Abstract
D.Ed.
Teachers do not easily identify or use the thinking skills (support skills)
present in themselves in their planning activities. The learners equally when
they move from the Foundation phase to the Intermediate phase [from grade
3 to grade 4] do not reflect such support skills. Learners are thus unable to
work quickly enough to acquire the new skills that are required in the next
stage of their education.
The problem of learning another language often encountered by learners
when they come to formal school exacerbates the already challenging
circumstances reflected in a country impacted by poverty. They have already
acquired thinking skills in the process of learning their primary or home
language. They often begin to learn this additional language during the
foundation phase, and then in the intermediate phase they have to use the
new language for the acquisition of knowledge and learning. In the schools in
this study both the teachers and learners usually have to use the additional
language as the language of learning and teaching (lolt). The main thrust of
learning and teaching takes place in the intermediate phase where new
subjects and learning areas are introduced and grounded.
The research objectives of this study are to develop, implement and develop
guideline for the evaluation of an educational programme that will assist
Grade 4 teachers identify the schema or support skills that they use in
planning for teaching and specifically language teaching. To enable the
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teachers to act upon this information [data] in such a way that it will assist
their learners with their learning needs during the first stage of the
Intermediate Phase (grade 4) of their schooling, to promote faster learning.
A long-term aspect of this intervention would be accelerated or assisted
learning that will better equip the learner to more successfully move through
all the phases of their education and eventually for life. The teachers would,
as a result of the success of the programme, be further encouraged and
motivated in their work.
Further goals that arise out of the overall objectives of the study
§ Exploration and description of grade 4 teacher’s experience of
scaffolding they use when planning their programmes with their
learners.
§ Description of an approach to support the Grade 4 teacher and the
teacher educator.
§ Description of guidelines to operationalise the support approach by the
curriculum specialist.
Qualitative strategies such as focus group interviews and naïve essays were
engaged in and this resulted in the discovery that planning did not play an
important part in the lives of the participant teachers nor for that matter were
they using cognitive structures that led to planning. The lack of reflection on
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the meta-cognitive structures in their own lives led to the learners being
undirected and thus impeding their learning.
With this in mind a conceptual framework was developed out of which a
programme was subsequently developed that looked at ways in which the
problems experienced by teachers in using their cognitive support skills or
scaffolding for planning could be obviated. A programme that assists
teachers identify their own support skills and to use them appropriately, so the
learners are enabled to learn faster was then developed.
Once the programme had been developed, guidelines for its implementation
and evaluation were then designed so that the programme could be assessed
as to its effectiveness.