Transformation of Assessment of the Pre-Service Life Sciences Teachers: Issues of Curriculum Development in Education and Training in South Africa

The Department of Higher Education intends to transform the traditional education theories and practices in the education and training of teachers for the twenty-first century. The attributes of a competent and qualified teacher underpin the envisaged changes in the curriculum to aptly prepare teachers. However, the realizations of the intentions of the department appear to be in vain. Accordingly, the current case studies conducted through qualitative procedures aimed to investigate how teacher educators adhere to the proposals of the Minimum Requirement of Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ). The data gathered through the analysis, of course, guides intended to search for the link between the Life Science curriculum content knowledge and the plan to assess the competences promulgated by the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). The findings pointed out that the course guide indicated learning outcomes, critical outcomes, and course and module outcomes; however, the assessment criteria were not aligned to the learning outcomes, module outcomes, and assessment techniques or tools. Therefore, the study recommends that academics in teacher education should explore and reflect on the models that could explicitly measure the performance of competencies (foundational, practical, and reflexive) authentically and reliably.

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Thinking and Acting Across Ponds: Glocalized Intersections of Trepidation, Neoliberalism, and Possibilities for 21st Century Teacher Education

International Dialogues on Education Journal ◽

10.53308/ide.v7i1.7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner ◽

Renee P. Desmarchelier ◽

David Gerlach ◽

Peter Wiens ◽

P.G. Schrader ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

The United States ◽

Education And Training ◽

Critical Approach ◽

Cheap Labor ◽

Democratic Dialogue ◽

Local Contexts ◽

Successful Education ◽

And Training

This article draws upon the cross-continental experiences of teacher educators in Australia, Germany, and the United States to contextualize and connect localized experiences in each country in the education and training of teachers as glocal phenomena. Through a glocal lens, the paper suggests that the dynamics working against the successful education and training of teachers are multifaceted, locally significant, and globally consistent. Two relevant areas are considered, resonating in both the local contexts of the authors and in their global reach, connectivity, and consistency: 1) internal university resistance and fighting over funding, status, and role and 2) over-reliance on market economies that depend on cheap labor fueled by nationalism, neoliberalism, and xenophobia. The authors address issues related to enrollment, reduction, and accreditation within university-based teacher education and training programs as particular areas of common complexity before yielding to discussion of the effects of those concerns situated within neoliberalism and neo-nationalism. The glocalized analysis and critical approach taken by the authors serve as foils to combat the negative scenario that encapsulates the education and training of teachers. Finally, questions are framed to help readers join in the broader discussion in their particularcontexts, extending the capacity for democratic dialogue.

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The Value of Competence-based Assessment in Pre-service Teacher Training

International Journal of Learning Teaching and Educational Research ◽

10.26803/ijlter.19.9.17 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (9) ◽

pp. 320-340

Author(s):

Mamsi Ethel Khuzwayo

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Focus Group ◽

Quantitative Data ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Education And Training ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Qualification ◽

And Performance ◽

And Training

Given the focus on developing an alternative approach toward improving the quality of teacher education and training in South Africa, teacher educators and curriculum developers face increasing responsibility to implement competence-based assessment in initial teacher education and training. This exploratory examination of the scaffolding assessment of foundational, practical, and reflexive competences conducted through a case study intended to gather data on the experiences, views, and performance of a sample of 42 students in the third-year level of a teacher qualification program. The analytic rubrics with performance descriptors and the rating scale of outstanding, excellent, good, satisfactory, and weak were instruments for gathering quantitative data. The second source of data was face-to-face verbal comments and the diagnostic evaluation conducted by the participants in a focus group on their performance under the codes feedback, feed forward, and feed up in the templates. The analysis of quantitative data presented in the pie chart highlighted different levels of proficiency achieved by participants in foundational, practical, and reflexive competences. The data summarized in the bar chart point to the improvement attained by participants in the focus group. Findings proved that scaffolding assessment into phases allows learners to: regulate their attainment of higher levels of proficiency; work independently; and develop a piece of comprehensive and integrated knowledge, set of skills, and abilities. This study revealed that competence-based assessment is perceived by students to be both an accurate way of gauging their performance and a vital part of the learning process itself.

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