2.3 Teacher learning theories
2.3.5 How constructivist approaches influence teacher learning in Africa
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or mistakes and subject-specific analogies, should be subsumed as propositional knowledge, while pedagogical knowledge and assessment strategies for a particular subject should be considered under the practical domain (2011, p. 10).
The Norms and Standards for teacher education gazetted in 2000 describe the seven roles that teachers need to enact, rather than the knowledge that they need to enact these roles. It appears as if the policymakers perhaps did not understand knowledge as essential to underpinning the practice of these roles, or that the role of knowledge was so obvious that it did not need to be articulated. The Norms and Standards were replaced by the teacher education policy, the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Quality (MRTEQ) (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2011a), which foregrounds the knowledge needed for teaching.
The MRTEQ policy framework was gazetted in 2011 and it serves as an outline for the knowledge base that every teacher has to acquire from the professional development programmes. This framework specifies five teacher knowledge domains, namely, disciplinary (subject), general pedagogical, practical, fundamental and situational knowledge. Of the five, the fundamental and situational domains could be regarded as an attempt to redress the imbalances of the past that were created by the former apartheid regime. On this vein, it appears that the knowledge base for teachers is emerging as an important area of concern in the South African education context and research field. And studies in this field continue to redefine itself in the midst of new policy frameworks and against the international set standards. Research on whether domains of teacher knowledge are currently taught in PD programmes such as ACT is still scarce, yet such research might provide data upon which teacher education providers and policymakers would base claims regarding teacher knowledge. It also seems that the main fields being researched on a large scale in South Africa are teachers’ knowledge in relation to mathematics in particular and to a lesser extent, literacy. The knowledge base for Foundation Phase teachers is even vaguer, as it comprises an amalgamation of three learning areas:
mathematics, literacy and life skills.
In the next section, I present conceptual arguments regarding contingent constructivism approaches, which seem to be ideal for teacher education in in the developing countries including South Africa.
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At the heart of constructivist learning theory is the belief that knowledge is not prescribed, but acquired through real experiences that have purpose and meaning to the learner and that the active exchange of experiences with others is paramount (Frawley & Lantolf, 1985). In addition, this learning theory articulates that the acquired knowledge is built on the prior knowledge which relates to situated learning proponents. Kelly (2006), contends that teacher learning must be situated in a relevant or "authentic" context. Thus, there is a great deal of overlap between what some authors call constructivist learning, social constructivist learning and the socio-cultural learning approaches in relation to the epistemological notion. Social constructivist and socio-cultural learning approaches put more emphasis on learning through social interaction and the value placed on cultural background.
In this section, I offer literature that focuses on the constructivist approaches which are related to teacher learning only. Constructivist approaches emphasise teacher learning and teacher change which is sustainable, contextual and offers appropriate teacher knowledge for the diversity in schools (Vavrus, 2009). Teacher learning, based on these conceptual understandings, is not only cognitive in nature, but is also the acquisition of new knowledge related to what the teacher already knows and is context-based (Hill & Khuboni, 2013). These approaches are presented in the form of situated cognition theories based on the early works of Piaget (1896–1980) who was instrumental in the development of informal learning.
Constructivist philosophy has a long history of application in PD programmes for teachers.
Hence, the relevance of literature with constructivist approaches in this dissertation.
The main aim of the ACT programme is to initiate and develop appropriate learning opportunities which promote “critical thinking among the FP teachers [who] then effectively learn from the providers [ACT programme] and subsequent engage in classroom practices”
(Hill & Khuboni, 2013). These objectives relate to the general goals of professional development programmes for practicing teachers: “to broaden and deepen teachers’ subject knowledge, pedagogic knowledge and educational knowledge. [And], extend teachers’
reflective capabilities; facilitate professional growth and to enable access for further education”
(Reed et al., 2002, p. 254).
For the last two decades, such teachers’ programmes using the constructivist approaches t engage with teacher learning, have been well developed and empirical evidence on their
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suitability is available in the UK and other developed countries (Cooner & Tochternan, 2004;
King, 2014). There seems to be an inadequate systematic documentation or funded research inquiry into teacher learning programmes based on constructivist learning approaches in the developing countries. And, several research findings highlight that the normative constructivist approaches to teacher learning initiatives and even classroom pedagogies are inappropriate in the African context (O' Sullivan, 2004; Tabulawa, 1997; Vavrus, 2009). Most of the normative (pure) constructivist approaches are appropriate and developed for the developed environments and highly educated or qualified teachers.
