Department of Basic Education – Curriculum Changes 2010 and beyond (click to download)

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We were finding it a dull read. I’m not saying it is a dull book, (for those of you who haven’t read it, it isn’t badly written) but I don’t think it was suited to grab the attention of 18 year old boys living in the year 2004. Not only was it a dull read, but the whole classroom environment was dull. We were sitting in a bland classroom that had one lonely poster on the wall which had probably been left behind by the previous inhabitant judging by its faded appearance and dated look.

I almost think my teacher agreed with me as he half-heartedly defended why we were reading the book. There were so many other topics and themes we could be reading about that would engage us, I thought as I drifted off into a daydream and  began developing a vision in my head of a utopian classroom that looked something like this:

Before entering the classroom there is a thought provoking message on the door that changes on a daily basis, perhaps an interesting quote or breathtaking image. Something to set the tone and get some inspiration flowing.  As I enter the room, there is an explosion of colour as creative and interesting posters and murals adorned the walls and ceiling. The carpeted floor requires we leave our shoes at the entrance – one wouldn’t want to get mud on a pristine Persian rug now would you? The teacher, a leggy, blond, former swimsuit model strolls in (remember this an 18 year olds’ fantasy) and tells us she’s got some extremely relevant and interesting books to choose from for our set work. “This one’s about a drug addicts struggle to get clean and be accepted into society, and this one’s about the lives of the teenage children of New York’s rich and successful, purrs Ms McKenzie as she glances over at me and gives me an inviting wink.

Ok, so it’s a pretty far-fetched vision, but I was and still am convinced that if teachers can find more ways of relating to their target market then we’ll see an improvement in interest and therefore results. There is a big gap between teachers and learners, now more-so than ever. The things that interest children and teenagers now are very different to what they were as little as 5 years ago. I believe teachers should embrace this and tap into what makes the youth tick. Embrace technology and social trends and incorporate them into what you teach this generation to whom the words chip, boot, window and apple have completely different meanings to what they did to the previous generation.

Think like a business. You’re a teacher. Your ‘product’ is knowledge. Your ‘target market’ is your learners. In advertising, a business will do whatever it needs to do in order to make it’s product appealing to the target market. So package your knowledge enticingly. Make it colourful, and start thinking like a business.

Here are some more words that have taken on a completely new meaning thanks to technology. Use them in their new context to your class to “wow!” your learners.

In the light of this, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) commissioned a benchmarking study undertaken by the United Kingdom’s National Agency (NARIC), which provides comparison information on international education and qualifications.

The report, published in May 2010, found that ‘the features of the NSC indicate a qualification with an underlying level that is both robust and fit for the purposes of examination senior secondary school levels’ and that ‘[i]n terms of the qualification’s comparability, the report concludes that the National Senior Certificate at Grade 12 is broadly comparable to the GCE A-S level’.

This is certainly good news and has been greeted with a generally positive response. Umalusi (the statutory body which sets and monitors standards for the GET and FET in South Africa ), stated that it is to be welcomed that this report, along with one of their own, reflects ‘positively on the new South African matric qualification’. Professor Crain Soudien, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UCT and Chairman of the IEB, said that he was ‘pleased with the outcome of the evaluation … as it re-assures South Africans that the new National Senior Certificate and its underpinning curriculum are recognized to be of an international standard by a credible organization’.

Not all, however, are convinced. In the first place, it has been pointed out that the report does not necessarily show, as the media release regarding the publication of the report that the NSC ‘shows SA’s National Senior Certificate compares favourably with international standards’: is shows only that it compares with the UK’s GCE A-S level.

Secondly, as one critic pointed out, the report is ‘misleading’ because it implies that it is a good preparation for higher education, whereas in fact the National Benchmarking Test, used by many of South Africa’s universities and universities of technology to assess prospective students, shows that there is no correlation between good marks achieved by candidates for the NSC and the success of students at university.

