RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER 4 CASE STUDIES
4. Educator to learner ratio
The teacher to learner ratio ranged from the lowest range, which was 31:1 in grade 3 to the highest range, which is 32:1 in grades 1 and 2. The educator to learner ratio in each grade is represented in table 4.1. below:
Table A 4.1. Educator to learner ratio in each grade Grade 1
32:1
Grade 2 32:1
Grade 3 31:1
The mean teacher to learner ratio for this school is 32:1.
Graph (see at the end of case study A - graph 3) b. Grade 1 educators and learners
b. 1. Who are the Grade 1 educators?
b. 1.1. Teaching experience
There were 2 Grade 1 educators, both females. Both teachers were white. Educator Rose was 35-39 years old and she has had seventeen and a half years teaching experience, fourteen and half of which were spent teaching Grade 1 at this school. Educator Sue was more than 46 years old and she has had twenty five years of teaching experience, three of which were spent teaching Grade 1 at this school. Both educators taught Grade 1 at this
school in 1998, when OBE was implemented and they also taught Grade 1 during the data collection period. For this research, educator Rose and educator Sue planned the learning programme together and each presented the learning programme to their respectiverlasses.
b. 1.2. Qualifications
Both educators had academic and professional qualifications. Educator Rose had an M 3 qualification and educator Sue had an M 5 qualification. Educator Rose obtained her qualification from a teacher college of education, while educator Sue obtained her qualification from a local college of education and a university. Both teachers were not involved in studying, at that time.
b. 1.3. Feelings about facilitating OBE Life Skills
Both educators' feelings about facilitating in relation to OBE Life Skills were similar.
Both educators felt confident and competent to facilitate OBE Life Skills. This matched the high level of confidence and competence they rated of themselves. What was significant was that both educators' feelings and ratings were the same. Another significant point was that educator Rose stated that she was not confident with working with all the outcomes and the assessment criteria, while educator Sue stated that she did not feel confident with Curriculum 2005 specific outcomes.
b. 1.4. Feelings about OBE training
Both educators felt that they did not need more OBE training, this could be linked to the negative response that they both gave for the question - Do you value highly the OBE Life Skills training that you received? Both educators had attended a five-day basic OBE and Curriculum 2005 training course run by the education department, which they both said they found confusing.
b. 1.5. Involvement in curriculum development
The Grade 1 educators' involvement in curriculum development with regard to OBE was looked at from the perspective of their involvement in OBE material development. Both
educators had been implementing OBE for a year and what was significant was that both educators stated that they were not involved in curriculum development. Could this be that the educators themselves do not see themselves as being involved in curriculum development or do not see themselves as curriculum developers and they do not understand the extent of curriculum development, or even what it entails?
b.2. Who are the Grade 1 learners?
b. 2.1. Number and gender
The total number of learners in grade 1, Educator Rose' class, was thirty-two. Sixteen (50%) learners were boys and sixteen (50%) learners were girls. The total number of the learners in educator Sue' class was thirty-one. Fifteen (48%) learners were boys and sixteen (52%) were girls.
b. 2.2. Age of learners
The learners in educator Rose' and Sue' class ranged in age from 5years old to seven years old. In educator Rose' class five (16%) learners were five years old, twenty five (78%) learners were six years old and two (6%) learners were seven years old. In educator Sue' class eleven (35%) learners were five years old, eighteen (58%) learners were six years old and two (7%) learners were seven years old (Pie graph - age of learners, graphs 6 and 7).
b. 2.3. Language of learners
The learners were taught in the medium of English, which was a first language for, twenty-eight (88%) learners in educator Rose' class and twenty-six (84%) learners in educator Sue' class. In educator Rose' class there were four (13%) English second language learners, one (3%) was Afrikaans first language and three (9%) were Zulu first language. In educator Sue' class there were five (16%) English second language learners, one (3%) was Portuguese first language and four (13%) were Zulu first language.
b. 2.4. Racial composition
At this learning site there were mixed racial groupings of learners. In educator Rose' class there were four (12%) African learners, thirteen (41%) White learners, one (3%) Coloured learner, and fourteen (44%) Indian learners. In educator Sue' class there were five (16%) African learners, six (19%) White learners, four (13%) Coloured learners and sixteen (52%) Indian learners. At this learning site there was also mixed cultural groupings (See graph 8 and 9 at the end of case study A).
b. 2.5. Pre-school experience
All (100%) of the Grade 1 learners had attended a pre-school, either a registered school or a private 'creche'. So, it can be assumed that one hundred percent of the learners were prepared for the demands of Grade one and also that the basic drawing and writing ability of these learners had been developed, at pre-school. All the learners had attended an English medium pre-school.
Category 4 - Materials
The first concrete category was the book category. This category included a garden booklet compiled by the Grade 1 educators, writing books and readers for Literacy, Me in the Garden. There were twenty-one readers used during this period. Examples of readers were: Come into the garden, Rod Campbell, Ginn 360 level 1, book 4 Home; Book 5 Lad and Book 6 Ben; Little books- Butterfly, In the garden; Sunshine books- The weather chart, Up in a tree, Water, On the ground, Spider and The nest. (Appendix B - List of Readers). The worksheet category included all the worksheets that were stapled together to form a garden booklet, a gardening sequencing worksheet and a cutting and pasting design technology worksheet.(Appendix B - Learner Garden Booklet). The garden and gardening implements category included the actual school garden, the garden shed in the school grounds with all the gardening equipment, pot plants, learners box gardens, compost box, seeds and seed trays, slips of plants placed in 2 liter bottles, rocks, spades, a lawnmower, a rake, a gardening fork and a watering can. The chalkboard category included words written on the chalkboard, letters from the alphabet written on the
chalkboard, symbols indicating the grouping of learners and points awarded for neatness and activities completed. The chart category consisted of a range of charts depicting gardening aspects that were pinned on the back classroom board and on the windows.
The music cassette category included music cassettes with approximately 12 pieces of music, some the learners just listened to while they worked and some were integrated during the sessions. The activity instruments category included pencils, glue, scissors, colouring pencils, including rollups and Koki pens (learners brought these to school from home), although the educator did have some resources like crayons available for the learners to use, school shoes/feet for measuring shadows, rulers, building blocks, leaves and seed pods. The other category included a sorting tray, a dog and a kennel, vegetables for making a salad and a salad bowl, crossword puzzles and a shackland (informal dwelling) setup, an overhead projector and transparencies of the external structure of a plant and a fieldtrip to the Japanese Gardens.
In the abstract category, the poetry that was used was 'The Seed', 'Little rain,' 'My shadow' and 'Mud'. The story category had stories about 'animals in the garden,' and learners had to retell extracts of the story. The drama category included the learners dramatising catching their shadows; shake, shake, shake; planting seeds in their garden;
growth of a plant and 2 little dikkie birds.
A descriptive -interpretive discussion of how these materials were integrated during the presentation of the programme organiser will be detailed in section 2 on engagement with the programme organiser.
Category 5 - Resources to teach OBE
The OBE materials that the school had for the Grade 1 educators to refer to when implementing OBE were Policy documents for the Foundation phase, which gave basic guidelines on what the different learning areas for the Foundation phase are. Educators also had and Life Skills programmes with Teachers guides and Illustrative Learning packages were also in the schools possession.
Category 6 - Classroom resources for Grade 1 learners.
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