Masters Degrees (School for Social Sciences and Language Education)
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Item Open Access Exploring EFAL teachers’ implementation of authentic assessment in selected Rammolutsi secondary schools(University of the Free State, 2022) Tlhabanelo, Keabetswe Gabriel; Ntsala, S. A.This study explored how EFAL teachers from Rammolutsi secondary schools in Fezile Dabi district employed authentic assessment. Purposive sampling was used in this qualitative case study of six EFAL teachers. Open-ended semi-structured interviews with six teachers were employed to generate data. Thematic analysis was undertaken to determine themes and subthemes. The findings reveal that EFAL secondary school teachers experience numerous problems when implementing authentic assessment due to a lack of guidelines. This study provided some insights into the preparations and use of authentic assessment as part of their teaching and learning process. Guided by the conceptual framework according to Hargreaves, Earl and Schimdt (2002), the study’s findings reveal that AA significantly increased teachers’ academic achievement and attitude toward educational measurement. Additionally, it is an approach that can serve to forge cooperation between theory and practice, which is a major problem in the field of teacher training in South Africa. Based on these findings, AA procedures can be integrated into teacher education as much as possible. Seminars, workshops, and courses can be organised to help teachers understand and use AA. Future research on it for other levels of education is possible. Future research could look into learners’ viewpoints to see how AA aids their learning. Studies on the effects of AA on various dependent variables are possible.Item Open Access Exploring the teaching of Grade 10 accounting in Thabo Mofutsanyana district(University of the Free State, 2023) Sebusi, Mmabatho Boitumelo; Sekwena, G. L.; Motsoeneng, T. J.The literature revealed significant challenges affecting numerous teachers in the Thabo Mofutsanyana district, such as a lack of pedagogical content knowledge, changes in Curriculum and assessment policy statements, the predominant use of teacher-centred methods, shortage of textbooks in schools and teachers' lack of professional development. A qualitative research approach was used along with the interpretivist paradigm to underpin this study. Semi-structured individual interviews were used as an instrument for collecting data. They were used to explore the views of five Accounting teachers who were purposively sampled in three schools. The study's conceptual framework is from Shulman's (1986) theory on teachers' knowledge. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is one of the most essential components of teachers' knowledge. This means teachers must have content knowledge and knowledge used for delivering content. Furthermore, teaching needs more than just being able to deliver subject content knowledge to learners. It is more to ensure effective learning, and learners absorb more for later accurate repetition. The study focuses on exploring the teaching of Grade 10 teachers in Thabo Mofutsanyana district. The data generated was analysed thematically. The study's findings revealed that teachers have sufficient pedagogical content knowledge but still use the predominant teaching method when teaching Accounting, which led to poor learner performance in Accounting and enrolment. The researcher concludes that teaching Grade 10 Accounting requires teachers to use teaching methods promoting participation and active learning in class.Item Open Access Exploring strategies of teaching History in English to Non-English Speaking Intermediate Phase Learners in Xhariep(University of the Free State, 2023) Lekhethe, Kagiso Thapelo; Moreeng, BoitumeloEnglish is the salient Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) in South Africa from Grade 4 to Grade 12. Scholars have shown that English is one of the factors that have a negative impact on the effective learning and teaching of History, since History is regarded to be demanding linguistically. It requires learners to have acquired a specific language and an academic language demand that are both passive and active. This empirical study sought to explore strategies of teaching non- English speaking Intermediate Phase learners History in English in Xhariep. This study was informed by the social constructivism framework along with the interpretivism paradigm, which guided the qualitative approach. Purposive sampling was adopted to enable collection of relevant data, from which I used 2 teachers and 10 learners altogether, 5 from each of the two schools. Data collection was made through focus group interviews for learners, semi-structured interviews for teachers, participant observation and document analysis for both learners and teachers – where I analysed documents like Learning and Teaching Support Materials, activities and assessments. The findings of this study divulge challenges learners experience, from both the learners’ and teachers’ points of view, by virtue of not understanding the teachers’ talk, not clearly understanding the instructions given in activities and assessments, being unable to understand what they are reading, and finding it difficult to formulate appropriate written and viva-voce responses. Also, it looked at strategies that could be used to mitigate the aforementioned challenges and also recommended, inter-alia, the use of moderate pace to teach, appropriate pronunciation of words, familiar vocabulary to learners and moderate projection. In essence, this study intended to add a new body of knowledge to the existing scholarship on effective learning and teaching of History.Item Open Access Conditions of some high schools in QwaQwa and their perceived influence on the Grade 12 results(University of the Free State, 