4.3. EXPERIENCES RELATED TO THE TEACHING OF ACCOUNTING
4.3.4. Contextual limitations on assessment and teaching
Assessment is one of the most important aspects in the process of teaching and learning. However, Accounting novice teachers in rural schools are limited in recognising this aspect to its fullest due to the context they work in. The context itself has many detrimental effects on learning and assessment in Accounting, and this in turn has unfavourable influence on the learners’ performance. Novice teachers in rural schools revealed that the total distance learners travelled each day negatively affects their performance because of fatigue. This is what Jerry indicated:
“Learners are not practising Accounting at home and some you could see their performance is not good because you give a task as homework and expect them to do it. They will not because they get home tired and have other chores waiting for them at their homes.”
Moreover, schools in rural areas are characterised by a lack of teaching and learning resources affecting the process of teaching and learning which importantly includes assessing learners. Teachers mentioned that it was difficult to ask learners to review what had been done in class daily because they were sharing textbooks. Tom added that learners took turns to do homework. He revealed that:
“Learners are unable to do homework as they share textbooks; one day the textbook goes home with the other learner, the following day goes with the other student. Therefore, it is difficult to maintain the homework strategy.” (Tom).
Most commonly, teachers rely on photocopies to help eradicate the unfairness that occurs when learners share a textbook. Likewise, Accounting novice teachers approached a similar strategy to maintain the homework strategy. However, Accounting novice teachers in these rural schools revealed that the nature of most rural schools restricted them in terms of duplicating work for all learners to have a
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paper to go home with. Among other reasons, the schools could not provide all the necessities due to insufficient internal funds. Tom relied on making the copies for all learners, even though the nature of his school restricted it. He said:
“I usually make copies in the case where I used homework as a form of assessment, and which is also a challenge because you are limited in terms of copies you make.” (Tom)
In response to what restricts schools in trying to provide all necessary stationery and equipment for the purposes of teaching and learning. Tom reiterated:
“The school is also disadvantaged, meaning there are not enough funds to provide all necessary stationeries and equipment for teaching and learning.”
Furthermore, general context-based understanding and unsupportive views that rural people have about the whole purpose of education negatively impact the entire process of teaching and learning in rural schools. Novice teachers revealed that learners would sometimes not give priority to schoolwork, including not coming on formal and informal assessment dates. Jerry stated that:
“Learners will not write homework and come with so many excuses or get absent from the school even during the day of the test.” (Jerry).
If learners travel long distances to school, the process of teaching Accounting in rural schools is disrupted and jeopardised. According to novice teachers, learners’ lack of concentration and participation in the classroom is often the result of exhaustion due to the long distances they have travelled from home to school. This is what Sam stated:
“Sometimes you find that learners travel more than 20 km daily to reach the school. By the time the learner reached the school, he/she is very tired and cannot fully participate or concentrate in the classroom.” (Sam)
Concentration and participation are vital in any classroom setup for a teacher to ensure that learners are on the right track all the time.
The novice teachers also revealed that contextual realities of the rural areas their schools were situated in negatively impact the successful delivery of the Accounting curriculum as planned. They said that teaching the Accounting curriculum in rural
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schools is not easy because it did not relate to learners’ daily experiences. This is what Jerry stated:
“These learners have never ever seen or heard about a company, so obviously it is going to be very difficult to teach them about companies as we normally start from what they know [and progress] to what they do not know.” (Jerry).
Tom shared a similar concern regarding the impact of the context these learners were exposed to in teaching the budgeting content for the Grade 11 Accounting curriculum.
He stated:
“Some of our learners have little or no exposure to things such as budgeting as the financial background of their parents or families does not permit such things to exist.” (Tom).
Furthermore, novice teachers in rural schools revealed that it is not easy to enact the curriculum as planned due to limitations brought up by the context they work in. The CAPS document outlines the kind of resources recommended to effectively deliver the intended content; however, their contextual realities restrict them from implementing the curriculum as planned. This is what Sara mentioned:
“Our teaching document recommends teaching resources such as a newspaper to effectively teach ‘Ethics and Internal control’. Tell me then where learners can find a newspaper, as normally parents go once a month to town?”
(Sara)
Sara said even they themselves as teachers are unable to have such resources in their hands because they also have limited access to town due to the long distance from school to town, and unreliable transport.
“I go to town on my payday only to do everything I need because it is far, and the transport is not reliable.” (Sara).
Contextual limitations played a large role in restricting Accounting novice teachers from ensuring that the process of teaching and learning Accounting is successful including the assessment aspect. Assessment plays a significant role in the final output, which in this context refers to learners’ performance as shaped by formal and informal assessments.
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