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STUDY UNIT 2 TEACHING STRATEGIES

LEARNING OUTCOMES This Study Unit has the objective of introducing you to different teaching strategies of teaching. After studying these models you should be able to: Analyse and evaluate the different strategies Be able to practically apply them in different teaching situations Apply individualised instruction learning in an educational situation Apply the strategy of experiential learning in lessons Effectively divide classes into groups and successfully apply cooperative learning in your classes. Teaching strategy means the deliberate planning and organisation of teaching-learning experiences and situations in the light of psychological and educational principals with a view to achieving specific goals. The term "teaching strategy" rather than "teaching methods", is used as the latter has traditional undertones of merely training the pupils in skills. Any teaching/learning strategy must take note of: The age and ability of the learner Motivation and interests Insightful learning - relationships and principles and more important facts Active involvement and participation. The student of today is an individual to be developed wholly - intellectually, physically, aesthetically, morally, emotionally. Hence the need to adopt teaching learning strategies, making use of the interests and characteristics of pupils. A good teaching strategy is one that emphasises finding out, with the pupils investigating and discovering facts for themselves, using their own eyes and hands and brains. There is one strategy for teaching. The teacher must consider all the relevant circumstances and decide which strategy would serve the purpose best in the conditions and circumstances. In the units that follow we will briefly be looking at the following strategies: Individualisation of Instruction Self activity Cooperative learning Experiential learning. 1. INDIVIDUALISATION OF INSTRUCTION Although each student brings into the learning situation a body, nervous system, sense organs, cognitive abilities and unique effective conative experiences, students differ from one another in degree rather than in kinds of traits they possess. Some students learn more rapidly than others, some excel in mathematics but are poor in languages, some possess excellent leadership qualities while others have poor memories. Some students are a composite mixture of all types while others stand out because of their slow reactions to schoolwork. The average classroom, therefore, contains a most diverse, heterogeneous group of pupils. Variations among pupils have been termed "individual differences". Educationists recognise the fact that, although human beings have similar general capabilities, there are quantitative and qualitative differences in the development of these capacities among individuals. Nowhere are individual differences more evident and obvious than in the learning situation.

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ACTIVITY Jot down what you think how students differ in the following essential individual differences: Mental development ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Affective conative differences ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Academic achievement and performance ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Personality differences ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Special talents ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Physical growth and development ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sex ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Home environment ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Every person is born with potential. At birth, one is wholly dependent on adults. It is mainly the responsibility of the adults (teachers) to lead these dependents in accordance with their abilities, skills and interests on the path towards adulthood. In this teaching situation, the teacher cannot dissociate himself from observation, judgment and evaluation. The more careful the evaluation, the more effective will be the guidance. To teach and to guide every child in accordance with his abilities, requires that the teacher should, plan, specifically, for every student. They should therefore, know each student's level of development and bear this in mind when they plan for this particular student. Every child has his own unique method of learning and he actualises subject matter quite differently from his fellow students. The teacher should anticipate in his lesson presentation and pupil activities how much work he can expect from the child and how many basic concepts can be presented to him.

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It is very important that a child should start with work he is capable of doing. His self-image and self-confidence should be strengthened to give him confidence to undertake more advanced work. The work should be a challenge and the student should feel free to do it on his own. To obtain success, the teacher must provide a variety of learning experiences. A well though-out and thoroughly prepared piece of work presentation which has explosive power and a variety of experiences will enable a student to participate freely in the learning process, according to his specific ability. Differentiation is based on the fact that students differ. In the classroom we find groups that are above average and below average or we can divide them into groups such as highly gifted, gifted, average, below average, weak, extremely weak. Group work and differentiation are not the same. Each person is unique and differs in many respects from the next person. In order to differentiate successfully, we should try to individualise completely. Thus each student works and develops according to his aptitude and capability, since each child has a specific assignment. This is, however, an impractical if not an impossible situation. In spite of the difficulties encountered when attempting to differentiate effectively when planning our lessons, it is important to focus on individualising as far as possible.

REMEMBER !