2003) Msimang, Thandaza Lindiwe Sindisiwe; Mahlomaholo, M. G.This research investigates conditions of some high schools in Qwa Qwa Thabo Mofutsanyana District and their perceived influence on the grade 12 results. It is assumed that these conditions will affect the teachers and learners perceptions negatively. This leads to the schools not functioning well because of the problems that crop up. Teachers seem not to be able to carry their work effectively because of the shortage of books and learning aids for the learners. Students end up not performing well and the blame, which ends up being shouldered by the teachers seem to cause demotivation and poor self-esteem on teachers. To confirm this finding I used qualitative study to conduct my research. Case study was used because I had to focus on four schools and a few individuals in those schools and particular happenings, their perceptions and accounts. This study was used also because I had an integral involvement in the study. Interviews and observation were used while collecting the data. I also visited the four schools to look into the physical conditions in these schools. I observed that school number one and two who have good results both had good physical conditions. These schools both had doors and windows in their classrooms; these are protected by steel doors and steel windows. In school number three and four the schools physical facilities were not good. These schools didn't have doors and windows and their results are always bad should be built which should be furnished well with all required furniture, electricity and running water should be in place. Chemicals and aids for teachers should also be available for school number three running water should be installed in the laboratory, all required chemicals and aids for teachers should be available. For schools two three and four books should be supplied in time so that students may be able to do all required classwork in time and to study at their own pace and time. I also suggest that there should be an intervention for both teachers and students. Teachers in school number three and four need to be given a new status. Providing the teachers with the best teaching and learning environment which meets the needs of the students but also in which the teacher receives emotional and administrative support. Counselling should also be given to these teachers, which would bring back the confidence these teachers once had.Item Open Access Remediërende intervensiestrategieë vir Afrikaanssprekende, intermediêre leerders met disleksie(University of the Free State, 2008-11) Tolmie, S. J.; Van Staden, A.; Badenhorst, M. G.This study contains a theoretical article and an empirical article to investigate and discuss an intervention programme for dyslectic learners with regard to their reading and spelling problems. The following discussion also serves as summary of the findings and conclusions reached by the researcher in each article. The literature study focuses on the causes of dyslexia by referring to neurological, genetic, teratogenic, and environmental and educational causes. In the discussion of the identification and assessment of dyslexia, the IQ discrepancy theory is discussed. The discussion of the cognitive, academic and behavioural characteristics of dyslectic learners illuminates the identification of these learners for the sake of using the correct intervention strategies. From the literature study, it is clear that dyslectic learners do not benefit by current teaching programmes following the phonological method. Neuro-imaging techniques have shown that dyslectic learners activate the right hemisphere of the brain (which is normally not suitable for language use) to execute phonological instructions. Therefore, better results are obtained when dyslectic learners' strong point, namely their visualisation ability, is used during language exercises. An overview is given of the various kinds of dyslexia, where it has been found in the literature study that a large majority of dyslectic learners have a strong visualisation ability. Researchers differ about the way in which dyslectic learners should be taught, however, and a variety of intervention programmes found in the literature are discussed. This study focuses on the Ron Davis program as an intervention programme, because the programme focuses on the learning preference of the dyslectic learner. It is a multisensory programme that focuses on visual, kinaesthetic and cognitive strategies. In the empirical article, the development and implementation of a remedial intervention programme, which is based on the Ron Davis program, for intermediate Afrikaansspeaking dyslectic learners is investigated and discussed. The research study has been completed at a school for learners with learning disabilities in the Motheo district in the Free State. Dyslectic learners in the experimental group (N = 18) were exposed to the remediation intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program, while dyslectic learners in the control group (N = 18) were receiving their normal remedial teaching. Research results in this empirical investigation have demonstrated that the reading and spelling achievements of Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners (experimental group) were significantly better after exposure to the remedial intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program than the reading and spelling achievements of the Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners (control group, N =18) that were not exposed to this programme. The conclusion the researcher reached after completing the study is that the word recognition and spelling achievements of Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners can improve significantly by exposing these dyslectic learners to a remedial intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program.