produce interesting insights on particular aspects of classroom life. In this way, a comprehensive picture of classroom life emerges. The article also points out some of the limitations to existing knowledge and suggests plausible directions suggested by the literature – including attention to appropriate research methodologies and a focus on educational knowledge.
In this paper I share some key principles and examples from the Data Informed Practice Improvement Project. The project develops an innovative model of mathematics teacher development, with three main strands: teachers work with data from their classrooms, they use this data to understand and engage with learner errors in mathematics, and they do this collectively in professional learning communities, with facilitation from members of the project team. I describe each of these strands and present three examples that show how the strands work together to support teacher learning in professional communities. These examples illuminate a key achievement of the project: a focus on learner errors in professional learning communities can develop powerful conceptual knowledge of mathematics among teachers at the same time as developing teachers’ knowledge for teaching and teaching practices.
This article documents perceptions of superintendents and principals when working under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2004–06. It uses data collected through the Voices 3 Project to consider three factors associated with instructional leadership as applied under NCLB, defining the school's mission, managing the instructional program, and promoting a positive school learning climate. Findings include that the narrowness of the curriculum objectives, the top-down hierarchical nature of decision making in the system, and the pervasively negative and punitive environment impact on the work of instructional leaders. The article argues that new approaches and leadership models are needed.
This study illuminates claims that teachers' mathematical knowledge plays an important role in their teaching of this subject matter. In particular, we focus on teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT), which includes both the mathematical knowledge that is common to individuals working in diverse professions and the mathematical knowledge that is specialized to teaching. We use a series of five case studies and associated quantitative data to detail how MKT is associated with the mathematical quality of instruction. Although there is a significant, strong, and positive association between levels of MKT and the mathematical quality of instruction, we also find that there are a number of important factors that mediate this relationship, either supporting or hindering teachers' use of knowledge in practice.
This chapter explores the relationship between accountability and school leadership. The argument is as follows: accountability systems work to the degree that they engage the knowledge, skill, and commitment of people who work in schools. The success of accountability policy depends on the development of what the author calls the practice of improvement – explicit strategies for developing and deploying knowledge and skill in schools. Accountability tends to lead to an underinvestment in knowledge and skill, and an overinvestment in testing and regulatory control. Correcting this distortion requires changing the relationship between policy and practice, particularly around the definition and development of leadership. The author develops a model of school leadership practice consistent with his proposed theory of accountability. He reviews ways in which policies might be used to increase leadership capacity for school improvement. Accountability policy will not increase school performance unless there is substantial investment in developing human capital focused on school improvement.
Available developing country enrolment ratios are frequently inaccurate. This results in poorly informed policy discourses. Underlying data problems can undermine funding systems. The magnitude of the problem is described, partly through reference to UNESCO and UNICEF ratios. Steps for remedying the situation within one country are proposed, on the basis of an existing South African study, and some new data analysis of South African, Brazilian, and international data. Remedies must be sensitive to local contexts, but proposed techniques for detecting fraud in the enrolment microdata, and comparing age structures across different datasets, seem relevant for different contexts.
There is consensus in the international mathematics teacher education literature that teachers should, at
the most basic level, have mastery of the content knowledge they are required to teach. In this paper we
test this assumption empirically by analyzing the South African SACMEQ 2007 mathematics teacher test
data which tested 401 grade 6 mathematics teachers from a nationally representative sample of primary
schools. With items matched to curriculum grade bands, findings indicate that 79% of grade 6
mathematics teachers showed content knowledge levels below the grade 6/7 band, and that the few
teachers with higher-level content knowledge are highly inequitably distributed.