Chapter 5: INDUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF DATA
5.4 KEY THEMES FROM AN INDUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA
5.4.1 Theme 1: The range of different learning activities are focused on a single goal
From my observation of provincial and district level workshops, these are the kinds of activities that take place:
• Subject advisors and selected teachers teach new content topics;
• Cluster Leaders coordinate and lead discussions;
• Teachers help each other develop pedagogical content knowledge (how to teach particular topics);
• Group activities focus both on learning new content and on PCK;
• Subject advisors lead an analysis of the previous year’s or term’s results;
• Content knowledge of the teachers is assessed by the subject advisor before the start of a content workshop.
All of these activities are clearly focused on a single goal, which is getting teachers to do all the activities in their ATP in such a manner that the learners perform well at the end of the year and they are able to improve on what they achieved in the previous academic year. So teachers are expected to share their best practices, in order to learn and apply them in their various workplaces.
With regard to the learning activities, it becomes clear that these are not initiated by the teachers because the Department is strongly focused on improving the performance of the learners. It is interesting to note that most activities do not encourage teachers’ proactivity or allow them to initiate the direction the workshop should take. Teachers can raise challenges they experience in the classroom when they teach their learners, if these are linked to content or pedagogy. Systemic challenges are not entertained. For instance, in one of the district workshops there
142 was one teacher who complained about the classroom time allocated per topic as they have only 40 minutes per lesson to teach. This challenge was not entertained by the Subject Advisor as the facilitator and the other teachers present. Instead, the Subject Advisor reminded her that it is policy and she has to abide by the policy, or discuss the problem with the Head of Department.
I further observed that the Subject advisor dominated the discussions, giving
direction on what process is to be followed in the workshop. He emphasised that the teachers should stick to the exam guidelines, which were developed to mitigate the failure rate in Grades 11 and 12. He did not allow any initiative on the part of the teachers. The department sets the pace and the teachers follow. He selects the teachers who will present in the workshop. Flexibility is not encouraged. Towards the end of the session, the facilitator rushed so that by 16H00 he would have covered everything he had planned to do that day. At the end of the workshop, the teachers were reminded to conduct moderation in their cluster and to set a common exam paper. This exam paper and the memorandum must be sent to the district office for comment.
The district level workshops only benefit the teachers that teach in Grades 11 and 12, probably because of the strong focus on improving learner performance. Yeye is a Grade 10 teacher who would be invited to the cluster meetings and workshops, but she feels that the workshops focus on Grade 12 mainly. She feels that separating these grades when hosting the workshops may assist the MDoE in achieving the intended objectives.
Grade 10 and most of the time they talk about Grade 12 (syllabus). Like, these genetics, and I don’t teach genetics in Grade 10. So, most of the time as Grade 10 teachers…. I think maybe what can be done, they can call Grade 10 cluster meetings where we discuss content with other Grade 10 educators and not to mix with Grade 12, because Grade 12 is like a priority. They prioritise Grade 12, other than the lower grades. (Yeye, 2 years’ teaching experience)
What Yeye is saying is what I have observed as well: the content and the activities of the workshops focus on the matric syllabus, with nothing on Grade 10, which could have been where the problem of the comprehension of the content by the learners (including the problem of the teachers delivering the content to the learners so that the learners understand) starts. I am saying this is where the problem starts
143 because matric Life Sciences starts in Grade 10 and continues through to Grade 12.
If the teachers are not assisted from Grade 10, it will be a mammoth task to deal with them in Grades 11 and 12.
I have observed that many of the activities focus on how to teach particular topics in Grade 12. The workshops focus on the content, as well as on how to present it.
Topics like Evolution are new topics, introduced in 2007. At that time most of the current Life Sciences teachers were not engaged in Initial Teacher Education and, therefore, experienced challenges in teaching the topic. In light of this, Evolution and Genetics are bound to contribute to the poor performance of the learners.
