Open Journals@UKZN
Not a member yet
870 research outputs found
Sort by
Pacing of knowledge: Pedagogic code, pedagogic discourse, and teachers’ experiences
Get PDFThere is sufficient evidence to suggest that post-apartheid curriculum reform has failed to produce the desired equity in performance. Research of classroom practice in curriculum reforms preceding the current curriculum and assessment policy statement (CAPS) showed very slow pacing of knowledge as a cause for poor performance. Amongst other complex changes the CAPS regulates pacing of knowledge. Adherence to prescribed CAPS pacing has been enforced in schools via monitoring tools by hierarchical management structures. This study sought to investigate the impact of the new pacing regime on teaching and learning. The study is framed by Bernstein’s theory (2003) that pacing carries invisible social class assumptions and cognitivist theory on policy implementation (Spillane, 2002) that teacher’s individual cognition is influenced by situated cognition and policy signals. How does the new pacing regime impact the pedagogic code and pedagogic discourse in lessons? What are teachers’ views of how the new pacing regime impacts teaching and learning. Based in a qualitative research design and phenomenological case studies of classroom practice, in-depth interviews with teachers preceded by classroom observations provided the main data sources. Data analysis shows strong pacing of knowledge; impoverished pedagogic discourse and restricted opportunities to learn the elaborated pedagogic code. Curriculum policy on pacing and hierarchical monitoring of enactment of pacing bring to life a tyrannical regime of pacing that displaces the pedagogic goal of transmission and acquisition of specialized knowledge. Furthermore, teachers are solely focusing on keeping up with the prescribed pacing although they know that average and slower learners are not learning at that pace. These learners are being excluded from acquiring the elaborated pedagogic code, its abstract orientation to meaning and the specialization of their identity. It is highly possible that the current curriculum reform will fail to produce the desired social justice and equity in performance.
 
Feminisation of Dentistry in Brazil from the Perspective of a MOOC-Type Distance Course - A Short Report
Get PDFThe Brazilian public healthcare system (SUS - Brazilian Healthcare System) provides free dental care, covering almost half of the Brazilian population. Providing continuing education to thousands of professionals is a difficult and expensive task given the country’s large size. SUS' Open University in partnership with public universities provides ongoing education to thousands of healthcare professionals using technological resources for distance learning. A distance learning course, in the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) modality, was developed to provide continuing medical education for dental surgeons to assist patients with chronic diseases. The course is free and has registered 13,089 participants. Aim: The purpose of this study is to present the profile of the MOOC course participants. Methods: Secondary data were obtained from Federal Council of Dentistry, the National Registry of Health Facilities, the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira and the Registry of Higher Education Institutions and Courses (e-MEC). Data of the MOOC course were collected in the Arouca Platform. Results: Dentists in Brazil are predominantly female. However, in some specialties there are more men than women. The majority of participants on the course were female 73.5% and in the age group of 21-40 years. Conclusion: This phenomenon is similar to other countries, and needs to be better investigated in Brazil, so that public policies of continuing education of healthcare professionals by means of distance learning, may take the profession's feminisation into consideration.  
Learners’ awareness of their emotions and their engagement with mathematics tasks in a mathematics club
Get PDFAbstract:
The role and influence of emotional experiences while working on mathematics tasks on learners’ decisions to engage or disengage is underresearched in South Africa. Cognitive education research points increasingly to the importance of emotional intelligence in cognitive activities. In this paper we describe the use of an emotions naming tool in a mathematics club setting with Grade 8 learners to help them gain more accurate awareness of their emotional experiences during tasks. We used observations, questionnaires and interviews to gather data about the learners’ awareness of emotions and their engagement and perseverance with mathematics tasks. Our results with this small group of learners indicate that consciousness about emotions through access to emotions vocabulary has positive influence on learners’ motivation for mathematical engagement, but that the expected social consequences of engagement in emotionally risky classrooms vitiate the personal gains
Becoming (p)art: Fostering socially engaged leadership for preservice art teachers through service-learning
Get PDFTo provide a more socially engaged learning environment for pre-service teachers in art education, I engaged them in a critical service-learning project. In five cycles of action and reflection on the engagement process, I generated evidence about student learning through observations, reflective notes and visual images to support my self-study on how I could influence pre-service art teachers to become educational leaders by adopting socially engaged practices. Qualitative analysis revealed that, after completing the module, students considered including socially engaged art in their teaching and showed qualities of becoming critical, accountable and transformational leaders, better prepared for teaching inclusively and in diverse contexts. The model developed from my learning serves as a praxis-orientated instrument to guide pedagogies to increase social responsiveness amongst pre-service art teachers to make their future practice more contextually relevant
Telefitting Between Kajetany and Odessa, Ukraine for Cochlear Implants