Individualised instruction is a teaching/learning strategy which recognises that individuals learn at different rates and different ways. To tailor the learning environment to the needs of individual children, the learning materials are differentiated according to the learning pace of the children fast, average, slow and to their preferred styles of learning auditory, visual/graphic, verbal/written. According to teacher's diagnosis, children are allocated to particular set of materials.

Such a strategy of teaching/learning involves considerable planning and coordination and calls for very capable and well-organised teachers.

ACTIVITY To be able to individualise you will have to make use of differentiated assignments. As already mentioned, it is virtually impossible to supply each child with a separate assignment. Discuss how you will go about setting an differentiated assignment or worksheet. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING DEFINITION Experiential learning is the discovery of reality by means of examples. These examples are then used to make generalised statements.

Students discover reality through observation. They can, for example, observe or take part in an experiment, or they can look at examples in the form of pictures, models, maps, real life objects, or animal and human specimens. In this way, they discover reality, and learn to make generalised statements. These generalised statements are true for all similar experiences. If they see a cow being milked on an excursion, they can make the generalised statement that milk is obtained from cows.

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If the teacher performs an experiment they can observe, e.g. when air is heated it rises and cooler air moves to take place of the rising air. Using the demonstration method the teacher can now demonstrate how it happens. Using the demonstration strategy the teacher can now demonstrate how this happens. He uses a T-shaped piece of cardboard that fits into an 800 cm beaker, a candle and a burning piece of rag or thick rope. The children observe that the cold smoke from the rag goes down one side of the cardboard and when it reaches the bottom, it is analysed and they can make generalised statements such as: Air is a poor conductor Hot air always rises Cooler air sinks Circular movement of the air (from the rag down to the candle and up the other side of the cardboard) is called convection current A convection heater will warm a room quickly. Examples of experiential learning Self-discovery: Students participate actively in the teaching situation through self-expression and self discovery Excursions: During which the children are taken out of the classroom to learn Laboratory activities: In the classroom or in the school laboratory Projects that involve research, building models, etc. ACTIVITY Name the difficulties you think that will have to be overcome in applying experiential learning. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. COOPERATIVE LEARNING The immediate aims of cooperative learning or group work are to get students to talk and to think together in groups, in order to reach predetermined goals. The need for cooperation in the classroom is derived from the belief that talk is central to learning. Teachers will confirm the important role of language in bringing about understanding during the learning process: language is used when students are trying to put newly acquired knowledge into their own words, and when they are trying to test their ideas and ways of thinking on other people. Most teachers want their students to think about the subject being taught. Cooperative learning plays an important role in this regard, because thinking is central to effective group work. Therefore, apart from relevant information and clear instructions, students need to be taught the necessary social and intellectual (thinking) skills in order to engage in effective cooperative learning. These skills include the following: The ability to express a point of view Tolerance and mutual understanding The ability to engage in discussion Logical reasoning, probing and questioning skills The ability to think critically Problem solving skills The ability to speculate creatively.

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It is said that cooperative learning is usually better than other strategies for promoting the above- mentioned skills, but not so effective with regard to presenting information: its value lies in the interaction of ideas and views, which develops a student's capacity to think. 3.1 GROUP SIZE AND COMPOSITION There are no fixed rules: groups can consist of three, four or five students, depending on space and furniture constraints. It does however seem that groups three and four find it easier to cooperate successfully. Groups five may divide into a pair and a trio, and larger groups tend to split up into smaller groups. ACTIVITY How will you divide a class into groups? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.2 TASK DESIGN Objectives: Clear objectives which state the outcome of the exercise, should be formulated before any task is designed. When creating a task for group work, choose a task that: Has more than one answer or more than one way of solving the problem Is interesting and challenging Allows all the students to make contributions, i.e. also the weaker ones Requires the implementation of variety of skills Generates conversation: Science and Art activities e.g. building an aquarium, are suitable for this

