6.2. Enabling factors and challenges associated with teachers’ utilisation of the CPT and
6.2.2. Challenges with using CPT from Zuzu P1 as evident in the interview Report
The Interview Report conducted in August of 2017 (IR 2017), revealed many challenged that impeded the use of the CPT, as indicated by the following responses from teachers regarding their knowledge and training on Jika iMfundo:
“I know about Jika iMfundo because I use the tracker but I never attended any training directly from Jika iMfundo and my HOD didn’t guide me. The JIT workshops showed me how to plan and pace my work to teacher according to the book I am using. In 2016, I attended workshops by the DoE but they concentrated on the work schedule, you know the ATP. But they never speak about the tracker. My colleagues are biased towards the ATP and turn a blind eye on the tracker, even some of them may not even know what a tracker is all about if we were to ask them.”
From the comments above, one of the challenges raised was that of poor usage knowledge of the CPT because of the lack of training. It appeared that teachers did attend workshops focused on using the work schedule or ATP but in the case of the CPT only HODs or senior teachers who attended training did so with the expectation that they would train other teachers in the schools. However, since teachers who attended workshops on the ATP tended to “turn a blind eye” on the use of the CPT and use what they have been workshopped on, i.e. the ATP. The issue of lack of knowledge was further emphasised when comments made by the Grade 8/9 mathematics teacher claimed that if his colleagues had to be asked about the CPT, some would not even know what it is. That meant that there was poor communication between the teachers with regards to their practices. At the same time the HOD was not guiding the teachers on the use of the CPT and its purpose. Based on these comments, it seemed the model “train the trainer” is not working at Zuzu P1.
The challenges posed from those comments in IR 2017 above was echoed in 2015 but in 2016 the Self-Evaluation made it seem as if all was going well but this was clearly not the case. Just in Time (JIT) Workshops were attended by Grade 8 and 9 teachers and the ATP or work schedule was constantly promoted. Little to no mention of the CPT needing to be used was brought up. In the interview, blame had been placed upon the DoE for not advocating the use of the CPT. Poor communication reared its head again from 2015, as being cited for the reason behind poor use of the CPT. The HOD admitted to poor use of the CPT and involvement in the JIT programme due to poor communication and a lack of adequate workshops and training.
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Poor training in usage of the tracker and tools led to the HOD being incapable of providing enough support and assistance to his teachers. Newer teachers came into contact with the CPT, not knowing how to use it and with no assistance from the HOD. The teacher concerned made a statement in isiZulu saying “La ikwamazibonele” which translates to “in this place you learn to do things yourself without any assistance.” Poor training in using and implementing the tracker to the level it needed to be could be detrimental to its success in keeping the end goal in mind. The whole purpose behind using the tracker was to ensure that curriculum is adequately and appropriately covered. If little to no training on its use took place, it defeated the purpose of even attempting to implement it in the school, knowing that it will be used very superficially.
IR 2017 dug a little deeper to gain information on the usage of the CPT and the responses below speak to what had been taking place at Zuzu P1 regarding the usage of the CPT. The Grade 8/9 mathematics teacher stated the following: “I joined the school at the beginning of 2016, but I had not attended any training while in this school. The training session I attended on the tracker was in 2015 at another school. I use the tracker all the time.”
The comment above found that teachers who received training at another school and were transferred to Zuzu P1 claimed to be using the tracker; however, upon inspection of the actual tracker those statements were contradictory. Evidence from the CPT (tracker) indicated that three weeks into the term the CPT was not filled in, yet the teacher claimed to have been using it. This begs the question as to how reliable the information received is, based on the notion that the responses are in direct contradiction to the evidence supplied. Having noticed that there are contradictions, the teacher gave the following response: “I was lazy to use it and rely on my memory for what I covered in class. That’s why I don’t do reflections.”
The teacher conceded to having been too lazy to complete the CPT and to have relied on memory. Therefore, this led to not filling in reflections on his teaching. Again, the point of poor knowledge about the tracker was raised by the participant stating that “if you were to talk to some of the colleagues, they would not know what a tracker is.” The HOD indicated that he deliberately chose interviewees based on who was using or attempting to use the CPT. This is as per the following comment by the HOD: “The teachers I chose for you to interview are those that are using the tracker or trying to. The senior teacher and I, we currently teach Grade 11 and we taught Grade 12 in 2016 so we are not using the trackers at all.” According to the
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Grade 8/9 mathematics teacher “people are reluctant to change from their old practices and without the necessary support and training they will not see the value of changing and using the tracker.” In other words, people are reluctant to use what they know little about. Therefore, to change their old practice and ways of doing things is extremely difficult, change becomes hard to achieve if one does not know the reasons for why the change is necessary. The theoretical framework used in this study can aid in explaining this concept of change using Lewin’s strategies for change (Lewin, 1947). Adequate training and support are needed in order to unfreeze a person’s current practice, the training provided needs to be engaging in order to provide adequate driving forces to enact change. Once enough training and support has been provided, the person is able to refreeze into a new practice with the ability to use the tracker for its intended purpose.