No full textHearing implant fitting is a key component of postoperative patients’ healthcare, by providing the optimum auditory nerve electrical stimulation parameters. It often entails time consuming and long travel to a medical centre, with associated costs. In 2009, the Word Hearing Centre introduced the National Network of Teleaudiology to reduce the burden to patients, and it now consists of 21 co-operating centres in Poland and four abroad in the Ukraine (Odessa and Lutsk), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), and Belarus (Brest). The centre in Odessa is sufficiently equipped but programming of cochlear implants cannot be conducted by their team there due to a lack of trained specialists and limited experience. This study reports the use of the telefitting service between Kajetany in Poland and Odessa in the Ukraine. Methods: Specialists in Poland connect by videoconference with patients and support specialists via the Internet, and use remote desktop software to access a remote computer and perform fitting. On completion of telefitting, patients completed a questionnaire in which they compared the telefitting experience with face to face conventional fitting. Results: Supported by a local specialist, 316 patients in Odessa underwent remote telefitting by specialists in Kajetany. Over 95% of respondents were; satisfied with telefitting, found it a suitable alternative to standard fitting, felt that they had good contact by videoconference with the audiologist in Poland, and that it saved them time and money. Conclusion: The development of the telefitting model has increased accessibility to hearing care services in Odessa and opens new possibilities for patients
(Re)counting the high cost of predatory publishing and the effect of a neoliberal performativity culture
Get PDFIn this self-critical account, I engage the concepts of ‘critique’ and ‘judgement’ and why they are crucial for protecting and maintaining the integrity of academia and scholarship. I argue that a naive or ignorant academic is a somewhat paradoxical position to assume, as academia is necessarily a critical space, which demands astuteness and constant vigilance. I contend that blissful ignorance is a fragile justification for the neglect of due diligence, as it relates to the selection of locales for knowledge dissemination. I engage the tenets of self-study and critical autoethnography to reflect on my practice as an academic and the consequences of my own poor judgement, not as an act of arrogant disclosure, but with a view to embracing this ‘elephant in the national academic room’ and also bringing to the fore, other ‘frail’ current knowledge vetting processes. The article draws on a Žižekian notion of perverse analysis with the view to evoke a primal confrontation of a particularly sensitive issue. I exploit the metaphor in the title to draw attention to the gravity of the act of predatory publishing and its almost irrevocable consequences. I also reflect on my grief, trauma, guilt and shame, of this self-inflicted academic reputational mutilation, and the arduous task ahead of ‘rebuilding’ one’s academic integrity. I hope that this paper might serve to intensify our alertness to the potential new perils that present, in the neoliberal research productivity-driven higher education space, where online publishing and open access has become common place, and where ‘opportunities’ to transgress and expose oneself to risk, present themselves on a daily basis, often with well-disguised ‘authenticity’. Finally, I reflect on my public exposé of personal flaw and its restorative effect of a necessary humility in the academic space
The mobile learning conscious tutor: Incorporating Facebook in tutorials
Get PDFThe 21st-century student is said to be techno-savvy and constantly on their mobile devices. Students make excessive use of social media platforms of which the Facebook application is perceived as the most popular social media network amongst students at higher education institutions. With the rethinking and reinvention of new teaching and learning perspectives in mind, using Facebook as a discussion tool seemed to have the potential to be a very effective tool to create meaningful teaching and learning experiences in an innovative way. Through a case study research design, the researchers focused on both tutors’ and students’ perceptions and questionnaires were used to collect tutors’ and students’ perceptions. Theories of virtual professional communities of practice theory are incorporated, as a critique and a critical analysis of the progressive development of a tutoring system that incorporates mobile devices in the lecture venues are further considered. Findings imply that students respond to discussions quicker and are comfortable enough within the online space to share their information and opinions. The role of students shifted from only receiving knowledge to both searching and sharing their knowledge. The tutors were regarded as their peers and therefore shared the techno-savvy traits that could interpret content to the students on a digital platform in an easier way and in a language that the students understood. Tutors had to further strategies and plan every minute of the tutorial very well, in order to conduct disciplined, well-structured and meaningful tutorials
Teledentistry Overview: United States of America
Get PDFThis paper describes current teledentistry practices in the United States of America. The health landscape of the country is reviewed and the emerging need for remote health services discussed. The origins, current guidelines, legal issues, and financial arrangements for teledentistry are described. Specific attention is paid to emerging teledentistry programmes throughout the country, including a case study of a successful and expanding teledentistry programme in the state of Oregon. Although the literature has long touted the health and economic benefits associated with teledentistry, it has become clear that this technology has generally outpaced policymaking and regulatory agencies. This paper attempts to contextualise and review leading developments in teledentistry to aid in the dissemination of otherwise fragmented efforts and experiences
Context matters: HoDs leadership practices in monitoring and supporting teachers in schools participating in Jika iMfundo
No full textJika iMfundo is an intervention for systemic education change, with a particular focus on curriculum coverage. This paper focuses on the extent to which HODs are able to play an adaptive leadership role in supporting the teachers in their departments. We report on data generated from interviews with Heads of Departments in fifteen KZN schools that had been part of the Jika iMfundo intervention. While Jika iMfundo’s aim is to shift HODs leadership practices from a technical, compliance approach to a more developmental and supportive role, our findings show that the majority of HODs are not able to do this, due to their heavy workloads and overwhelming administrative responsibilities. We argue that PILO’s theory of change has unrealistic expectations of HODs as key levers of change for curriculum coverage, which do not take into account the contextual realities and variations of resourcing in different school contexts