purpose. In addition to being interesting, they require conversation and cooperation. A task does not work well or a group if it has a single right answer, involves memorisation or rote learning, or if it can be done more quickly and efficiently by one student than by a group. 3.3 PREPARING FOR GROUP WORK Study the syllabus and identify the topics that would best be dealt with in a group. Decide what you want the students to achieve by the end of a specific session and formulate clear objectives. Consider the materials required, the arrangement of classroom furniture and the organisation of the group work. Make copies of worksheets to be handed out, and have enough additional material available to interest the students and to broaden their learning experience. Give careful thought to instructions for group work: they should be clear, so that the students do not waste time trying to figure out what is expected of them. It is a good idea to test your instructions on a colleague, or to imagine yourself having to go through the various phases of the task. Is there sufficient information, or do you need additional information in order to know what to do next? Remember, lack of clarity with regard to your instructions could result in your plan misfiring. Group work in classrooms can take the following forms: Discussions: A group of students work together to share understanding, pool ideas or generate

opinions on an issue Problem solving: Students are given a problem that has to be solved by brainstorming different

solutions, discussing various solutions, listening and replying to each other in order to arrive at the most appropriate solution/s

Production task: Students work together to plan and organise a display or an outing, or to design a bookstand or a poster.

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Monitor the progress of group activities. Students should know that they must work and not waste time. Make contact with individual groups when the opportunity arises, while keeping a watchful eye on the rest of the groups. Questions should be asked from time to time to find out how groups are progressing. Have extra work ready for early finishers.

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STUDY UNIT 3 CURRICULATION

TEACHING STRATEGIES LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying these models you should be able to: Analyse and evaluate these models Practically apply one of these models.

No society can escape the responsibility for trying to plan the education of the children who grow up in it, but the more complicated a society is, the more difficult it is to make such plans and the more tempting it is to see them as somebody else's concern. The means of education: the home, religious institutions, the school and its teachers make the choice of what children should learn, what selection should be made from the culture in short curriculum was never and will never be simple. The ANC policy document uses a broad definition of curriculum. It defines curriculum as including most of the activities undertaken by the school and other agencies who undertake education programs in the community. As well as the content of what is to be taught, this definition includes the skills and processes required to collect and analyse information in a subject area. It is thus the plan of how we are going to educate our children which is called a curriculum. Definition A curriculum is a statement of intended structured teaching and learning processes, which make clear ... The aims of these processes The content to be used Method to be used The way in which their outcomes are to be evaluated. 1. THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM It is possible for schools to set behaviour patterns based on values and a view of the world which was not intended. In the same way the manner in which teachers dress, treat, greet, and discipline students, and the way they are listened to or talked to are all educational, because the pupils learn a lot from them. These things do not form part of the curriculum and that is why it is referred to as a hidden curriculum. The idea of the hidden curriculum has become a powerful influence in curriculum thinking. Those that support the idea claim that these hidden messages are so powerful that they can undermine the formal curriculum making it more difficult for students from poor of disadvantaged groups to succeed. 2. THE FUNCTIONS AND LEVELS OF CURRICULUM The basic curriculum questions which teachers face in their daily work are: What must I teach? Why must I teach it? How should I teach it? To whom must I teach it? Where must I teach it? How do I know if I have succeeded in my teaching? These questions tell us a lot about the functions of the curriculum. Basically, the curriculum tells teachers what they ought to do. Most teachers in South Africa teach what is laid down in the syllabus. Under apartheid different authorities were responsible for setting the syllabus for different groups of schools. In post-apartheid South Africa, education is to be a provincial responsibility although an Integrated National Qualifications Framework and National Core Curriculum have been proposed.