Thirdly, there was a great deal of scepticism about what happened during the marking process in 2008.  One can have a good standard paper, but if the marking is lenient for ‘cooked’, it can skew the results At the time, I tried to get the then-DoE to respond to some of the queries, but without success.  So I published an article entitled ‘More Questions than Answers’.  Here are some of the unanswered questions:

• The DA claimed that they had been approached by two teachers, one of whom had informed them that colleagues who were marking Maths and Science papers had been told to increase the marks of weaker Matric candidates – for example, boosting marks of 20% to 30% – which is a pass.  Is this true?
• Besides the allegations of boosting marks attained, there were also questions raised about the marking memos which seemed to favour the weaker candidates. For example, it was reported that a candidate who answered a question in History could not, in terms of the marking grid, get 0 – even if he/she had written nonsense. This is not how the official grid works. So how did this happen?  Where was the decision  made— at national, provincial, or marking centre level?  If not national or provincial, are these authorities aware of the decision?
• We were similarly informed by markers in one province that, in English Home Language, a candidate could not get below 6 out of 25 (i.e. 24%) for a setwork essay. This would mean that a candidate only actually had to get 16% in terms of real content to achieve a pass of 40% – (i.e. 6 marks’ worth of sense).  We were  also informed that, when marking the letter in the written work paper, markers were instructed to ignore the format and just mark on content. While content is the key aspect, the format is also important. This is not what the memo says. Is this true?

Many people are also concerned about the adjustments made at Umalusi level. Having experienced the process, I can say that this is misplaced concern, for the following reasons:

• Umalusi is an independent body – it does not answer to the education authorities.
• It operates within parameters (e.g. the range of adjustment that may be may be made).
• Adjustments are made according to previous norms (admittedly not really available for the first round, but there were previous norms that could serve as guidelines).
• The adjustments have been all the years – not just now – for the simple reason that one cannot guarantee that the paper is exactly of the same standard from year to year.
• Downward adjustments are also made.

In the light of the above, one can feel confident that the papers are at least on a par with the British GCE A-S level.  But is this as positive as it seems?  Besides the unanswered queries about the marking, it needs also to be noted that there are critics in the UK who maintain that the British papers have been ‘dumbed down’ – in which case, while we can take comfort that our standards are not rock bottom, we can hardly be proud to that our papers compare favourably with their papers. It is clear that much more research needs to be down before we can boast of our the high standard of our examinations and curriculum.

The latest technology is awaiting eager minds hungry to learn, so what do you teach them?

Most schools decide that the only thing that should be taught in a computer centre is computer related skills. Are there common guidelines for what needs to be taught/covered/acquired by the time a learner graduates to grade 8? Most schools follow their own ’syllabus’, some (at huge expense) pay for programs which very cleverly link the curriculum to computer literacy, and others still are not sure what skills they should be doing at all. What does the Education Department have to say about this?

Judging by the software chosen by the highly successful Khanya project, in the Western Cape, they advocate curriculum development as a priority for the computer centre with a major focus on numeracy and literacy. Gauteng Online follows a similar strategy and are almost at the stage of allowing schools to choose their own curriculum development software.

I had the privilege of meeting with the Head of e-learning for the Eastern Cape (East London District). His main message is: “Computer centres should be used for curriculum development and the computer skills will follow. Where in the curriculum does it ask for a dedicated learning area called ‘Computer Literacy’?”.

Why the debate? Primary schools are spending a lot on dedicated teachers and programs to teach computer literacy – which is a fantastic skill – but then lose out on valuable integration time with the curriculum. Why is this seemingly a waste of resources? The progression from primary to high school – where on the computer skills ladder does the high school need to begin? From the bottom, as there is no set guide/outcomes for the teaching of computer skills. Therefore who knows which primary schools have covered which aspects?

So how should computer centres be utilised to maximise the capital outlay? Well I say for curriculum development (and choose software that adds real value) AND computer skills. There is place for both, it’s an injustice to reserve such a privileged resource for one purpose only. So let computer centres adopt a female gender and multi-task!

