Koers (E-Journal)
Not a member yet
2282 research outputs found
Sort by
Action towards hope: Addressing learner behaviour in a classroom
Get PDFUnruly learners and disciplinary problems are an intractable part of every teacher’s teaching experience. It appears that, even though most schools have enacted a code of conduct to regulate learner behaviour, this does not always have the desired effect. Disciplinary problems in schools impact negatively on the teaching and learning environment as well as on teachers’ personal and professional well-being and morale. Framed within the context of a biblical worldview, this article narrates the experiences of one teacher who decided to take action towards hope. The situation in her classroom was quite desperate with learners coming to school unprepared and behaving very badly and parents being uninterested in the performance of their children at school. She realised that she could not change the learners or their parents unless she started with herself. In this context, she, as a postgraduate student under the supervision of the co-authors, embarked on an action-research project to promote positive learner behaviour. By collaborating with the learners on a set of classroom rules, engaging in reflective teaching and changing her own behaviour towards the learners, the situation in her classroom improved. Based on her experiences, this article argues that teachers should empower themselves with knowledge and a better understanding of the concept of discipline rather than viewing the classroom as a battlefield. It is important to acknowledge and show respect and appreciation for each learner in his or her own context
Human communication revisited – A biblical perspective
Get PDFCommunication is very important in our daily lives. It is the most common everyday activity and it is at the core of all human contact. It permeates every aspect of who we are and what we do, and is a highly complex human phenomenon. The ability to communicate is a gift from God to enable us to develop relationships with others and to create culture. Studying and theorising about communication will enable us to discover ‘serviceable insights’ to help us to become good stewards of everything that God has entrusted to us. The Bible gives us a grand historical narrative of the cosmos, helping us to understand the fact that God created the world and its people. This article argued that the Creation-Fall-Redemption motif or theme, which is a highly schematised version of the Bible’s grand narrative, could be used as a framework to help us understand and teach communication from an integrated Christian perspective. The clarion call is to redeem communication so that it can be appropriately used directionally for what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable (Phlp 4:8). As far as communication is concerned, integration of faith and learning should encompass what we teach (content), how we teach that content (pedagogy), and how what we teach impacts the way we think, what we believe, and how we live (our character).Menslike kommunikasie herbesoek – ’n Bybelse perspektief. Kommunikasie is baie belangrik in ons daaglikse lewens. Dit is die mees algemene alledaagse aktiwiteit en vorm deel van die kern van alle menslike kontak. Dit deurdring elke aspek van wie ons is en wat ons doen en is ’n hoogs-komplekse menslike fenomeen. Die vermoë om te kommunikeer is ’n geskenk van God wat ons in staat stel om verhoudings met ander te ontwikkel en kultuur te skep. Die bestudering en teoretisering oor kommunikasie sal ons in staat stel om ‘diensbare insigte’ te ontdek, wat ons sal help om goeie rentmeesters te wees van alles wat God aan ons toevertrou het. Die Bybel gee aan ons ’n uitgebreide historiese narratief van die kosmos wat ons help om te verstaan dat God die wêreld, asook die mens geskep het. Hierdie artikel het geargumenteer dat die Skepping-Sondeval-Verlossingstema of –motief, wat as ’n hoogs- geskematiseerde weergawe van die Bybelse uitgebreide narratief beskou kan word, as ’n raamwerk kan dien om ons te help om kommunikasie vanuit ’n geïntegreerde Christelike perspektief te verstaan en te onderrig. Die wekroep is om kommunikasie vry te maak sodat dit rigtinggewend en gepas gebruik kan word vir wat waar, rein, regverdig, lieflik en loflik is (Fil 4:8). Wat kommunikasie betref, behoort die integrasie van geloof en leer te omsluit wat ons onderrig (inhoud), hoe ons die inhoud onderrig (pedagogie), asook die wyse waarop dit wat ons onderrig ons denke, ons geloof en hoe ons leef (ons karakter) beïnvloed
Dupuy’s view on economism
Get PDFFrench economist and philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy has drawn attention to the dominance of society by not only the powers of finance and commerce, but also by economic rationalism, a methodology of maximising profit, rent, utility, happiness, given suitable sets of incentives. Financial markets are largely irrational as they move from major booms into busts and instil a speculative mentality throughout society. Society itself is compared to a supermarket in which we choose from amongst a wide range of closely related alternatives, without having any clue of adverse consequences. This is a form of fatalism. Similarly, threats of major catastrophes are downplayed, including a nuclear conflagration, climate warming and moral collapses, especially individualism stimulated by desire as a key motivator of indefinite economic growth. The author’s proposal of enlightened catastrophism is discussed and an alternative is proposed in the form of enlightened subversion inspired by moves that would strengthen the ability of families and those responsible for managing businesses, education and health to exercise their own vocations in mutual service
Educators’ perspectives on risk factors for learner-on-learner bullying
Get PDFEducators are the key role-players in the successful development and implementation of most anti-bullying programmes and/or intervention strategies. This article sets out to report on findings from a qualitative study on educators’ perspectives of the risk factors for learner-on-learner bullying. Educators who were furthering their studies at the University of the Free State, South Africa, were invited to take part in the study on different types of bullying. This article focuses on the narratives of 91 participants who described the incidence of learner-on-learner bullying. The study uses a four-level, social-ecological model as the theoretical framework. Individual, family, institutional and societal risk factors for bullying were identified by means of a qualitative content analysis. It is suggested in the article that although risk-focused prevention strategies may lead to a reduction in bullying, prevention strategies should not target only these (negative) factors, but try to promote protective factors on all four social-ecological levels