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2.1 LEVELS OF CURRICULUM The levels of curriculum thus start at the core curriculum which is set by the national or provincial education department. There is also a curriculum at school level, where one school (or group of schools), makes up its own curriculum from the core curriculum. Lastly there is the curriculum at classroom level, where the teachers make up their own curriculum. The level of the curriculum makes a difference to the function that it is serving. The following are only the very general functions of the curriculum. 2.2 FUNCTIONS These are the functions of a curriculum: It is a declaration or statement of educational policy The curriculum will tell us a lot about society, its history, the way people think and who controls the state. E.g. the National Party stated that education should have a Christian and national character. It sets achieved standards Education has an aim. It is expected that the younger generation must be able to achieve this aim. The curriculum thus implies that certain standards should be reached. It gives directives, guidance and assistance to teachers The curriculum tells the teacher which approach to follow, indicates the content to be used, and it can also indicate the methods to be followed. 3. TWO MODELS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT By this time one should be aware that the curriculum does not stand apart from the people who developed it, thus the curriculum tells us what a society wants, and why it wants this. To understand this we must look at philosophy of education. A philosophy is a set of beliefs about what is right, good and worthwhile. When we think of educational philosophy, we mean beliefs about the nature and purposes of education. Thus we will be looking at two different philosophies that influences the curriculum. 3.1 THE PRODUCT MODEL Do you think that it is very important that Xhosa children learn the Xhosa language, Xhosa history and customs, their society and culture in which they live? Should your answer be yes, then you will be a supporter of the product model. This model has a conservative view on education and the course design is based on the assumptions of behavioural psychology that learning can be defined as a visible and measurable change in behaviour, and that the basic unit of such learning is conditioning.

To devise a curriculum based on this model, requires the designer to describe the intentions of the course in terms of behavioural objectives which must: Describe the change in the learner in terms of measurable behaviour Involve sharply specific goal behaviour Ensure that such goals are measurable (and therefore visible in some way) Ensure that these goals are specified unambiguously See these objectives as forming the basis of the instructions to be given to the learners The whole approach is open to all the familiar charges levelled at behaviourism. It provides an inadequate concept of education, learning, and instruction, and it begs many questions about the principles of selection of what is to be learnt. It leads to inflexible programmes, which cannot take on board individual differences, and erodes the teachers opportunities for ongoing creativity while teaching, and it presupposes that all subjects work in the same way. In other words, it disrupts the integrity of learning, and does not respect the individualism of learner, teacher or content. Further, clear behavioural objectives have proven very difficult to write for anything but the most trivial aspect of learning. This model appears objective and rational because it attempts to provide clear criteria for evaluation. However, evaluation can be aimed at not just determining whether a given curriculum effectively achieves the objectives it is designed to achieve but also whether the objectives are educationally desirable at all. The assessment of whether something is educationally desirable is not one which can be solved by testing but requires the development of an argument about what is educationally sound and relevant.

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In order to assess any list of objectives in terms of their educational worth will involve the application of values. Students will only need to learn problem solving skills and critical thinking if the ability to apply knowledge to real life situations and the ability to assess and make independent decisions is seen to be of value. 3.2 THE PROCESS MODEL If you believe that it is more important for children to learn to deal with situations in a changing world and to deal with situations which we as adults have never experienced than to learn about society and culture within which they live, you will be a supporter of the process model. The process curriculum has its roots in a strong learner centered approach with the emphasis on providing learners with a balanced mix of knowledge and skills. It tries to avoid the apparently one sidedness of instruction approaches in which learners are inducted into particular academic disciplines or knowledge-bases. Perhaps the most important force behind this model is the dissatisfaction that many practitioners have with the product model with its emphasis on rote learning and reproduction of textbook information. At the end of a particular course it is often difficult to determine exactly what it is that students have learned and to what use they can put this information. The process curriculum has important implications for both instructional and feedback systems. Teachers have to attend to both knowledge and process. The student has to be actively engaged in acquiring or refining the process. Some learners will need more repetition in the acquisition and consolidation of particular processes and this has implications for marking. Teachers will need to explore a variety of assessment practices that will provide adequate practice and yet ensure sufficient and useful feedback so that the students can improve their proficiency in the process as efficiently and effectively as possible. Summary of the differences between Product Curriculum and Process Curriculum

