2.8 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2.8.1: Rationale
Rationale is defined as a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or belief; it answers the question as to why one is teaching (Khoza, 2016b; Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009b).
Moreover, rationale can be defined as the reasons why one is performing a certain action and is a cognitive process that requires us to pull aside the curtains of habit, automatism and banality so that alternative possibilities can be perceived (Du Preez & Reddy, 2014; Khoza, 2015c). For instance, lecturers may teach because they have a passion for teaching, because they want to contribute to society’s needs, or because they see the need for the knowledge taught. An interpretive case study conducted by Khoza (2015b) of two postgraduate students (participants) on teaching without curriculum vision and goals reveals that postgraduate students are not aware of rationale (visions) behind teaching, which limits quality teaching in their subjects. The study reveals that “understanding the curriculum visions helps lecturers to reflect on their teaching in order to improve their teaching practice” (Khoza, 2015c, p. 2). It is also indicated from the study that when lecturers understand the teaching rationale, they identify relevant curriculum goals, which leads to the use of the correct strategies. In addition, Khoza (2015c) concurs with Berkvens et al. (2014) that the motive that drives our action is Lecturer
role
How do you facilitate your teaching?
Assessor Instructor Facilitator
Written strategy Habitual strategy Verbal strategy Assessment How do you assess teaching? Summative assessment
Formative assessment Peer assessment
Written strategy Habitual strategy Verbal strategy Teaching
environment
Where are you teaching? Face to face interaction Online teaching Blended learning
Written strategy Habitual strategy Verbal strategy Teaching
activities
How are you teaching? Academic writing Tutorials
Group work
Written strategy Habitual strategy Verbal strategy Accessibility With/who are you teaching? Financial
Physical Cultural
Verbal strategy Habitual strategy Written strategy Time When are you teaching? Contact time
Spare time Leave time
Written strategy Habitual strategy Verbal strategy
37
very important; thus lecturers need to know why they teach their modules. As a result, rationale is at the centre of the curriculum concepts, which means that it applies to all of the curriculum issues, including the decolonisation of the curriculum. Furthermore, studies reveal that the rationale for teaching has three aspects, namely professional, personal and societal rationale (Du Preez & Reddy, 2014; Khoza, 2016b; Slaughter & Lo Bianco, 2009).
Professional rationale is a vision that places a discipline or profession at the centre of the teaching/learning environment (Khoza, 2016b; Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009a, p. 4; Uysal &
Bardakci, 2014). Bernstein (1975) as well as Berkvens et al. (2014) assert that professional rationale is guided by performance curriculum, where the focus is on the cognitive domain.
Moreover, this kind of rationale (professional rationale) is very specific about the content that must be taught and how it should be taught (Bernstein, 1975; Hoadley & Jansen, 2013).
Additionally, Hoadley and Jansen (2013) add that performance of professional rationale allows the lecturer to control the selection, sequence and pace of the knowledge taught in a lecture hall. In addition, Hoadley and Jansen (2013) and Ayers (1992) affirm that in professional rationale lecturers aim to finish the syllabus without students understanding the content taught.
This suggests that the focus is the product and not the step-by-step process of teaching the product; thus students’ needs are not met. As a result, professional rationale relates to written strategies, as Kirk and MacCallum (2017) as well as Aad et al. (2014) report that institutions’
policy documents guide decisions taken by staff to update the curriculum. This suggests that lecturers’ teaching practices can be guided by policy documents in choosing the module content; for instance, lecturers can be mandated in their contract to select 70% local literature texts and 30% from international sources to teach in classes. Personal rationale assists lecturers to use their individual identities and beliefs to implement the curriculum effectively.
Personal rationale draws on an individual lecturer’s personal identity. Khoza (2016b, p. 3) asserts that “personal rationale puts individual lecturer at the centre of teaching/learning environment” and this is driven by one’s habit. For example, a lecturer who has been teaching for a number of years would not dwell too much on preparing for a lecture, but will use personal examples as a way of passing the content on to students and making it really practical.
Furthermore, Khoza (2015c) as well as Thijs and Van den Akker (2009a) affirm that personal rationale forms an environment that helps lecturers and students to build up their own unique individual identities as they demonstrate their personal preferences and experiences. Further to this, personal rationale seems to relate to habitual strategy, as Pratt and Martin (2017) as well
38
as Barrot (2016) assert that habitual strategies are memory strategies which help lecturers to store data effectively in their mind and to be able to retrieve it later. This then suggests that lecturers seem to use their own personal identities in order to develop their own personal strategies for better curriculum implementation. For instance, the lecturer may decide to adopt a certain teaching method such as group work in the lecture hall that may meet students’ needs in order to make the curriculum relevant to their local context. In other words, personal rationale drives lecturers to use habitual strategies as individual lecturers have different methods to implement the curriculum. As a result, lecturers’ personal rationale allows them to decide whether they address social needs (students’ needs) or professional (discipline needs) needs in their teaching process.
Social rationale relates to lecturers wanting to satisfy the needs of the society (students) and studies outline that social rationale places society at the centre of the teaching/learning environment (Khoza, 2016b; Ramrathan, 2017; Zhang & Wang, 2016). This suggests that lecturers need to be aware that students come from the society, and thus their teaching examples should be socially constructed (Bianchini et al., 2015; Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009b). For example, an English lecturer may seek students to contribute towards giving practical illustrations based on what is taught, such as what effects of poverty they see in their communities and what they think can be done to alleviate the situation. As a result social rationale is driven by what Bennett and Maton (2010) called competence curriculum. These studies continue to assert that competence curriculum is the curriculum that encourages teaching that draws from students’ everyday knowledge. Furthermore, Hoadley and Jansen (2013) concur with Ramrathan (2017) that competence curriculum provides both lecturers and students with important ways to link the formal knowledge that is taught in school and ways to apply that knowledge in individuals’ daily lives. This suggests that competence curriculum emphasises practicality of content; for instance, students should enhance the ability to experience what is being taught in the class.
In addition, Khoza (2013b) as well as Hoadley and Jansen (2013) affirm that social rationale competence curriculum allows students to have control over the selection, sequence and pacing of the knowledge, and this relates to student-centered teaching. Social rationale relates to verbal strategies; for instance, lecturers may use this strategy to create more room for students to participate during the teaching and learning process of English education. From the above discussion considering the rationale for teaching, it is evident that lecturers can generate their
39
strategies based on three rationales, namely professional, personal and societal. The goal of teaching is another important aspect to be discussed.