Many statements made by teachers do not seem to tie in with each other. One Grade 8/9 teacher stated that trackers had arrived before the end of Term 2 for the next term:
“The tracker had arrived before the end of Term 2 and I had an opportunity to plan my Term 3 work during the school holidays.”
This very same teacher stated that that had provided him with an opportunity to plan his Term 3 work during the holidays. A large contradiction to this was made when an interview with a Grade 10 teacher brought about claims that the tracker had arrived late. Furthermore, the work for the first week commenced late due to advice from her HOD. She only waited to do Term 3 work when she obtained the tracker. This is evidenced by an extract from the IR 2017 below.
Fig. 6.2. Contradiction of CPT being available on time
For the purposes of this study, which focuses on Grade 9 teachers’ usage of the CPT, the data extracted would indicate that the Grade 9 teacher was attempting to make use of the CPT despite having had no assistance from their seniors. It is possible that this ability to want to make use of the CPT was due to the teacher’s beliefs surrounding the teaching of mathematics which views the teacher as a self-regulated individual (Hudson, Kloosterman, & Galindo, 2012).
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Numerous challenges came about as a result of using the tracker and are expressed in the response below.
The Grade 8/9 mathematics teacher stated: “Perhaps the tracker could assist me better with teaching learners with superior abilities because so many of my learners take time to grasp concepts and they generally do not engage with their work as expected. But the tracker does not consider the contextual matters that result in a loss of time when we have recurring water shortages in the school. School closes early and then I lose teaching time.”
From the above comment, it would appear that one of the challenges experienced was that the CPT does not consider contextual factors which resulted in the loss in teaching time. On the notion of the slower pace followed, rather than the one suggested by the tracker as a possible hindrance, the teacher stated that “…calibre of learners is the reason for this but I use the days meant for consolidation in the tracker to catch up and if that doesn’t help then I am forced to use morning classes to assist learners because they take longer to understand certain concepts.”
The Grade 8/9 teacher felt that the CPT was better suited to teaching learners with superior abilities as many of the learners took time to grasp the concepts and as a result building onto these concepts at the pace proposed by the CPT did not work. However, to evaluate this challenge, the CPT does have a section for weekly reflections which could aid in finding alternative and creative means of delivering the curriculum in its entirety to these learners with lower ability levels. The CPT suggests time frames which are stemming from the CAPS document. It does not mean to say that the teacher cannot use their own discretion to make up for lost time. Teachers may not have a say in the content to be taught or be able to change policy but they do have the power to decide how to structure their lessons to ensure maximum benefit in their delivery of the content. Nothing stops an teacher from adjusting the pacing of teaching content based on the learners they have; which can be seen from Fig. 6.1 which discusses pacing. Therefore, making reflections and having reflective practice is so important to work out what works and what does not work.
Further challenges include the fact that the CPT does not consider other contextual factors which affect the day to day running of the school programme. One of the issues which plagued the school was the recurrent water shortages resulting in early closures leading to loss of teaching time. The Grade 8/9 teacher accommodated for this loss of teaching time by using the
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time allocated for consolidation in the tracker as time for teaching. That would serve to indicate that that teacher was indeed making use of the tracker within the contextual limitations of the school. In addition, he must have morning classes to assist with catching up on missed lesson.
Those morning lessons also aided in assisting learners with lower ability levels to catch up.
This was important since this teacher also stated that the poor calibre of learners made it difficult to keep to the pace proposed by the tracker. He had taken the initiative to resolve this challenge by using the consolidation time stipulated in the CPT and holding morning classes which was a commendable effort. However, another challenge which could result from that was the fact that there was then no consolidation taking place as the time needed for consolidation in the tracker was used for teaching content rather than reaffirming the content.
As much as it is important to teach the concepts in its entirety, it is just as important to ensure that adequate understanding and application of the content taught has taken place by means of consolidation, revision and remedial exercises. It is possible to have taught all content only to then realise that the learner has gained nothing from all the teaching that has occurred.
Consolidation allows for the teacher to take a step back and evaluate what the learners have really gained from all the teaching which took place.
Having looked at the usage of the CPT and having evaluated the enabling factors and challenges, the researcher needs to investigate the impact the CPT has had on curriculum coverage in order to answer the research questions.