PRODUCT CURRICULUM PROCESS MODEL

Transmission of knowledge model Heuristic model (investigative) Stresses knowledge and skills, concepts and Stresses understanding and procedures criteria Content is given All is negotiated Student activities involve absorbing, note- Student activities involve experiencing and taking, remembering reflecting Student is passive student Student is investigator, explorer Motivation is via content, teacher activity Motivation is via involvement Discourages creative thinking Encourages creative thinking Sees student as one of a class Sees student as individual Is teacher centered Is student centered Sees teacher as expert, examiner Sees teacher as learner, explorer, critic, developer, resource Does not encourage student autonomy Encourages student autonomy Teacher often works with class alone Teacher often works with a team

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Sees teaching as technical rational activity, Sees teaching as artistic activity, tentative, Clear cut, efficient open to challenge and change Sees teacher as pursuing marks Sees teacher as pursuing understanding Sees assessment as simple, end of course Sees assessment as ongoing part of product learning Defines education as training in knowledge Finds definition of education problematic Defines knowledge as indisputable, Defines knowledge as relative, temporary, permanent and proportional procedural

Thinks the relationship between theory and Sees the relationship of theory and practice practice is simple as problematic, complex Readily analyses content, aims, into specific Can specify aims, but refers then to simply objectives principles of procedure Uses short, clear cut time blocks Needs flexibility of time "Covers content' efficiently (perhaps at Covers less ground but enables better expense of understanding) assimilation, greater motivation Uses fewer and simpler resources Is heavily resource-based

ACTIVITY Below is an example of a history lesson curriculated according to the product model. Study this lesson and rewrite the lesson using the same topic and same headings, but using the process model. Topic The Battle of Blood River Aims of teaching To teach students about their cultural heritage. This was a great battle in the history of the Zulu and the Dutch speaking whites. This topic was chosen because it is part of our cultural heritage. Contents The content is mainly information about the battle, that is, the events of the battle and facts about is. What happened before the battle, during the battle and after the battle. Method The pupils will be instructed by the teacher. Information will be put on the board and pupils will be given notes. The text-book must be read and all information must be memorised. Evaluation Pupils will be tested on the facts of the battle and on the notes which they memorised. Marks will be allocated to the correct facts given.

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YOUR ANSWER MAY PERHAPS LOOK LIKE THIS: Topic The Battle of Blood River Aims of teaching To teach students one of the processes of studying history. Pupils must learn how to study historical evidence, find the main information, decide whether it is credible or not and write an account of some events. This topic was chosen because it is familiar to the pupils. Contents The content is the process of doing research, evaluating historical evidence and writing an account of the battle. Method The pupils will be given different accounts of events. The pupils will have to find the important information in the accounts. Pupils must judge which accounts are most trustworthy. Pupils will write short accounts of the battle, using information they have found in the most trustworthy accounts. Teacher will help and facilitate this process. Evaluation The pupils will be tested on how they carry out the process of research. The teacher will judge their work by seeing whether they can use valid processes and not by the factual knowledge that they have. ACTIVITY Now choose a topic from the subject you are going to teach. In the same way as above, curriculate the topic using the product model and the process model. (Make use of your own paper). Which model do you think is most effective for the topic you chose?