Viva Bafana Bafana Viva South Africa!!!

You arrive at the doctor’s surgery, sick as a puppy, half wishing you were already dead just to let the aching stop or at least subside. Has it ever occurred to you that the easing of the pain that you feel even before the doctor sees you, might be because of the atmosphere reigning in that waiting room?

The atmosphere that says to your body and mind: “ you have arrived at the right place, you are already healed”. The smell of antibiotics, charts displaying medicine and the anatomy of body parts, cotton balls, syringes & needles – all assuring you of the competency of this practitioner who is about to take care of you. Well …

Invigilating during the past term assessment period brought all these thoughts and comparisons to me.

At the school where I am teaching, learners do not write in the same venue for all their exams. The exam invigilation, is structured in such a way that learners get to write in different classrooms everyday.  The motive behind this seating plan is to dissuade learners from copying, either from their own notes or notes on desks.  This then also affects us as invigilators. As a teacher, you remain in a colleague’s classroom for two to three hours while invigilating – what an experience!

What I found out in most of the classrooms I invigilated in, left much to be desired. Naked walls, where some have graffiti from the learners, filth messed on floors, chalkboards full of chalk powder and wooden cabinets heavy laden with dust. Old documents and scrap books sprawled on the teacher’s table, and everything that you can think of that injects you with the energy that simply says: “Keep as far out of this classroom as you possibly can”.

That implicit feeling that awkwardly comes to me, coerced me into wearing the shoes of the people that these classes are made for – the poor learners. I asked myself how on earth these poor souls are inspired to learn if these classrooms in their present state happen to be the environment that they have to sit in everyday they come to school? So many questions surged through my brain and the more I dug into my inner learning spirit, the more it dawned on me that the basic things that used to make learners enjoy learning are no more taken into cognisance. I thought of the old class visit forms with which teachers were evaluated with (ET/481), the present tool used for base-line assessment IQMS (performance standard 1) in which all deal with the classroom climate. I came to the conclusion, that yes, it is of the essence that we go back to the basics. I asked myself what happened to that notion of letting the walls talk to you as you entered the learning and teaching environment?

In the past it wasn’t even necessary to guess what subject a teacher was offering, when one entered into his or her working field. The walls full of charts, quotations, models and live plants all synergized to create a serene classroom climate that sharpened hunger for learning. This climate had an element of placebo in it, and it still does I hope many of us feel that. I believe it is after all, not the recipe or the cooking skill of the chef that prepares you to devour whatever meal you’re about to eat when entering a restaurant, but rather the setting of the place – the surroundings and the aroma that welcome you. The food taste only confirms what you had already anticipated. In Afrikaans they say: “hongerte is die beste kok”. It is our obligation as teachers, to make those learners in our classes hungry for learning, and how we go about in working on that hunger is definitely what will make them come back for more.

I’m just wondering; is it not possible that all pleasant/unpleasant memories engraved into our long-term memories, had a lot to do with where and how they were all disseminated to us?

This article can also be read in Sotho.

Leka ho nka leeto mehopolong ya hao, mme o tsepamise maikutlo a hao makgetlong kaofela ao o nnileng wa etela ngaka.  Hopola botebo ba bohloko bo neng bo o qositse ho etela ngaka, ho farasa ha maikutlo a hao le takatso ya ho shwa nakwana e le hore bohloko bona bo thethefale kapa hona ho fela.  Ana o ka dumela hore phetoho ya bohloko e bileng teng nako eo o kenang fela ka phaphosi ya ngaka, le pele ngaka e ka o tshwara, e ne e bakilwe ke boemo ba phaphosi eo ka sebele? Monko wa meriana, pono ya ditshwantsho tsa meriana mmoho le sebopeho sa tse ding tsa dikarolo tsa motho, dipeiti le dinalete, tsena tsohle tse o fang kgodiso ya hore jwale o fehlile tulong e nepahetseng, tulong e tlo fedisa matshwenyeho a hao, bohloko le ho babelwa ho renang mmeleng wa hao! Na e be…?

