Abstract
Ph.D.
This study explores means to develop the textbook competence of teachers within a theoretical framework provided by textbook pedagogy as a field of study in teacher education. The ability of teachers to evaluate the quality of textbooks, and to use textbooks effectively in a teaching situation, is reflected in the term ‘the textbook competence of teachers’.
Little is known about the quality and use of textbooks in South African schools, yet large amounts are spent on textbooks every year, to be used in 30 027 schools, by 447149 teachers and 12 883 888 learners (2013 statistics). During 12 years of schooling, learners are exposed to approximately 32 000 pages of textbook material, spending 75 percent of their classroom time, and an inordinate amount of time in self-learning outside a classroom, engaging with the content contained within these pages.
Textbooks have been identified as an enabling input in the delivery of quality education (UNESCO, 2004), asserting a cause-and-effect relationship between the quality of enabling inputs (cause) and learner performance (effect). The assumption is therefore that quality textbooks when used effectively by teachers and learners will contribute to quality education.
The crisis in education in South Africa serves as a backdrop for this study. For a major portion of the learner population in the country quality education is not ‘happening’. The inevitable result is poor learner performance (e.g. low literacy and numeracy levels, high dropout and repetition rates, and poor matric results). It is therefore imperative to investigate the need to develop the textbook competence of teachers as a means to enhance the delivery of quality education.
This study aims to gain a better understanding of the constructs ‘quality’ and ‘utilisation’ of textbooks, and the effect of both these constructs on the delivery of quality basic education. The study is undertaken in a macro-educational context (not in a subject- or grade-specific context) and reflects on the way teachers assess the quality of textbooks and the way teachers use textbooks. Teachers' understanding of the characteristics that defines the quality of textbooks, and their ability to evaluate textbooks in terms of these characteristics, impacts on the way they use textbooks. Furthermore, the way teachers...