Of the thirteen respondents interviewed most of them indicated that the district level meetings are worthwhile because the teachers are able to share their challenges and solutions.
You must get the experience of attending cluster meetings [the district level meeting], not like the big meetings [the provincial level]. Everybody is welcome. Everybody has challenges and solutions and sharing. It is an open forum and it’s not like talking, talking, but they [teachers] are finding solutions. The other meetings the audience are listening, in these meetings everybody is sharing, everybody is equal. Before the CI will talk and all the attendees will listen, but in clusters [district level] they get enough and limited topics and get opportunities to come together because they are at a place where they are close to each other (Mbinzi, is a curriculum advisor with 42 years’
experience in the field of Life Sciences).
Here Mbinzi is saying that the district level meetings are useful for learning and
‘finding solutions’ to teachers’ challenges about how to teach these challenging topics. Similarly to Mbinzi, Ziduli agrees that the district level meetings are useful, as teachers help each other to solve their problems.
Ja, in most cases ja actually we discuss our challenges to, with each other I ask questions ok how are learners coping with this topic because I’ve been trying but things are not moving but you see they will also, they will be able to tell ok, this is how I manage to solve the situation Ja we discuss on the subjects in subject matter and then how we can resolve the problems. (Ziduli, 7 years’ teaching experience).
Ziduli is a young male teacher who has been teaching Life Sciences for the past 7 years. He majored in Biology. He teaches Maths, Physical Science and Life
144 Sciences. His school has an enrolment of 250 learners. He has a Higher Diploma in Education.
The teacher quoted below, Marhoza, notes that he learned how to explain evolution to his learners. This indicates that he found the district level content workshops helpful.
Ja, I remember, last year but this it was for Grade 12, isn’t it myself I am teaching Grade 10 and 11 (11, yes) there was a problem with that evolution on how are you going to start teaching evolution, how can you explain to the learners in order to understand for you that if you are talking about evolution, like this you see So, they choose, they chose one teacher who is good on explaining, discussing and
explaining all about evolution So, that guy he explained a lot about evolution even myself I (You learned something?) Ja I learned something from that topic but it was last year (Marhoza, 3 years’ teaching experience).
Marhoza teaches Grades 10 and 11 and has three years’ experience. He has a B.
Ed and specialised in FET. He majored in Life Sciences. Majoring in Life Sciences is possible, considering that he finished three years ago. By that time Life Sciences had already been incorporated in the B. Ed curriculum by some universities.
Currently he is teaching Grades 10 and 11.
We give each other opportunities to present different topics and give us strategies to teach those topics considering the learners intelligences … multiple intelligences … remember learners are not the same (Nxonxo, Cluster Leader, four years’ teaching experience).
Nxonxo is the leader of the cluster, and he has been teaching Life Sciences for the past four years. He majored in Life Sciences and is a B. Ed graduate. He teaches Grades 10 and 12 and is passionate about Life Sciences.
Nxonxo outlines what happens in the workshops. His emphasis is that they are taught that as they try to reach out to the learners, they must do that appreciating the diversity of the learners, so that when they teach they use a mixed mode approach to maximise the chances of reaching out to all of them.
In terms of discussing the content and helping each other where one might be still not up to speed (Ok) and I think it will also be a platform where you could raise some of the issues that you meet up with (Makutu is a female teacher with 20 years’
teaching experience, Biology and Life Sciences).
145 Makutu views these sessions as platforms where they are comfortable raising
challenging topics that they experience problems teaching their learners. In their schools the assistance is limited to their colleagues only, whereas when they are a bigger forum they are then able to hear from teachers from other schools how they handle the same topic.
In this section, the data shows that there are a range of different learning activities used in the workshops. These tend to focus on content knowledge and how to teach this content. The workshops and the activities are planned with the needs of the DBE in mind, rather than the needs of the teachers. The focus is strongly on how to
improve the Grade 12 learner pass rate and ensure that the Annual Teaching Plan and the exam guide are adhered to.