Ho lekoleng ha ka barutwana nakong eo ba ntseng ba ngola teko ya sehloho, sehleng se tswa feta, ho ile ha nqobella ho fihlella mehopolo ya mofuta ona.  Sekolong seo ke rutang ho sona, bana ha ba ngolle hlahlobo kapa teko ya sehloho phaphosing e le nngwe.  Tsela ya rona ya ho beha bana e hlophisitswe ka tsela yeo ngwana a ngolang hlahlobo kaofela diphaphosing tse fapaneng.  Lebabaka la tlhophiso ena ke ho leka ho tlisa ho kopisana ha bana ka tlasa taolo.   Sena se ama le rona matitjhere, tje ka balaodi kapa balekodi ba ho ngolwa ha hlahlobo.  Ke mona he, moo ke ileng ka fumana monyetla wa ho dula dihora tse pedi ho isa ho tse tharo diphaphosing tsa basebetsi-mmoho.  Seo ke ileng ka se fumana diphaphosing tsena se sisimosa maikutlo.  Mabota a tsotseng, ao ho se nang ke re le ha e le fela pampitshana e bontshang hore ena ke kamore ya rutela.  Ditshila tse paketseng fulurung, letlapa-ngolo le paketseng tjhoko le phoshwana ya teng ya dikgwedi-kgwedi, dikhabote tse paketseng lerole la nako eo nke keng ka e lekanya, dipampiri le dibuka tsa kgale, ke tjho tsohle tse ka o hweletsang hore o pepetlolotsehe ho tswa phaphosing eo, di ne di fumaneha.

Maemo ana a bosula, ao nna tje ka molaodi, le bana ba ngollang ka phaphosing tsena, re iphumaneng ka hara ona, a ile a nqobella ho rwala dieta tsa bana ba rutelwang letsatsi le leng le leng phaphosing tsena.  Dipotso di ngata tse ileng tsa fapakana maikutlong a ka.  Ka ipotsa hore re ka lebella jwang tjantjello ya ho ruteha baneng, ha ebe ba kgahlanyetswa letsatsi le letsatsi ke maemo a mofuta o tjee?  Ha ke ntse ke tebisa maikutlo a ka, ka hlokomela hore tsohle tsa motheo tse kileng tsa tsejwa di hlohlelletsa lenyora la thuto baneng, di furalletswe.  Ka utlwa bohloko bo tebileng ka ba ka utlwisisa puo e seng e dula e le ntlheng ya maleme a bohle ba kgathallang thuto, e reng re lokela ke ho kgutlela motheong, moo thuto e kileng ya e ba thuto (Getting back to basics).  Hona hwa ba ha nkgopotsa diforomo tsa kgale tseo titjhere e neng e hlahlojwa ka tsona (ET/481-forms) ke kenyeletsa le tsona tsa mehleng ena tsa yona IQMS, (performance standard 1) tse buang ka maemo a phaphosi. Maikutlong ona ao a bosula a neng a rena kelellong ya ka ha ke ntse ke nyolosa ke theosa pakeng tsa ditulo tsa bana ba ntseng ba ngola, ka ipotsa hore ho etsahetseng ka mohopolo o kileng wa re betla rona mesuwe, o neng o re: “ha mabota a bue le bana, ha tsohle tse ka phaphosing ya borutelo di leotse lenyora la ngwana la ho ithuta.”

