The curriculum is likely to be marked by changes for some time
THE period of transition from the dreaded apartheid-based form of education to a curriculum that complements and nutures our new era of democracy is due to continue for some time to come.
Linda Chisholm, who headed up the Curriculum 2005 review committee,does not think that this current process of ”streamlining” the curriculum will be the last: ”My view is that with every set of curriculum reviews and changes, new issues, problems and contradictions emerge. As soon as something is addressed, new problems will crop up.”
One of the recommendations of the review committee not endorsed by Cabinet is that the learning areas of Technology and Economic and Mangement sciences be excluded; instead, they will be implemented as planned. The reason for the recommendation is that there are not enough teachers trained in these areas. However, chief director of general education and training, Edsent Williams, says that: ”The actual complexity of content [in these learning areas] for grades 4 and 8 are not beyond the teachers.” There will be an ongoing drive to build the capacity of teachers in this area, to coincide with their introduction in higher grades.
The next step in the process of review is the writing of a National Curriculum Statement, hopefully to be completed by the middle of next year. Chisholm was recently appointed as a Billiton Fellow in the Department of Education,and will lead a task team to develop this statement. The statement will specify the outcomes and standards expected of every grade in every learning area.
However, Chisholm says: ”This is not a return to syllabus.” The emphasis will continue to fall on the outcome not the content, but teachers and learners will have more specified goals to reach. This is a particular response to the perceived drop in basic foundation phase skills witnessed in many schools. In fact, the University of the Witwatersrand’s response to the curriculum review contained the following startling suggestion: ”… the corps of learners currently in grade 3 need a public apology for the mistakes made at the expense of their literacy and numeracy learning and development.”
Breaking new ground
HILARY FINE reports
YOU can see the sea from the grade 8 classroom, but the learners aren’t staring out of the window or daydreaming. They are busy working in pairs, discussing a problem and trying to work out the algebraic principles for themselves.
Ethembeni Enrichment Centre in Port Elizabeth is trialling outcomes-based education (OBE) in grades 8 and 9 before it is implemented countrywide in grade 8 next year. The New Education Paradigm project (NEP) hopes to provide teachers nationally with some guidelines for senior phase OBE — teacher training, timetable and assessment issues — based on both the successes and failures at Ethembeni.
This pilot project is being run in conjunction with the Delta Foundation, the corporate social responsibility division of the Delta motor corporation. Project co-ordinators Paula du Plooy and Sue Westraad have been working with Ethembeni staff since October 1999. Duze explains that initial resistance from teachers was because ”Ethembeni has a good reputation and good matric results. It is hard to want to change something which seems to be working. Why rock the boat?”
The information the teachers were given about OBE — through government-sponsored training and an encounter with OBE ”guru” William Spady — left most of them demoralised and confused. But the teachers are moving towards a better understanding of OBE and a genuine, situation-specific practice is emerging.
”Pre-planning is paramount,” says Nicky Kohler, a maths teacher. ”OBE requires so much more administrative time.” Teachers, used to planning their lessons alone, now have to work together in devising the timetable and integrating learning areas. There were major complaints from teachers about the increased amount of both work and time required to do this.
Still, assessment remains a major stumbling block for teachers, who are currently preparing for a parent-teacher meeting where they will present parents with the new report cards which have been devised to reflect OBE practice at the school.
Although no teachers at the school are trained in technology, arts and culture or economic and management sciences (EMS), these learning areas were successfully integrated in a first term project. The EMS outcome decided on was to teach learners how to be entrepreneurs. Learners formed a business and drew up a business plan. With a loan from the school and instruction on how to produce traditional beadwork from members of the community, they began making and selling their product. Not only did the project integrate learning areas of technology, EMS and arts and culture, but it got learners to grapple with concepts such as earning interest.
The learners at Ethembeni know that something is different. Besides some resistance to working together in groups, on the whole they seem to enjoy the integration of learning areas. They also get a ”double explanation” of some concepts which are raised in more than one learning area. Not surprisingly learners appreciate every opportunity to get out of the classroom and get in touch with the real world. ”OBE is more work but it’s more like the real world,” said one learner.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, September 12, 2000.
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