PROJECTS

Critical Thinking Group

Yvonne — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:32:38 +0200

Critical Thinking Group aims to develop an approach for the teaching of critical thinking skills to educators, which will equip them with techniques that can in turn be imparted to learners. The focus for developing this approach is on the assertion that a major area of critical thinking is the ability to formulate an argument, which includes using evidence to support and substantiate claims as well as dislodge any counter-claims.

Argumentation as the process of arguing requires learners to engage with data and evidence to make claims based on these and to weigh the extent to which others’ claims can be substantiated. The skills required for critical thinking are important in a life context as well as in an educational environment.

The project carries the belief that the training of in-service educators in the concepts of critical thinking techniques can be developed and focuses on doing just that.

The developed approach will be presented to district officials in the Western Cape for roll-out to grade 9 and 10 science and technology educators for testing and refinement. The approach will also be incorporated as a module for pre-service educators at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town.

Digital Hero Book Project

Yvonne — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:41:31 +0200

The Digital Hero Book Project (DHBP) is a form of psychosocial support system (PSS) that enables youth to post their own stories online using information and communication technologies. This is a fun way for children to collaboratively create self-illustrated story books featuring stories about heroes which they come up with, while providing them with a platform for dealing with serious issues. The books submitted are presented on a community website for viewing.

A hero book is a low-cost, simple and effective form of psychosocial support and enables children to becomes authors, illustrators, main characters, or heroes and editors of a paper-based book that is designed to help them deal with life’s challenges. These books are then digitised and presented online. The creation of a digital hero books incorporates creativity, self expression, ICT skills and collaboration.

The DHBP project hosts workshops where learners get together and collaboratively create their own story books. By introducing ICTs that enable the youth-authors to digitise and publish their creations on a community-based website, participants gain valuable life and computer skills in the process. The website also powers a support network for hero book facilitators.

Plus Time

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:48:32 +0200

One of the biggest challenges the South African education system faces is to improve the performance of learners who are far below par. A recent study conducted by the HSRC, the Western Cape Education Department and The Shuttleworth Foundation has revealed that extra Mathematics and English tuition at Grade 8 level as an intervention to address poor academic performance is too late for most learners.

The Plus Time project was initiated to establish whether a group of Grade 8 learners that were exposed to extra tuition for six months in a year could step up the their performance with 10 percentage points. Researchers also believed that better performance in Mathematics and English would eventually spill over to other areas of learning.

Learners from eight schools in the Metropole-South Education Management Development Centre (EMDC), a district stretching from the Cape Flats to the small coastal towns on the Peninsula, participated in the study.

The results showed a larger increase over time in the performance of the learners who regularly attended Mathematics tuition lessons compared to those not attending regularly. With English tuition, the improvement in project-school learners’ performance generally exceeded those of control-school learners, but the findings were not consistent across learning areas and school pairs, and the effects were not as significant as hoped for, the study revealed.

The main conclusion was that for most learners Grade 8 it is too late for meaningful interventions and that mastering basic content of these subjects should be accomplished at the ‘foundation phase’ of schooling at Grade One to Grade Three level. No learner should be allowed to go through the foundation phase if they are not able to read and write fluently.

The study points out that learners achieved better results where the overall management and discipline at school were good and the management of learning areas and departments were sound.

The school environment in particular plays an important role in the learners motivation, which include facilities, infrastructure, teacher remuneration, capacity, supporting learning materials, access to technology such as personal computers, as well as assistants, to name a few.

Parent-learner dynamics also played a key role. Learners who were exposed to reading and writing at home and were supported by their parents showed more improvement.

The study also proposes that there should be a balance between flexibility and standardisation of tutorial material to boost tutor preparation. Equally, depending on the extent of backlogs and remedial attention required, the modular needs of individual schools and learners should be considered to get them back up to speed.

A follow up research project will be conducted with the HSRC and the WCED to determine the results of the learners tested at the end of grade nine and to determine what long term effects, if any, the tutorials had on them. This will be conducted in 2009.

The attached report outlines the findings to date and provides conclusions and implications of those findings.

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