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

F ITE PR

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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