Tipos de trabajo práctico

Curriculum worker (CW) is a term that describes a variety of educators from teachers to superintendent (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008:434). This implies that any person involved in some form of curriculum implementation and evaluation is a CW (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008:434-435). The CW has many different titles such as subject advisers, ward managers, principals, deputy principals, HODs, and the post level one teachers (PL1 teachers). Therefore, the RSST is also a member of the curriculum team as a CW. Early identification of teachers to serve in the capacity of CWs is essential for the growth of teachers and the vitality of a school (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008).

Although Doll (in Ornstein and Hunkins 2009:24) views the curriculum expert as a subject chair or principal, he is concerned with the teacher’s role in planning and implementing the curriculum at classroom, school and district levels. In his opinion, the teacher should be involved in every phase of curriculum making, including the planning of specific goals, materials content and method. He further states that teachers should have a curriculum coordinating body to unify their work and develop relationships with supervisors or other teachers involved in the curriculum. Moreover, Oliva (in Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009: 24-25) has a broad view of teacher’s role. For him, teachers are the primary group in curriculum development. They constitute the majority or the totality of the membership of the curriculum committee at a school level. Their role is to develop, implement and evaluate the curriculum. Doll and Oliva’s views suggest a bottom-up approach to curriculum, in which teachers play a

major role. Unfortunately, a top down approach is used in South Africa where the grades 10- 12 NCS curriculum statements are only developed by the national DoE (Du Plessis, 2005).

In the South African context, every teacher, including RSSTs, is mandated to develop the three-year phase plan, which is referred to as the learning programme, the one-year plan for each of the grades in the phase termed as work schedule; and the short-term plan for weeks, months or term within the year, referred to as the lesson plan (Du Plessis, 2005:128). Additionally, some of the teachers’ roles relevant to curriculum have been prescribed for both South African urban school teachers and RSSTs, such as to be the learning mediators; interpreters and designers of learning programmes and materials; scholars, researchers and lifelong learners; assessors and subject specialists (Hendricks, 2008:13). However, it can be argued whether RSSTs are adequately developed to perform these roles. In contrast, research by Hendricks (2008:72) found that teachers in the EC were inadequately trained in these roles to address the demands and challenges of the new curriculum.

The new curriculum (the grades 10-12 NCS) requires all South African learners to make a shift from a content-based to one based on outcomes (Vermuelen in Dala, 2009:32). The grades 10-12 NCS seems to focus less on content knowledge but emphasizes the holistic development of the learner (Frick, 2008: v). This is to prepare learners to have the ability to work in groups, access a variety of media sources and take part in interactive discussions (Frick, 2008: v). To assist learners to achieve the latter, teachers are responsible for planning and preparing lesson plans, teaching according to the grades 10-12 NCS requirements, learners’ needs and setting and marking of learners’ work, assessing, recording and reporting on the development, progress and attainment of learners (Income Data Services, 2006; Evans, 2011). Furthermore, Evans (2011) points out that the duties of teachers are to develop lesson plans, carry out lesson plans, assign homework that reinforces lessons and carry out examinations to ensure that learners are making progress. Additionally, teachers in South Africa are also involved in curriculum committees, for example at grade level and according to subject they teach (Du Plessis, 2005).

However, the DoE (2006:17) has found that South African teachers need to strengthen their subject knowledge base, pedagogical content knowledge and teaching skills, classroom management and discipline skills in order to perform their duties accordingly. This emanates from the reports indicating that at many schools, particularly RSSs in South Africa, there is a

shortage of well qualified and competent teachers to perform these duties and PDPs are also limited (Dala, 2009; Schouwstra, 2009). With the introduction of the grades 10-12 NCS, teachers simply found themselves in a new curriculum world (Harley & Wedekind, 2004: 199). For them, this means a change in more than just a curriculum, but a change in ideology of their conception of education (Govender, 2008:10). Teachers’ prior knowledge and experience can limit their vision to incorporate new and innovative ways of teaching and learning in the grades 10-12 NCS (Frick, 2008:iii). Additionally, research by Govender (2008:125) in South Africa found that the grades 10-12 NCS has caused a lot of uncertainty among teachers. Teachers were uncertain about the content and assessment of the grades 10- 12 NCS. For instance, they felt that the grades 10-12 NCS documents were not explicit enough about the content that they should teach to prepare learners adequately for assessment (Govender, 2008:125). This is supported by Dala (2009:79) in KZN who found that RSSTs were not sufficiently trained and they were not clear about what was expected from them. This indicates that teachers should be provided with WIL by the SMTs, peers, curriculum advisers and HEIs.

3.2.1 Implementation of grades 10-12 NCS in RSSs

The advent of curriculum change to the grades 10-12 NCS and its subsequent implementation in secondary schools demanded a compatible method of delivery in the classroom (Phorabatho, 2010:27). However, Mampuru (in Ndou, 2008:34) perceives implementation as the most difficult phase of a change process as most shortcomings of the change may appear at this stage, particularly in RSSs with deficits in their resources. Therefore, curriculum implementation literature emphasizes the central role that teachers play in how a curriculum is realized in practice (Motshekga, 2009:24). Central to this are RSSTs’ understanding levels of the curriculum. These views suggest that the most grades 10-12 NCS challenges are noticeable during its implementation phase. It can be argued that the implementation of curriculum change in RSSs is often filled with challenges, which if not managed effectively might see a good policy jettisoned (Phorabatho, 2010:49). This view ties in with Ramroop’s (2004:5) standpoint that the implementation of a change impacts significantly on people and institutions. If not administered correctly and sensitively, with a lot of skill and support, it can be easily seen that good ideas become unachievable.