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STUDY UNIT 4

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this Study Unit, you should be able to: Discuss the essence of alternative assessment techniques Explain the use of these techniques in the educational situation Explain how you would implement these techniques in the adult learning situation. This study unit will introduce you to alternative assessment approaches. You will find specific reference to outcomes-based, criterion-referenced, formative practices. Please keep in mind that only the essentials are given in the study guide - you will have to do a lot of background reading and research on your own. 1. INTRODUCTION The assessment of student is an integral part of any teacher-learning practice. Informal classroom observation by, for example, oral questioning of students, may indicate the need for a review of the methods or material used; and the students obvious interest in a topic may suggest that more time should be spent on it than originally planned. Decisions such as these are made repeatedly during teaching. Some are based on the student's oral responses, some on their actual performance of a skill and still others on a student's quizzical look, tone of voice or physical behaviour. In any event they are based on the teacher's moment-by-moment observations. Although these observations are informal and unsystematic, they play an indispensable role in effective teaching. Tests and other formal evaluation procedures designed to measure the outcome of student's learning are not intended as replacements for the teacher's informal observations and judgements. Rather, they are intended to complement and supplement the teachers informal methods of obtaining information about students. Evaluation procedures provide information, but teachers must interpret and use this information in making decisions. Tests and other evaluation measures are simply a means of obtaining more comprehensive, systematic and objective evidence on which to base teaching decisions. The effectiveness of any teaching and learning practice, therefor, depends to a large extent on the quality of the information used for evaluation, on which the decisions are based. Various aspects of evaluation have been discussed during the course of your studies. Aspects such as measurement, assessment, validity, reliability, etc. have been discussed at great length. Many different ways of testing have also been proposed. Assessment and exams are so much part of our experience of schools and learning that to us it appears to be absolutely natural. It is also likely that your experience of assessment would suggest that all forms of assessment are just about the same. This is not true. It is a very limited view of assessment and one which is challenged by new thinking emerging in South Africa where there are at least two trends: Away from any formal assessment Towards a variety of different types of assessment. Assessment can take many different forms at different times and in different stages of a person's education and training. Good teachers use a range of methods but they do so after careful consideration of what exactly they want to assess. In the modern educational system the teachers should concern themselves about whether their forms of assessment are appropriate and whether they meet the requirements of the new "outcomes-based" education (OBE).

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Many South African schools have traditionally relied on a form of assessment driven by subject

content (input). Students are supposed to learn, in many cases by rote, the content of their school subjects. An assessment system where tests and exams are mostly used to assess whether students have memorised this subject content is called an input-based assessment system.

Assessment is often used to compare a student with other individual student performances and with the "average" performance of the class (the norm). This is called norm-referenced assessment.

Marks are often added together and averaged and then used to paint a "picture" of a student's performance (to sum up the student's performance). The kind of assessment to "describe" a student's performance is called summative assessment.

As good teachers we need to ask whether this is really what we want to assess, or whether this is all we want to assess. The answer would be that we have now become more concerned with assessing students' skills as well as their ability to memorise content. Different skills (or assessing skills such as opposed to knowledge, for instance) may need different models and techniques of assessing. New ways of assessing stipulated by the Department of Education - continuous assessment, for example – requires teachers to first decide what skills they want to assess before they decide on how they will assess those skills. This has implications for how the assessment is used: Students are now "compared" with the skills or knowledge the teacher wants them to learn a set of

desired outcomes rather than against other students' marks or a class average (based on subject input).What now matters is how each student performed in relation to the skills or knowledge he or she is required to know

Because the assessment is against a set of criteria (as opposed to a norm, the class average), such assessment is broadly known as criterion-referenced assessment. So, rather than comparing a student to other students (the norm-referenced testing), a student's performance is now compared to an external criterion. These can be different things - the skill of kicking a soccer ball or the ability to analyse a poem - and are called by various terms such as a skill, a competence, or an outcome. In South Africa this has become known as outcomes- or competency based assessment.

This new policy required teachers to use assessment to help pupils to improve their performance and maximize their learning, as well as reflecting on their own teaching. An assessment which does this - with "teaches" as well as assess - is called formative assessment. This is because it forms and shapes the learning that students and teachers are undertaking. COMPARING THE TWO FORMS OF ASSESSMENT

A debate has been sparked off in South African schools between two different views of assessment. These have been named: Input-based, summative and norm-referenced Outcomes-based, formative and criterion -referenced assessment.

Here is a schematic representation of what is known about the debate so far ...

‘OLD’ VIEW ‘NEW’ VIEW Focus on input. Focus on outcomes. Input is defined as content and assessment

‘measures’ recall of content. Outcome is defined as skill or competence.

Assessment ‘measures’ ability to do or use content learnt.

Norm-referenced – individual performance compared to norm ( class average).

Criterion-referenced-individual performance assessed against skill, competence or outcome teachers want learnt.

Summative – assessment’s main aim is to arrive at descriptions of students.

Formative – an important function of assessment is that it is used to diagnose learning problems so that teaching and learning can be improved.

