Academic Wits Research Outputs (All submissions)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/36827
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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 Theory for teacher practice: A typology of application tasks in teacher education.(2013) Shalem, Y.; Rusznyak, L.Debates about the relation between educational theory and teaching practice are embodied in assessment tasks that prompt student teachers to relate theoretical concepts and simulated or directly experienced practice-based contexts in relation to one another. To establish clarity on the ways in which theory and practice can be positioned in relation to one another in application tasks, we revisit the debate between Paul Hirst and Wilfred Carr (2005) about the role of theory in and for education. We provide examples of assessment tasks and then present a typology showing how such tasks demarcate conceptual and contextual objects of study in ways that are more or less visible to students. We argue that the more visibly the concepts are demarcated, the greater the possibilities are for student teachers to develop systematized bodies of educational knowledge that are able to provide organizing insights into their developing practice. While we concede that there might be valid pedagogical reasons for doing so, we argue that when conceptual objects are less visible to students, the underlying message that is transmitted to students is that educational theory is not specialized knowledge and is not distinctively different from their common-sense perspectives. This approach is less likely to promote their acquisition of systematized knowledge for and of practice.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 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 An exploratory perspective of student performance and access to resources(Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research, 2014-11-01) Papageorgiou, E; Callaghan, C.WThis research investigated the relationships between potential constraints to students’ access to technological resources and student academic performance. Longitudinal data from 2010 (n=228), 2011 (n=340) and 2012 (n=347) from South African accounting students was used to test the relationships between technological resources access and student academic performance using correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis and factor analysis. Access to the latest software was found to be associated with student academic performance; a ‘digital divide’ between students may influence their academic performance. This research specifically identifies certain constraints potentially associated with a ‘digital divide’ that may influence student performance.Item The rule that a spouse cannot forfeit at divorce what he or she has contributed to the marriage: an argument for chance(Juta Law, 2014) Bonthuys, ElsjeUnlike other systems of family law, South African law allows parties to choose their matrimonial property system by way of antenuptial contract. Although the financial consequences of the dissolution of marriage follow broadly from the chosen matrimonial property system, certain statutory and common-law mechanisms allow for a variation from the rigours of the applicable property regime. This article concerns one of these mechanisms, namely forfeiture of benefits in terms of s 9 of the Divorce Act 70 of 1979.Item Guidelines for the approval of surrogate motherhood agreements: Ex Parte WH(Juta Law, 2013) Elsje, Bonthuys; Neil, BroedersIn 2011 the North and South Gauteng High Courts were approached to confirm surrogate motherhood agreements in accordance with the provisions of chapter 19 of the Children's Act 38 of 2005. The judgments were reported as In Re-Confirmation of Three Surrogate motherhood Agreements 2011 (6) SA22 (GSJ) and Ex parte 14FI2011 (6) SA514 (GNP). This note concerns the latter judgment.Item Cultural diversity, 'Living Law' and Women's Rights in South Africa(Cambridge University Press, 2013) Albertyn, CatherineThis chapter considers the constitutional recognition of cultural diversity, especially as it is manifest through the recognition of customary law, and its relationship to the constitutional guarantee of gender equality. As the supreme law, the South African Constitution subjects all law (customary, common, and statutory) to the rights and values of the Constitution, including the primary democratic values of dignity, equality, and freedom. This chapter rejects the idea that the Constitution provides a “liberal democratic” framework that constitutes the basis for a “top-down” universalism that tests culture and custom against irretrievably external, liberal standards. Although the Constitution is capable of this, among other, interpretations, the chapter argues that the best – and most transformative – interpretation of the constitutional text is one that enables a deep respect for cultural identity and diversity and consequent recognition of positive cultural norms and practices, while also addressing cross-cutting, intragroup inequalities, such as gender. This interpretation recognizes that transformation under the South African Constitution requires courts to address multiple and intersecting inequalities, and that culture and custom – long ossified in official law – face particular challenges in adapting to contemporary political, economic, and social conditions. Although democratic and cultural values might be rooted in different contexts, South Africa’s history of colonialism, apartheid, and political struggles, as well as its socioeconomic development, mean that there is considerable common ground within and across communities for harmonizing customary law and the Constitution.Item Judicial diversity(Juta and Co, 2014) Albertyn, CatherineA judiciary controlled entirely by whites and enforcing laws enacted by a white parliament in which Africans have no representation—laws which in most cases are passed in the face of unanimous opposition from Africans— . . . cannot be regarded as an impartial tribunal in a political trial where an African stands as an accused.