TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES OF IN-SERVICE TRAINING IN OUTCOMES-BASED

Abstract

Education change in South Africa during 1996 took into consideration the valuable contribution of classroom practitioners such as teachers in the curriculum process. To this end a number of policy documents released by the Department of Education alluded to greater teacher involvement in curriculum development. However, since the introduction of Curriculum 2005, the extent to which teachers are equipped to teach as required by the new curriculum is questionable. Moreover, in the South African context where majority of the teachers are under-qualified and lack the necessary skills to implement the curriculum, these pose serious implications to policy makers in education. In order to capacitate teachers to implement the new curriculum effectively, the department needs to conduct large scale in-service training for all teachers. The most important dimension of the strategy proposed by this study is in-service training programme. Proper training of teachers hence a good in-service training programme is the most important mechanism for developing teachers’ skills to deliver on Curriculum 2005. The target group for the study was teachers in Limpopo secondary schools at circuit level. Teachers’ skills, training mechanisms, levels of their participation, their feelings and experiences during the introduction of the new curriculum are explored. Findings of this research indicate that the Department of Education needs to dedicate time, resources and political will and conduct massive in-service training programmes if teachers are to make a genuine impact in the classroom.