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All assessment practices rest on particular theories about how people learn, or what it means to be educated. In other words, the two paradigms we have studied, rest on different theories about "education"; curriculum, and knowledge. Many different ideas are currently being discussed in schools and education departments all over South Africa. A document that is particularly important for South African teachers is one called the Curriculum Framework for General and Further Education and Training. In this document it is clearly stated that teaching, learning and assessment are inextricably linked”. (Assessment forms apart of a structured learning environment). This idea is very important to an outcomes-based education system, which was not the case in past education systems. Many, but not all, teachers taught through uninterrupted lecturers (teacher-talk) while students learned largely through listening to the teacher. Assessment then came at the end of a series of lessons and was mainly in the form of tests. It was not regarded as part of teaching and learning. This old model was not integrated. It was fragmented in a sense that teaching, learning and assessment were seen as separate activities. In outcomes-based education an assessment activity provides opportunities for teaching and learning and does not simply come at the end of a process. An outcomes-based education system requires that learning outcomes and assessment criteria be clearly stated before students are taught. Everyone including students will know what "standards'- what outcomes and criteria have to be achieved in order to be declared "competent" (in other words, in order to pass). Students can't simply change the criteria, or argue for a pass when a classmate clearly cannot do the thing defined as a required outcome. And, more positively, students will be able to continuously assess their own progress toward the achievement of those outcomes. In the previous system: What had to be learnt was not clearly spelt out before lessons What pupils had to know was vaguely specified (e.g. learn chapter 2 for the test) What students had to learn was often narrowly defined as content to be memorised. The last point is particularly important: assessment which foregrounds competence does not only concern itself with whether students "know what" (the content of their subject) but is also concerned with whether students "know how" (that students know to do certain things). The Education Department sees outcomes-based education as operating at three levels at schools, namely: Formative summative assessment (as a "measurement" of performance) Formal continuous assessment Informal formative assessment (as a "teaching tool"). Tests will still form part of assessment practice but will be one of many techniques. General Principles of Outcomes-based Education (OBE): Education is a life long process Qualifications represent competence; not time Competence is a combination of thinking (head), doing (hands) and attitude (heart) Outcomes can be separated into essential outcomes which apply across a number of different

fields and specific outcomes which are specific to a particular task. ACTIVITY

The following questions are posed to try and stimulate you to think of alternative ways of assessing your students knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.

Can you explain the following concepts?

Outcomes ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Essential outcomes ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In not more than two pages, discuss five major differences between the two approaches to curriculum. To begin with, draw up a list of questions which will help you identify these differences. To help you, here are some areas that you could think about, but they are not the only ones: (Use your own paper): What sort of knowledge is taught?

What types of things are examined or assessed?

Who is the central person in the learning process? Evaluate the following techniques and decide whether they are OBE orientated techniques. If so, why. If not, can this be changed and how? Surveys Report writing Observation Logs Diaries __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How would you approach students' assignments in an OBE way? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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SECTION B PSYCHO-PEDAGOGIC PERSPECTIVES

OUTCOMES Psycho-pedagogics has the complete psychical life of the child, as embodied in the pedagogical (educational) situation, as its field of research. In order to grasp the psycho-pedagogical view on learning, it is necessary to give a brief explanation of the essence of the psycho-pedagogical approach as such. The psycho-pedagogical approach evolved from a study and analysis of the concepts psyche, pedagogics and totality as used with regard to the psychological life of the child-in education. In analysing and structuring the becoming of the child, the psycho-pedagogical approach emphasises:

The nature of education in supporting the child

Mode or manifestations of change in the child's becoming (development)

Modes of learning. It must constantly be kept in mind that the psychical life of the child should be regarded as a structural totality which is realised as such by the child in his relationship with reality. Because of this structural totality of the psychical life, the key concepts as mentioned above may be distinguished but never separated. After studying this section, you should be able to:

Explain the course of human development and learning

Explain the factors influencing the process of development and learning

Predict with reasonable accuracy the outcome of activities relating to the student's development and learning

Defend and compare different theories of development and learning.