Methodologies of targeting – Renaissance militarism attacking Christianity as ‘weakness’
Get PDFIntellectuals in the post-Medieval West, striving for scholarly emancipation, developed methodologies to target so as to free themselves from the dominant Christian, largely Roman Catholic, intellectual tradition. Machiavelli was one such critic, calling for the repristination of pre-Christian classics. Such methodologies are never without an inherent quest for power. Machiavelli developed a Classicist, ‘heroic exemplar’ hermeneutic in order to extol the republicanist, manly, ferocious, imperialist virtues of Rome, vis-à-vis the divisive, meek, caring, justice-seeking, unpatriotic, Christian leaders of his day. He therefore initiated Modern ideological militaristic competitiveness with its mutually suspicious balance of powers practices. This article forms part of a series of articles on methodologies of targeting groups
Spirituality: History and contemporary developments – An evaluation
Get PDFSpirituality is increasingly becoming a popular concept both in the media and in academic literature. However, there is a vast difference between the original concepts of spirituality, which were largely based on a Biblical view, and many contemporary perceptions thereof. Spirituality is generally seen as being divorced from any specific religion and specific truth claims. Nevertheless, it can be stated that spirituality is now seen as a universal human phenomenon. An evaluation of these trends is attempted by studying the concept in its original Biblical context, and by understanding the development of the dichotomy between religion and spirituality.Spiritualiteit: Geskiedenis en hedendaagse ontwikkelinge: ’n Evaluering. Spiritualiteit word ’n toenemend populêre konsep, beide in die media en in akademiese literatuur. Dit is belangrik om op te merk dat daar ’n groot verskil is tussen die oorspronklike konsep van spiritualiteit, wat op ’n Bybelse siening gegrond was, en baie van die hedendaagse persepsies daarvan. In die meeste gevalle word spiritualiteit tans beskou as iets wat van enige spesifieke godsdiens asook spesifieke aansprake op waarheid geskei is. Daar kan wel gestel word dat spiritualiteit vandag as ’n universele menslike eienskap beskou kan word. Hierdie tendense word geëvalueer deur die konsep in die oorspronklike Bybelse konteks te bestudeer en deur die ontwikkeling van die skeiding tussen godsdiens en spiritualiteit te verstaan
Strategies to address learner aggression in rural South African secondary schools
Get PDFManaging learner aggression in the school system is central to learners’ academic performance and holistic development. In order to manage learner aggression, it is important to understand the contributory factors and the forms of learner aggression. This article reports on an investigation of factors contributing to learner aggression in rural secondary schools in the Empangeni district of KwaZulu-Natal in order to identify the forms of learner aggression and to establish strategies to manage such aggression in these secondary schools. A qualitative research design was adopted to investigate the phenomenon through an interview process with participants from five rural secondary schools. The findings showed that the factors contributing to learner aggression include family factors, environmental factors and school-related factors whilst the most common forms of learner aggression in schools are verbal aggression, physical aggression and bullying. The article concludes with the role that the school, parents and the Department of Education can play in addressing learner aggression in schools
Ouers se dissiplinering van vyf- tot sesjariges
Get PDFParents’ disciplining of five to six-year-old children. The home is the basis of development in the preschool years and parenting skills are therefore crucial for the prevention of behaviour that can negatively affect the child’s future. This article reports on research conducted through the analysis of the opinions of a group of South African parents regarding the behaviour of their five to six-year-old children that they experienced as being problematic, as well as the effect of the behaviour on the parents, the strategies that they applied, and the nature of the support that they chose. The conceptual-theoretical framework in which the research was embedded explains the construct of socio-emotional development, the parent’s role therein and understanding the disciplining of the five to six-year-old child from a bio-ecological perspective (as postulated by Bronfenbrenner) with an accompanying critical perspective from the Christian worldview
The image of the teacher held by learners from 10 different countries: A new perspective on the causes of problems with learner discipline
Get PDFThe article reports on research that investigated the image of teachers held by school learners. Based on a conceptual-theoretical distinction between the ideal teacher, the totally effective teacher and the typically excellent teacher, it was assumed that learners would focus on the first, which is a mental construct, and not on the third, which refers to a flesh-and-blood person actually found working in classrooms. They would not be aware of the discrepancy existing between the ideal teacher and the actual typically excellent teacher. A hundred learners in each of England, Latvia, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Pakistan, South Africa and Mexico were asked to write a one-page essay on the following topic: ‘What does a typical teacher look like?’ The investigation confirmed the correctness of the assumption. Despite clear instructions to describe a typical teacher, many respondents from all 10 countries described what they regarded as the ideal teacher. There seems to be a discrepancy between what learners want in a teacher (the ideal teacher) and what they actually have (the typical teacher). It is also possible that the lack of exposure to truly transformative teachers may in many instances lead to ineffective education. This may be one of the causes of problems with learner discipline in school that has thus far been overlooked in the scholarly pursuit to get to the root of problems with learner discipline, possibly because it does not fit neatly into the widely used model of categorising the causes of problems with learner discipline in schools