Nakong tse fetileng ho ne ho sa hlokahale hore o botse hore titjhere e ruta thuto e feng, ha o ne o kena phaphosing ya hae fela, tsohle tse mo potapotileng di ne di re thuto, di re bala.  Le jwale, ke sa na le tumelo ya hore maemo ao a sa ntse a na le tshusumetso ho kgothaletseng bana ho bala le ho ruteha.  Ke kgolwa hore bohle ha re kena moo ho jellwang, ha se resepe kapa bona boqhetseke ba sephehi bo tlatsang mathe lehano ho lokisetsa dijo, empa ke tsela eo ho lokiseditsweng ho ja ha rona tulong ena le monko wa dijo tse tla etsang hore di hlabosehe. Tatso ya tsona, e mpa e tlatseletsa se neng se se se qadilwe. Ho jwalo fela ka thuto ya bana, pele ba ka e amohela, re lokela ke ho leotsa tlala ya ho ruteha ka hare ho bona mme ha seo se etsahetse, ha ho se ka sitisang kamohelo ya THUTO.

This article can also be read in English.

This is based on brain theories: The consensus among cognitive scientists (since B F Skinner) is that the mind seeks to find meaning, which is done through patterning. To achieve this, the mind must be active during the learning process.

This contrasts with the ‘factory model’ of education:

The experts draw up the knowledge; the teachers transmit it; the learners regurgitate it. Learners are passive recipients of knowledge.

The National Curriculum Statement picks up on this:

• The Critical Outcomes require learners to ‘identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking’ (p2).
• The kind of learner envisaged must ‘demonstrate an ability to think logically and analytically, as well has holistically and laterally’ (p2).

The value of this approach is that

• more effective learning takes place – learners internalise material as opposed to absorbing it holus-bolus – therefore they understand it better, remember it better and can better apply the learning;
• learners develop critical thinking and transfer skills because they have to reason their way through the work.

One of the most important ways of teaching interactively is to use effective questioning techniques.

Here are some guides regarding successful questioning techniques:

• Avoid answering the question for the learners.
• Ask learners to ‘unpack’ their answers by describing their line of reasoning and arriving at their answer. In effect, they have to ‘think aloud’.
• Do not immediately indicate if an answer is wrong. Get the learner to explain why he/she gave a particular answer. Often they will discover for themselves where they went wrong.
• Provide sufficient ‘thinking time’ after asking a question to which a well-considered answer is required. (Too often a response is demanded almost immediately, which encourages superficial answers.)
• Delay your reaction to answers sometimes in order to stimulate further thinking and more diverse answers. Or play Devil’s Advocate and require learners to substantiate their answers to questions and defend their reasoning against other points of view.
• Where learners are struggling to answer difficult questions, consider using multiple-choice questions – formal or informal. (Do you think A, B or C? Why?)  Or use the ‘think-pair-share’ technique – where no one seems to have an answer (involves the whole class first thinking on their own, then discussing with a partners, followed by feedback from the class).
• Involve other learners: Before responding to a learner’s answer yourself, ask other learners if they agree or not, and why.  Or ask another learner to summarise a learner’s viewpoint – this encourages active listening and cooperative learning.
• Ensure that some of your questions go beyond mere recall of facts; and that some are open-ended.
• Draw threads together – especially if there have been diverse answers – otherwise learners can feel confused.

Two pre-requisites for successful questioning techniques:

• Non-threatening atmosphere: This requires the teacher to be sensitive and learners to be called upon to respect each other.  Learners must feel free to give wrong answers.
• Ensuring that all are on board:  If a learner speaks softly, repeat answer for all to hear; make sure that learners do not talk while another learner is answering a question. The class must get the idea that all are involved in the give-and-take and not just the learners who happen to be answering questions.

This website recognizes that language teachers often need a great volume of different texts and teaching aids in order to get through the prescribed work, and therefore this website acts as a platform through which English teachers can help each other. Membership is free of charge, and by becoming a member you not only have access to all of the resources on the site, but you can also upload some of your own lesson plans and other tools to share with other teachers.

As a new English teacher, I have found this website to be extremely valuable and helpful. I could obtain all of the programmes of assessment, the electronic marksheets for 2010, and also other resources regarding the prescribed literature for the year. This website has made it so much easier for me to get started, and get all the necessary resources, for teaching English in South Africa. I can highly recommend it to any English teachers in South Africa! Visit the website at www.englishnet.co.za and become a member today!