Abstract
M.Ed.
This study investigates knowledge acquisition of grade 12 History pupils in the project school. Very poor matriculation results for two consecutive years, 1997 and 1998, necessitated an investigation to try and establish the cause of this phenomenon. My research is focused on the cognitive level of evaluation in the grade 11 and 12 examination papers. Teaching is appraised by means of evaluation and examinations to reveal the cognitive stance which prevails in the classroom. To enable pupils to acquire and expand their constructivistic knowledge structures which would empower them to succeed under any circumstances, including examination conditions, teaching should encompass all cognitive categories. Bloom categorised these cognitive categories in his
Cognitive Taxonomy. Knowledge and understanding, the lowest category, should be expanded to include application and analysis, the middle category. Finally synthesis and evaluation, the highest cognitive category, should also be represented in teaching and evaluation. Closely linked to Bloom's cognitive categories is Swart's Knowledge
Conversion Model comprising of four distinct areas in knowledge acquisition. The first area, conceptual knowledge (to know that) needs to be followed by procedural knowledge (to do that). Thereafter contextual knowledge (to know why, when and where) and the final area of reflection and transformation ensues. These areas are dynamically interactive and of vital importance for sound knowledge acquisition.