Appendix C
Interviewer Basically speaking how do you handle the aspect of assessment in general?
Respondent: I usually follow the prescripts of the department. This includes aspects such as giving some homework, class work, tests, assignments and some other exercises that are relevant to knowledge testing.
**************
Second Interview: Natural Science Educator (NS)
Interviewer: Good morning. I believe that you are an NS teacher. I am Sineke, a student at the University of Natal doing my M.Ed Please will you tell me how you prepare your learners for their final examinations.
Respondent: I leave my learners to revise on their own. It is only when they are doing experiments that I come close in order to supervise.
I am aware that the chemicals that the learners could be dangerous. I also have to remind them that discussions should not be in one dominant language because in my class there are both English and Afrikaans speaking learners.
Interviewer: If you were given the choice to teach or not teach a class of Grade 9 again, what would you choose?
Respondent: I would choose to teach Grade 9 again. Teaching that level has given me new positive experience about teaching.
Interviewer: How do you handle the continuous task assessment? Do you find that difficult?
Respondent: I am concerned about the late arrival of the continuous task assessment material. This has to be done by learners within a one-week period. 1 think that this is not fair to the students as they are not familiar with the methods of the CTA.
Interviewer Basically speaking how do you handle the aspect of assessment in general?
Respondent: We agreed as the school that assessment shall be done in all learning areas
according to the dictates of C2005 assessment practises. Therefore all aspects of assessment work are given.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Third Interview: Economic Management Sciences (EMS)
Interviewer: I am Sineke, a student at the University of Natal doing my M.Ed and here sitting with me is my third respondent, the E M S . educator. Please will you tell me how you prepare your learners for their final examinations?
Respondent: All I have to do is to let the students stay in my class in order to work on their own. Occasionally I go in to them in order to find out whether they have any problems. If some need my guidance, I assist them.
Interviewer: If you were given the choice to teach or not teach a class of Grade 9 again, what would you choose?
Respondent: I definitely would choose to teach Grade 9 again.
Interviewer: How do you handle the continuous task assessment? Do you find that difficult?
Respondent: I dont find any difficulty with the ( I A It is just a problem that the material for the CTA often arrives very late at the school.
Interviewer Basically speaking how do you handle the aspect of assessment in general?
Respondent: Well as a school we agreed that all set principles of C2005 shall be followed.
Sometimes we ask a teacher from another related field to set questions for us so that we may be able to determine our progress and the relatedness of our teaching.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Fourth Interview: Language, Literacy and Communication (LLC1)
Interviewer: I am Sineke, a student at the University of Natal doing my MEd and here sitting with me is my fourth respondent, the educator for L L C . 1. Please will you tell me how you prepare your learners for their final examinations?
Respondent: Oh, I usually leave them to get on with it themselves, but make myself available to help them if they so require.
Interviewer: If you were given the choice to teach or not teach a class of Grade 9 again, what would you choose?
Respondent: I would enjoy teaching the Grade 9 learners again, and I have found that I too have learnt quite a lot through teaching C2005.
Interviewer: How do you handle the continuous task assessment? Do you find that difficult?
Respondent: I don't find any problems with that, only sometimes with the short amount of time allowed for the assessment, as the material is sent too late by the Department.
Interviewer: Therefore, basically speaking how do you handle the aspect of assessment in general?
Respondent: With LLC it is easy, almost every work we do has an exercise that need some work to be done. Of cause there is an understanding we must structure our work on the basis of C2005 aspects.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Fifth Interview: Technology Teacher (Tech)
Interviewer: I am Sineke, a student at the University of Natal doing my M.Ed. Good morning. You are the Technology Educator, are you not?
Respondent: Yes, 1 am the educator for Technology.
Interviewer: Please will you tell me how you prepare your learners for their final examinations?
Respondent: On most occasions I leave the learners to prepare on their own. I find that they often even try challenging one another to make some designs that are
not even mentioned during the lessons that I conducted whilst I was still teaching.
Interviewer: If you were given the choice to teach or not teach a class of Grade 9 again, what would you choose?
Respondent: I am not too impressed by C2005. I find that the environment under which the learners learn is not conducive to practices advocated by C2005. Also parents are also not exposed to the financial demands of C2002 and learners are also not exposed to the outside world. For example, in one lesson that asks learners to write about communication, students living in town will mention the internet as one of the ways to communicate, but farm students would not even understand what the internet is, and yet they are all taught the same curriculum 2005.
Interviewer: How do you handle the continuous task assessment? Do you find that difficult?
Respondent: It is not difficult, but a lot of work has been covered, and often when the material arrives late, I find it difficult to complete it in time, things would be fine if the department would deliver on time.
Interviewer Therefore, basically speaking how do you handle the aspect of assessment in general?
Respondent: All our assessment is centred on the set demands by the department.
***********************
Sixth Interview: Arts and Culture Teacher (A & ( )
Interviewer: Good morning. I believe that you are an Arts and Culture teacher. I am Sineke, a student at the University of Natal doing my M.Ed Please will you tell me how you prepare your learners for their final examinations.
Respondent: I give my learners lots of projects to work on. This assists them in being able to do revision without being aware of it.
Interviewer How do you cope with the training you've received in this particular learning area?
mainly because our facilitator had thorough knowledge of arts.
Interviewer: If you were given the choice to teach or not teach a class of Grade 9 again, what would you choose?
Respondent: I would choose to teach Grade 9 again. Teaching that level has given me new positive experience about teaching, specifically with regard to the many different cultures that our students bring.
Interviewer: How do you handle the continuous task assessment? Do you find that difficult?
Respondent: The department needs to do more homework about this area. They delivered these CTA'S very late and as such this negatively impacted on our school year planner. This was also new even to the students, most of them could hardly cope without supervision. On general assessment aspects, 1 just follow those set for us by the department. This is a wide field, so I am able to tap into other learning areas as well with the help of other teachers.
Interviewer: Do you have adequate learner support material to handle this learning area?
Respondent: Learner support material is never enough, mainly because we in a technological world. Our school cannot always keep up, however, within our region we are amongst the leaders in the area of arts and culture
teaching.
Interviewer: How do you plan your lessons?
Respondent: We meet with teachers of other learning areas and discuss how we are going to handle a particular phase organiser.
Interviewer: Madam, thank you for affording me this opportunity to talk to you.
Respondent: You're welcome.