Therefore, several researchers are opposed to the normative constructivist approaches to African teacher education in favour of the contingent constructivists’ approaches which are contextually focused. The contingent constructivist approaches to teacher learning incorporate a broad range of pedagogical alternatives for demonstrating exceptional teaching for the teachers. For instance, teachers are encouraged to use whatever learners’ activities, teaching strategies and skills that work best in their context, to bring about effective teaching and learning, rather than insisting on always using the norm constructivist approach adopted from the developed countries. According to Vavrus (2009), this perspective encourages pedagogical practices which are grounded in the context, rather than using the prescribed norms.
Thus, teacher learning programmes which build teachers’ knowledge should provide learning opportunities where teachers can construct and reconstruct knowledge according to their own individual understanding and context (O' Sullivan, 2004). In the process, this kind of professional learning is able to stimulate the development of more independent learning skills and higher order cognitive skills among the participants, the teachers. Bearing in mind the complexity of teacher learning, such models provide teachers with a variety of learning opportunities which recognise their work, teachers’ identity and the nature of teacher change.
These are branded as adoptive models of teacher learning and change in the African context.
According to Tabulawa (1997), teachers’ professional lives are further complicated by the social, cultural, economic and political environment of the particular country or context. In this vein, he blames the Botswana government for introducing the learner centred curriculum in the 1970s without considering the complexities of the teacher centred approaches which were the cultural norm in the country. Substantial evidence also asserts that traditional approaches are
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more effective for teaching, especially in poor countries, due to social historic factors coupled with technical logistics (Brodie et al., 2002; Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008; O' Sullivan, 2004). In addition, Serbessa (2006) declares that the socio-economic situation in Africa makes it difficult to develop and adopt the ‘alien’ Western approaches which are perceived as effective methods of teaching and learning and thus, responsible for inconsistent classroom practices in South Africa (Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008). Due to these complexities, some teachers only take up the instructional strategies from a professional programme, leaving out the philosophy and rationale of the pedagogical ideologies (Adey et al., 2004; Brodie et al., 2002; Chisholm, 2011). Thus, changing pedagogical practices which have evolved over a long time and are often grounded in the socio-historical factors in Africa is a difficult, expensive and complex task.
So, it is more cost effective and useful for PD practitioners to stop condemning the formalistic (teacher centred) approaches which are still popular in many schools in the African context.
Professional development models should nurture what is positive or good from such practices, identify any unrealistic methodologies and seek better sustainable ways of improving them, so as to achieve the desired changes in the African education systems (Serbessa, 2006; Vavrus, 2009).
According to O' Sullivan (2004), a study about the use of direct instruction methods for teaching and learning, conducted in the US in 1979 , showed a positive impact among the slow learners. Similarly, in the South African context, the township and rural schools continue to perform poorly in mathematics and literacy (Hoadley, 2013; Hoadley & Ensor, 2009;
Slonimsky & Brodie, 2006). Hence, PD programmes are recommended to equip teachers with the formalistic or pragmatic approaches to understand pedagogical explanation of such performance in schools. Similar recommendations (in empirical studies) have been expressed in Namibia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho and other sub-Saharan countries.
In the same vein, Jansen (1998) and Slonimsky and Brodie (2006) illustrate how inappropriate policies at the onset of democracy in South Africa led to the introduction and implementation of a radical OBE curriculum (Curriculum 2005) which did not consider the under-resourced schools, ill-trained teachers, or the conventional authority relations in these schools. By 2002, Curriculum 2005 changed to Revised National Curriculum Statements (RNCS), which encouraged active learning, creativity, innovation and at the same time guided the teachers on
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the key areas of learning (Wayne, 2014). South Africa implemented another revised school curriculum (CAPS) in 2012, adopting the contingent approaches but also strictly guiding the teachers on what, how and when to teach. The aim was to cater for the diverse schools’ needs and to offset the learners’ continued poor performance.
If policy makers and researchers’ desire is to change the teachers’ practices at the FP and improve their teaching knowledge, there is a need to ground professional development activities on contingent constructivists’ approaches, which relate to the teachers’ contexts, local conditions, and the historical and technical challenges in South Africa. This means that teacher learning should be underpinned by contingent constructivist approaches which allow the use of flexible and wide range of pedagogical approaches in specific contexts (O' Sullivan, 2004;
Vavrus, 2009). Opposed to the normative models from the rich western education systems which are linked to advanced technology and learner centred environments. If PD programmes draw from the contextual and pragmatic approaches, teacher learning process would lead to teacher change or growth appropriate to meet the needs of diverse classroom practices in Africa.
After providing several theories of teacher learning and the domains of teacher knowledge, the next section offers a description of the key teacher learning theory which underpins this study.