In addition, the implementation of the grades 10-12 NCS created many challenges for teachers in rural, poorly resourced and rural Black schools (Mutereko, 2009:1). These challenges include the capacity of the conditions of implementation, the capacity of RSSTs to translate them into reality and budgetary concerns (Mutereko, 2009:1). This emphasizes that effective RSST professional development is crucial to the successful implementation of grades 10-12 NCS (Motshekga, 2009:55). However, Serrao (2008:1) points out that poor teacher PD is one of the significant challenges that hamper implementation of grades 10-12 NCS in secondary schools. He further asserts that there are teachers who are currently in the system who received their baseline professional training under the auspices of the old apartheid curriculum. Therefore, these teachers are most likely to experience challenges to implement the grades 10-12 NCS effectively, particularly in RSSs (Pharobatho, 2010). This has been supported by Motshekga (2009:24) that there has been a high level of confusion among teachers around what they are expected to do.

Research by Mutereko (2009:62) indicated that most teachers explained that LOs cannot be achieved in the time frame given to the particular grade. Teachers complained about the workload such as continuous assessment (CASS) and paperwork; and the resources available such as libraries, textbooks, laboratories and audio-visual materials (Mutereko, 2009:68). Teachers further indicated that their job is too heavy because they teach a number of subjects which have different LOs and ASs. The administrative and clerical work is one issue that was mentioned by teachers adversely contributing to their workload (Mutereko, 2009:70).

3.2.2 Rural secondary school teachers’ experiences in the new curriculum

A recent study by Zacharia, Daud and Meerah (2009:85) found that teachers desired to improve their knowledge, professionalism, thinking skills, creativity and communication skills. This has been supported by Risimati (2007:193) that teachers who have attended workshops know what to do in class and they produce good results.” This raises the need for adequate and effective RSSTs’ PDPs. However, PD seems to be weak in RSSs since teachers’ PDPs are mainly conducted in the form of workshops (Risimati,2007); instead of continuous and work integrated professional development programmes (WIPDP) (Steyn, 2009; Dali, 2011). Moreover, research by Zacharia et al. (2009:85) found that RSST needs were greater than those of their urban counterparts. This may be caused by their lack of exposure and experiences and may also indicate that these RSSTs are not acquiring relevant

information and knowledge in their current PDPs. Another challenge is that the time set aside for PDPs and classroom support was insufficient and inadequate (Malesa, 2007:3). There was no follow-up after the training to complement the training received from the district and that resulted in teachers failing to implement the grades 10-12 NCS (Malesa, 2007:69). This has resulted in teachers still struggling as far as planning process, teaching and learning and assessment are concerned (Malesa, 2007:69).

Furthermore, the implementation of grades 10-12 NCS in KZN rural secondary schools was met with a number of shortcomings such as poor resources and poorly trained facilitators (Dala, 2009:32). The reason in that the KZNDoE simply took RSSTs from schools to be facilitators without training them properly in the specific subject content. This has resulted in them imparting scanty information to other teachers (Dala 2009:32). In addition, a report by Motshekga (2009:10) revealed that teacher PD policies (national, provincially, district-based and school-based programmes) to support the grades 10-12 NCS implementation did not provide the needed PD support. This is supported by Peat (2009:17) that teachers are still struggling to come to terms with the grades 10-12 NCS demands. For instance, in teacher hearings, teachers made it clear that addressing the need to upgrade teachers’ skills would not be appropriate with “one size fits all” approach (Motshekga, 2009:10). In all provinces teachers stated that any future PDP needs to be subject specific (Motshekga, 2009:10).

On the positive side, Vasscher (in Mwiria 2006:49) reported that the teacher preparedness in the sense of knowledge of the subject content and in the pedagogical knowledge has shown empirically to matter as far as achievement was concerned. A study by Hlongwane (2008) in KZN shares similar sentiment that to develop teachers who found it difficult to implement the grades 10-12 NCS, experts in particular subjects were invited to school A (an RSS). School- based workshops were also conducted to assist teachers in their subjects; for instance, one formal school–based workshop per term was conducted. Peer PD support programmes were also available since senior teachers were appointed to develop their colleagues. This RSS was a member of clusters where RSSTs got opportunities to find out how teachers in other schools implement the grades 10-12 NCS (Hlongwane, 2008:17). Consistently, the same RSS has been awarded with nine computers for its 100% grade twelve pass rate in 2010, and also as the most improved secondary school in Ilembe district (KZN) despite having no access to resources such as libraries, laboratories and computers (Stanger Weekly, 2011:7). Although

these findings cannot be generalized, however, offering a variety of PDPs to meet RSSTs’ needs has the potential for effective implementation of the grades 10-12 NCS in KZN.