4.5 How does English First Additional Language teacher‘s participation and what they
4.5.3 Improvement in teaching, assessment and planning strategies as part of
When asked about how their participation in clusters contributed to their professional development, teachers referred back to the discussion on what they learnt in clusters.
They regarded the improvement in their repertoire of teaching and assessment strategies, as well as the sharpening of their planning skills as apt of professional development that resulted from participating in clusters. In one of the meetings that I observed some teachers were talking amongst themselves, discussing that clusters are very helpful in their work as teachers. They said their clusters have helped them a lot in understanding assessment, improving assessment strategies, understanding the curriculum and implementing the curriculum. They saw this as contributing to their professional development because they had improved on their assessment strategies through the conversations they have with their colleagues. They mentioned that being involved in
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clusters really helped because they were assisted in finding easier ways to achieve their assessment standards that are stipulated in the curriculum document. One teacher indicated that members of her cluster had a problem with understanding some of the assessment criteria in grade eleven and twelve and it was in the cluster meetings that they discussed it and found clarity and easier ways to assess the learners work as mentioned by Mrs Pillay below:
We did have a meeting, one of the cluster meetings, most of us were
confused about the assessment criteria and assessment standards, especially when it came to grade eleven and grade twelve. When it came to tasks as well because we had assessment criteria to follow during classwork and we had a task…so in that way it became a real issue because we couldn’t do all of these things but there was a lot of encouragement with our cluster group and that’s where we discussed it and were assisted and found easier ways in which we could actually achieve our assessment standards.
Teachers indicated that the revised National Curriculum Statement (NCS) came with new assessment strategies that they had to implement, which was different from what they were used to doing previously, as revealed by Mr Mhlongo when he said that:
It was the first time using the rubric, I used to use my own discretion when marking learners work, that the child deserves a twenty nine and that child deserves a twenty five, but now we are using a rubric, therefore I have to share and even to portray my problem and say this is my problem at school, how did you solve it?
Teachers also indicated that clusters also helped them with assessment activities that they can give to learners. Some of the teachers from under-resourced schools mentioned that being in clusters helped them with assessment because they shared material and this meant that they could now give their learners a variety of material, for both classwork and homework, as mentioned by Mrs Zikhali below:
Through this information from clusters, we develop professionally, as we are able to do everything, to give learners practical work to do at home as homework and even to do as classwork exercises. Therefore this information is very important because if for instance you are coming from my school which is
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under-resourced I can get a lot of things such as books, textbooks and also hand-outs and even previous exam papers, because they have access to information.
Teachers were also given feedback on how to prepare their learners so that they will know what to do in paper three by the time they were in grade twelve. Teachers were also told how the learners‘ marks were structured in the grade twelve final exams and where they should give their learners more emphasis in order to achieve their maximum marks.
Teachers also indicated that clusters have helped them in planning their work for the year and understanding the syllabus and knowing exactly what needed to be done and when to do it. This was seen in the following words by Mrs Preston:
In the beginning of the year we discuss the syllabus for the whole year...the question papers, the things we should look at concerning the academic stuff.
This suggested that the teachers did not do their own things in schools; they were guided by the information from the clusters. Clusters helped them with their planning, because the planning for the year was discussed in the cluster meetings, this means clusters also eased the teachers workloads. When they got to their schools, they only fine-tuned their planning and went straight to teaching.
Teachers indicated that being involved in clusters helped them improve their teaching strategies. Teachers indicated that the help that they received from their colleagues in schools was not adequate for the teaching of EFAL, but general to any learning area.
They mentioned that attending cluster meetings meant that they could ask questions pertaining to strategies for improving teaching and learning of certain aspects in the EFAL curriculum and the feedback that they received would be specific to EFAL, as mentioned by Mr Okeke in the following excerpt:
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To get some strategies, how do they make it, how do they make their children do better in other subjects, more especially in the language.
Clusters seemed to be helping teachers with applying strategies that are up to date and relevant with the curriculum, as teachers suggested that the way things are done has changes with the introduction of the NCS, as suggested by Miss Ngwane that :
We have clusters in order to educate each other on what is being done now, as it is no longer like before.
Teachers also mentioned that when they are at the marking centres for the grade twelve final examinations they also learn new things, so they come back to the clusters and they share the new knowledge with their colleagues in the cluster groups.
Again it came up in the cluster meetings as well as some interviews that teachers are also encouraged to be professional in the cluster meetings, teachers are encouraged to be punctual, keep their files up to date and to always have the relevant material when attending cluster meetings. The teachers were also recognized as professionals and adult learners because the subject advisor encouraged them to help each other, especially the new teachers and she also gave the senior markers of the grade twelve examinations an opportunity to give feedback to their colleagues about assessment and other important things that teachers should note in teaching and assessing EFAL.