Academic Wits Research Outputs (All submissions)
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Browsing Academic Wits Research Outputs (All submissions) by Faculty "Faculty of humanities"
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Item Approaches to assessing pre-service teachers’ learning in authentic and rigorous ways: The case of an Inclusive Education module(© UV/UFS, 2016) Walton, E.; Rusznyak, L.Initial teacher education programmes offer inclusive education modules that seek to prepare teachers for teaching diverse learners. While there is growing research on the content and pedagogy of inclusive education modules, relatively less attention has been given to the assessment of these modules. This paper focuses on the challenges of promoting authenticity, academic depth and rigour in inclusive education through assessment tasks. Drawing on Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (1999) concepts of knowledge for-, in- and of- practice in education, we critically reflect on three approaches used to assess an inclusive education course over a number of years. The first approach required pre-service teachers to articulate their understanding of important concepts associated with inclusive education, the second required them to provide evidence of their ability to use inclusive strategies, while the third approach provided opportunities for them to participate in a research project about inclusionary and exclusionary practices in schools. We find that these approaches represent inclusive education knowledge with different degrees of conceptual integrity and provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to participate in authentic academic and professional practices to different extents. We conclude by suggesting how the assessment of inclusive education can be approached so that neither academic rigour nor authenticity is compromised.Item Choices in the design of inclusive education courses for pre-service teachers: The case of a South African university.(2017) Walton, E.; Rusznyak, L.It is expected that that pre-service teachers are adequately equipped to meet the needs of diverse students. This article discusses the choices that teacher educators must make in designing inclusive education courses. The first choice is whether inclusive education will be infused into the curriculum or presented as a stand-alone course. If the latter, the second decision is what determines the content of courses – teacher need, policy directives or the authority of the field where knowledge is produced. If teacher educators look to the field of knowledge production, they might choose among inclusive education as an issue of student diversity; teaching competence; and schools and societies. We animate these choices as we describe an inclusive education course taught in a South African university. Our conclusion suggests that pre-service teacher education for inclusive education would be strengthened by more critical appraisal of the assumptions and orientations informing the design of courses.Item Confronting the ‘pedagogical immunity’ of student teachers.(2009) Rusznyak, L.Student teachers enter teacher education programmes with preconceptions about the nature of teaching that have developed in the course of the years they spent in classrooms as learners. The initial phase of teacher education is a complex process in which many student teachers have to unlearn preconceptions they hold about the nature of teaching that would otherwise constrain their development in learning to teach. This is particularly relevant in the South African context, where the education system has recently undergone radical and multi-faceted transformation. Student teachers do not always get the opportunity to observe supervising teachers modelling conceptually deep, enquiry-based teaching during their Teaching Experience (TE) sessions, so it is sometimes difficult for them to acquire a concept of the type of teaching that university tutors expect. This makes learning to teach particularly complex and challenging. This article reflects on the pedagogical development of a student teacher, Amos, over the four-year period of his Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree. It shows how his pedagogical choices were often constrained by the conception he had held that teaching entails ‘providing learners with correct information’. If teacher educators are to enable student teachers to become competent in the practice of organising systematic learning, it is imperative that teacher education programmes explicitly examine, challenge or deepen notions of teaching that student teachers bring with them to their initial teacher education.Item Developing standards for inclusive teaching in South Africa: A dilemma analysis.(2019) Walton, E; Rusznyak, LAs inclusive education has gained traction internationally, there has been a demand for teachers who are equipped to teach diverse learners. This has led to attempts to capture the competences of inclusive teachers in scholarly literature and to the development of standards for professional teaching, generally, and for inclusive teaching in particular. Sets of national standards are expected to enhance the professional status of teaching, and to improve student outcomes by describing the knowledge of teachers, developing a shared language of practice, promoting accountability, and directing professional development initiatives. This paper is concerned with the development of a set of standards for inclusive teaching to inform initial teacher education in South Africa. The conversations of people involved in the standards generation work were, with permission, recorded and analysed. Analysis of the data showed that, during deliberations, a number of dilemmas emerged. The first dilemma is whether standards for inclusive teaching should be described apart from the more general professional teaching standards applicable to all teachers. The second dilemma was a contest about whether the standards should adopt broad or narrow definitions of inclusive education. The third relates to the primacy of context, and the fourth dilemma concerns the significance of learner differences for teaching and learning. The resolution of these dilemmas is explained with Wiredu’s (1996) concept of the will to consensus and professional judgement of the participants.Item Learning to Explain: How student teachers organize and present content knowledge in lessons they teach.