Initial Teacher Education Research Project
Progress Report: Component 1
Presentation to Bridge
24 February 2015
Training budget and actual spending in 2013/14 PROVINCE BUDGET
FOR 2013/14 SPEND: EMPL
SPEND: UNEMPL
TOTAL PROP SPENT
EC R168, 7 R48, 2 R44, 7 R92, 9 55%
FS R66, 7 R5, 2 R26, 7 R31, 8 48%
GP R212, 5 R93, 3 R0 R93, 3 44%
KZN R227, 7 R11, 1 R32, 0 R43, 1 19%
LP R155, 1 R9, 5 R40, 5 R50, 0 32%
MP R96, 4 R33, 7 R0 R33, 7 35%
NW R73, 8 R47, 1 R686, 2 R47, 8 65%
NC R26, 7 R22, 5 R3, 5 R26,0 97%
WC R89, 6 R53, 3 R3, 8 R57, 0 64%
Total R1, 117, 1 R323, 8 R152,0 R475, 6 43% 2
INSET: What have we learnt?
• We all know about programmes that enthuse teachers
• We have experience of programmes that have managed to get teachers to behave differently in class
• But this is always on a small scale: 5 schools or so
• And we don’t follow up to see how sustainable the impact is
• Does anyone know of a programme that has had a measureable impact on learning??
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How can we learn more?
STEP 1: Start with all research on the topic in question.
STEP 2: Plan the programme and try it out first with a few schools.
STEP 3: Keep measuring the effects, and adjust accordingly, until impact is noticeable.
STEP 4: When you get impact in a few schools, try it at scale. Repeat the above steps.
STEP 5: Make the results public.
In this regard, negative results, which are the only ones we have so far, are very valuable lessons, because they tell everyone not to waste more time, money and effort on that particular brick wall.
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STEP 6: Don’t paint yourself into a corner by launching programmes with public, triumphalist fanfare.
Don’t make short term political horizons your benchmark: adopt a modest, scientific, research-oriented, impact-approach to INSET.
Realisation: yes we can get impact, but the effects are out of all proportion to the benefits
STEP 7: Realisation: certain kinds of INSET are necessary (eg assisting teachers to use workbooks and ANA)
But if we are to bring about a quantum leap in the quality of schooling, we need to improve the quality of ITE
Set a 30 year timeline for doing this. Speed it up by giving older, less effective teachers packages
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ITE as an integral part of the School System
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Learners exiting schools
Initial Teacher Education
Conditions in schools
1. Low levels of English proficiency among both teachers and learners → fundamental limit on academic progress, since English is the LOLT in 90% of schools.
2. Lack of adequate reading pedagogies → large numbers of learners reaching Grade 5 essentially illiterate.
3. Lack of adequate pedagogies for basic numeracy → in Grade 7 learners continue to use ‘stick counting’ methods to perform arithmetic operations.
4. Low levels of subject knowledge among teachers.
5. Schools tend not to recruit and deploy primary school teachers according to subject specialisation → most primary school teachers will be required to teach maths and English.
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Four Components of ITERP
1. ITE programmes on 5 HEIs – this report
2. Case studies of NQTs from 5 HEIs in first two years of teaching, including testing content and pedagogical knowledge
3. Survey of all final year BEd students in 2013, tracking them into the workplace for 2 years
4. Debate - Is ITE meeting schooling needs?
- How can it be improved?
- From WITHIN the sector
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What range of practices exists to prepare teachers to teach in SA schools?
Component I: Case studies on 5 campuses
Criteria for selecting the five HEIs
History, location, demography, size, delivery mode
Broad overview of ITE programmes
• Design, conceptual coherence
Analysis of Teaching Practice instruments*
• Conception of the teacher and good teaching
The intended and assessed curricula
• Maths* and English* courses for student teachers specialising in IP * Three Reports + Progress Report available at www.jet.org.za
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Maths courses for IP BEd maths specialists
HEI Student
numbers
Entrance
Requirements
Maths
Credits
% total
credits
A 20 (30%) 65% for 1st year
compulsory maths 100 21%
B 60 (33%) M 50%
ML not allowed 128 25%
C 100-200
(±10%) Pass (30%) in M or ML 108 23%
D 150 (17%) M 40% or 50%
120 24%
E 10-60 (10-
50%)
M 40% & test
ML 60% & test 64 13%
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Maths courses for non-maths specialists
Institution Student
numbers Maths credits
% of total
credits
A 50-80 40 8%
B 120 16 3%
C 1600 12 2.5%
D 750 68 (ML) 13%
E 50-80 19 (+30 opt) 4% (7% if opt)
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Questions about Maths
Shouldn’t ALL IP teachers be competent to teach Maths?
Shouldn’t specialist Maths teachers spend more time on their specialisation?
What should the content of these courses be?
What kind of cognitive skills should the courses develop?
