Abstract
The international inclusive movement towards education for all has been the catalyst for the most significant changes to classroom practice over the last two decades. These changes coincided with the dawn of the new South Africa which heralded much needed change in all spheres of life including in education policies. Education legislation such as the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, Education White Paper 6 and the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) strategy encouraged the enrolment of learners with diverse learning needs in mainstream schools. Practicing teachers were thus confronted with learners with different learning abilities and needed to be informed of the paradigm shift to more inclusive teaching pedagogies. The most common means of accomplishing this was through continuous professional development training courses (CPD) for in-service teachers. Although many such courses have been held since 2001 much criticism has been levelled against these programmes as being ineffectual due to radical changes in teaching practice failing to universally materialise and teachers still finding the imperative to manage diverse classrooms challenging. This research project originated from a CPD course conducted in one provincial education district in South Africa with Foundation phase teachers in inclusive learning strategies. As more provincial education departments requested similar CPD courses for their teachers, it became crucial to develop an effective CPD course that would improve the implementation of inclusive education and equip teachers in the management of diverse learning needs in their classrooms. The aim of this study was therefore to explore learning design principles which could be used as a form of descriptive notation in the developing of CPD programmes. A qualitative research design was employed over the course of five years during which the University of Johannesburg conducted CPD programmes in inclusive education for 700 in-service teachers in four different provinces across South Africa. The participants were all practicing primary school teachers, largely female with an average age of between 41 and 50 years old representing the demographic makeup of the South African population. Data was collected through questionnaires, observations, field notes, focus group interviews, interviews, personal reflections and visual images. Data was analysed both inductively and deductively to determine the v contextual and conceptual factors important in assisting in -service teachers in the implementation of inclusive pedagogies in mainstream classrooms. The deductive analysis of the data related back to the seven “C” words of the stages of Conole’s 7Cs learning design framework and principles for effective adult learning. Findings revealed that the ‘C’ words from Conole’s 7Cs framework could be used as learning design principles in the development and conducting of CPD programmes as they correlated well with the principles of adult learning. However, this study proposes a more circular design of the 7Cs framework which is more flexible and accommodates both in- person and blended learning programmes. These learning design principles can then be customised for use in the designing of effective CPD programmes for inservice teachers in other fields of education. Furthermore, the findings in this study add to the body of knowledge that examines inservice teacher training for Inclusive education by bringing new perspectives into the perceptions teachers acquire on inclusion and inclusive teaching methodologies especially curriculum differentiation. In particular, the contextual factors inhibiting the implementation of inclusion can be alleviated by differentiating the curriculum using the principles of Universal Design for Learning. Moreover, the innovative use of visual images enhanced the ability of teachers to critically reflect on their practice thus challenging their assumptions and promoting improved outcomes for learner achievement. This study concluded that effective CPD programmes need to be carefully and constructively designed and well implemented to be successful. This can be accomplished using learning design principles based on the principles of adult learning in a learning design framework that is flexible, dynamic and adaptable.
D.Ed. (Education)