(2011) Rusznyak, L.The ability to organise content knowledge around key concepts is an essential part of what student teachers need to learn in order to teach effectively. This is particularly significant as South Africa's education system emerges from policies which undervalued the role of content knowledge in teaching and teacher education. During sessions of practical teaching, university tutors have opportunities to observe how students understand content knowledge in ways that differ from their university coursework. Students’ understanding of content knowledge manifests in how they select and organise concepts, conduct explanations and respond to learners’ contributions. Lesson observation reports written by university tutors, as they observed student teaching, were scrutinised for comments that prompted student teachers to think about their understanding of content knowledge. A qualitative analysis of these comments shows how opportunities for learning are diminished when student teachers’ grasp of their lesson topic is disjointed, when their understanding of the concepts they teach is merely algorithmic, and when their concept of the ordering principles of the content knowledge is muddled. By considering these aspects of teaching explicitly, university tutors prompt student teachers to consider the epistemological merit of their lessons, thereby contributing to the construction of their pedagogical content knowledge.Item Lesson Planning Guidelines: A scaffold for developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge.(2011) Rusznyak, L.; Walton, E.Lesson planning for student teachers is often regarded in technical terms, merely as the means to ensure effective classroom performance. This approach limits the possibilities that the process of lesson planning offers to the development of professional competence among student teachers. In particular, student teachers need to begin to develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the capacity to make pedagogical choices that are logically derived from content and contextual knowledge. This article reports on a Lesson Planning Guideline which is used to scaffold the construction of student teachers’ PCK individually by requiring them to consider the constituent parts of PCK individually and in relation to one another during the planning process. This guideline was developed in response to perceived limitations of existing guidelines used in our institution and found in texts for student teachers. Called a “Rationale for lesson design” the Guideline does not attempt to simplify the planning process, but rather enables students systematically to access the complexities inherent in effective lesson preparation. By requiring students to articulate their content knowledge and narrate their pedagogical reasoning in some detail, the Guideline enables students not only to teach with confidence but also to construct PCK.Item Supporting student teachers through their first attempts at teaching: Possibilities and limitations afforded by school-based and campus based models of support.(2014) Rusznyak, L.; Moosa, M.Student teachers' first attempt at teaching a lesson is a crucial step in their professional development. This paper compares the potential pedagogical learning opportunities and limitations afforded by school-based and campus-based support programmes that are designed to support student teachers in their early attempts at teaching. We use a qualitative analysis of interviews with university lecturers and a quantitative analysis of written feedback provided to student teachers within each of these models. The analysis of our data shows that during the school-based model, students receive retrospective feedback on many diverse issues relating to their lesson, particularly their management of learners. In contrast, the campus-based model offers student teachers an explicit opportunity to work collaboratively on the management of the content knowledge for their first lesson. The campus-based model, despite its numerous limitations, offers possibilities for developing students' understanding of teaching as a complex cognitive practice from their early attempts at teaching.Item Supporting the academic success of first-year students in South Africa: A study of the epistemological access they acquired through a lecture and text(2017) Rusznyak, L.; Dison, L.; Moosa, M.; Poo, M.Much is at stake with regard to academic success of first-year students in higher education. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study which looks at shifts in students’ understanding of a concept through a systematic sequence of learning opportunities in a university-based course. While 89% of participants could satisfactorily identify criteria of the concept following an introductory lecture, only 41% could adequately articulate their understanding of that concept. One third of the participants did not read the prescribed text. For students who did the reading, lectures and the provision of reading materials provided sufficient opportunities for half of them satisfactorily to comprehend the requisite concepts. Consolidation in a follow-up session is necessary to provide additional opportunities for students adequately to comprehend a concept.Item Using metaphors to gain insight into South African student teachers’ initial and developing conceptions of ‘Being a teacher’(2014) Rusznyak, L.; Walton, E.Metaphors are a useful way of accessing students' conceptions of teaching and tracking how their conceptions shift over time. This article analyses metaphors for ‘being a teacher’ written by a group of South African student teachers at the beginning and end of their first year of study. The metaphors depict teachers' interactions with learners and reveal how students recognise a specialised knowledge base for teaching and their understanding of learner diversity. One third of students constructed initial metaphors that emphasised teaching as nurturing, an endeavour they associate with particular personality traits but without a specialised knowledge base. We analyse how student teachers' initial and subsequent metaphors reflect significant shifts in their conception of ‘being a teacher’ and we briefly explore how students account for these shifts. Revisiting their initial assumptions about teaching within a programme that offers a coherent conception of teaching enabled student teachers to better understand the goals of initial teacher education.Item Why academic depth and rigour in university-based coursework matters for prospective teachers(UV/UFS, 2016) Rusznyak, L.; Balfour, R.; Von Vollenhoven, W.; Sosibo, L.From text: Initial teacher education (ITE) programmes are expected to prepare teachers who have the capacity to develop conceptually strong, responsive and inclusive teaching practices. The extent to which ITE programmes have been successful in this endeavour has been questioned both internationally (e.g. Lancaster & Auhl, 2013) and within the South African context (Council on Higher Education [CHE], 2010). In retrospect, it is not surprising that the review of initial teacher education (ITE) programmes conducted by the CHE between 2005 and 2007 found that the sector was experiencing tension between “the theoretical and conceptual rigour expected of a professional degree and the vocation-specific training of teachers” for classroom readiness (CHE, 2010: 103).