Entrance criteria? 12
IP courses for BEd IP English Specialists A B C D E
Academic
Literacy
1 year
course:
New Lits
for
Teachers
2 Semesters:
Academic
and
Computer
Literacy
No AL, but
some
attention to it
in Level 2 Eng
modules
2
semesters:
Academic
Literacy
2 year long
courses: Academic
Literacy
Subject
Knowledge
4 year
courses:
Eng Lang
and Lit
6 semesters:
Eng Lang and
Lit 1 - 3
5 semesters:
Eng Lang and
Lit
6
semesters:
Eng Lang
and Lit
4 year-long
courses: Eng Lang
and Lit
School and
Pedagogic
Knowledge
2 year
courses:
Language
Method 1
and 2
2 semesters:
Eng as
Medium of
Instruction.
4 semesters:
Eng Method
2 semesters:
Language
Method (one
semester HL
and one
semester FAL)
2
semesters:
English
Method
(FAL)
HL: 4 year- long
courses: Eng
Method
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English courses for non-specialists in English
Knowledge A B C D E
Academic
Literacy
1 year
course: New
Literacies
for Teachers
2 semesters:
Academic &
Comp Lit: 1 for
all students + 1
for weak readers
No Academic
Literacy
courses
2
semesters:
Academic
Literacy
2 year courses:
Academic Literacy
Subject
Knowledge
None None 2 semesters:
One for Eng
Lang; one for
Eng Lit
None HL 2 year courses:
Eng Lang & Lit
FAL 2 year courses:
Eng Lang & Lit
School and
Pedagogic
Knowledge
1 year
course:
Language
Method
2 semesters:
English as LOLT
(FAL)
2 semesters:
English
Method HL
and FAL
None HL 2 year courses:
Eng Method
FAL 2 year courses:
Eng Method
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Total credits allocated for English courses (%)
Elective A B C D E
IP English
Specialists
120
(25%)
162
(34%)
72
(15%)
120
(25%)
HL: 72 (15%)
AL: 5 (1%)
IP English
Generalists
30 (6%) 28 (6%) 36
(7.5%)
24 (5%) HL: 28 (6%)
FAL: 29 (6%)
AL: 5 (1%)
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English proficiency for all NQTs
Shouldn’t all students should be required to take some English courses?
• in support of their on-going development as literate teachers
• in order to assist learners in using English to learn the
subjects that they teach MRTEQ:
[A]ll IP teachers must specialise to teach languages (comprising First Additional Language teaching in one of the official languages and First Additional English Language teaching)
Government Gazette, No. 34467, 2011, p.21
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Literature for Children
According to Banks, Leach and Moon ‘school knowledge’ for English includes ‘the school canon of literature including children’s literature’.
Given that IP English specialists will be teaching learners in grade 4-6 who are expected to engage with a range of literary genres
Limited attention to literature for children and adolescents at the five institutions can be questioned
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Reading Pedagogy
In G4 learners should be in transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’.
However, results of PIRLS, SACMEQ, ANA, NEEDU indicate that few learners have learned how to read accurately and fluently by the end of G3
This suggests that inclusion of content on teaching beginner readers how to read, in terms of both decoding and interpreting texts could be useful in a B Ed curriculum for all IP teachers
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Writing
The curriculum expects teachers to guide learners’ development as writers of texts in a range of genres
Only two of the five HEIs offer input on different approaches to teaching writing
Research in schools: learners do very little writing
Several possible reasons for this, but teacher under-preparedness for teaching writing is likely to be one
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Findings
A very wide variation in all dimensions of the curricula examined
There are some excellent practices on each of the HEIs studied
But it can be argued that none of the five institutions studied is rising fully to the challenge, particularly wrt student teachers not specialising in maths or English.
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What next?
A serious discussion among teacher educators in all sub-disciplines, but particularly in English and mathematics: covergence ≠ consensus
• Course design: coherence and directed to school needs
• the proficiencies – subject knowledge and pedagogy – required by teachers
• the curricula to achieve these standards
• how these proficiencies should be assessed
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PO
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REG
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FIELD O
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SCH
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Suggestions for a 5 year programme to strengthen ITE Literacy and Numeracy Education for Primary School Teachers
Funding research into the theory and practice of Literacy and Numeracy
instruction for SA Schools
Adequately funding the teaching practice component of ITE
programmes to ensure greater effectiveness
All newly qualified primary teachers trained to teach numeracy and
literacy
All newly qualified primary teachers graduate competent to use English
as LOLT
Fully –representative teacher education COPs collaborate to research and develop theories and pedagogies of literacy and
numeracy instruction which will inform ITE curriculum construction; lecturer
development, teaching and learning and student
assessment
Strong partnerships are established with schools which are provided with support and
development opportunities that will enable them to support the learning and assessment of ITE
students during Teaching Practice
NQTs certified to teach literacy and numeracy
effectively