Abstract
The study aims to evaluate the performance of educators who participated in the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) project provided by the Motheo District and the assessment procedure employed to assess the competency of the participants. The participants were from two districts of the Free State Province, namely: Thabo Mofutsanyana (Qwa Qwa) and Lejweleputswa (Odendaalsrus). Twenty seven (15 females and 12 males) were from Odendaalsrus and twenty five (14 females and 11 males) were from Qwa-Qwa. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in this study. Quantitative interpretation of data was done using Microsoft Excel 2000 to map-out and display data. The questions were analyzed using Gowin’s epistemology V and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Through the use of assessing the examination question papers that the facilitators set for the educators and interviews with the participants it was evident that the manner in which assessment was conducted did not conform to the principles of setting a question paper that is questions asked should not be too easy or too difficult. They should be real examination questions covering all the competences of the students. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1397
Highlights
Since the democratically elected South African government came into being in 1994, and the new education approach was introduced, that is, Outcomes-based Education (OBE), researchers focused with great interest on whether the learners and teachers will cope with the numerous problems the new approach posed with regards to teacher competence (Gultig & Stielau eds (2009:3), how to implement a child- centred system (Hoadley & Jansen 2009: 159), resources (Fullan 1994 as cited in Aldridge, Fraser & Sebela 2004: 245), problems with the implementation of continuous assessment (Ramsuran 1999:99)
The Motheo District Project is grounded from the concerns expressed by the Department of Education (DoE) in 1996, that: “Natural Sciences and Mathematical Sciences are critical for South Africa’s social and economic development, yet there are areas in which our human resources are sorely lacking” (Department of Education 1996)
It is with no doubt that what Motheo District has being doing a great job with regard to the upgrading of teachers
Summary
Since the democratically elected South African government came into being in 1994, and the new education approach was introduced, that is, Outcomes-based Education (OBE), researchers focused with great interest on whether the learners and teachers will cope with the numerous problems the new approach posed with regards to teacher competence (Gultig & Stielau eds (2009:3), how to implement a child- centred system (Hoadley & Jansen 2009: 159), resources (Fullan 1994 as cited in Aldridge, Fraser & Sebela 2004: 245), problems with the implementation of continuous assessment (Ramsuran 1999:99). The Department of Education did not ignore the criticisms of those who were concerned with the new educations dispensation. In its endeavour to effect changes and improve the development of the educators, Motheo District authorities discovered that variables such as content, knowledge, qualifications, communication, commitment and lack of skills seem to impact heavily on the performance of educators. The Motheo District Project is grounded from the concerns expressed by the Department of Education (DoE) in 1996, that: “Natural Sciences and Mathematical Sciences are critical for South Africa’s social and economic development, yet there are areas in which our human resources are sorely lacking” (Department of Education 1996). The enrolment for the subjects Mathematics and Physical Sciences of the final year school population that time were below twenty percent and the pass rate for these subjects in terms of the learners who eventually wrote the examination were below fifty percent
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