- Title
- Assessing the implementation of primary agriculture in one Technical and Vocational Education and Training College in the Eastern Cape Province
- Creator
- Mtshabe, Siyabonga
- Subject
- Technical education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Subject
- Vocational education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Date
- 2016-01
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/26604
- Identifier
- vital:65662
- Description
- Implementing the Primary Agriculture curriculum has been a matter of concern for South African TVET colleges due to the high number of students who fail to complete the programmes. This study assessed how Primary Agriculture curriculum is implemented in one rural based TVET college in the in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The study specifically sought to 1) determine the resources available for teaching primary agriculture, 2) teaching approaches adopted by the lecturers, 3) professional skills of staff and 4) how the curriculum was monitored. The study adopted a qualitative approach and case study design of one rural based TVET College. All participants who took part in the study were purposively selected. Data were collected through document analysis of policy and curriculum documents, face-to-face in-depth interviews with 6 college managers and 6 primary agriculture lecturers. Also 20 learners from different academic levels participated in focus group discussions. Findings of the study revealed that there were inadequate teaching and learning resources and this negatively influenced the practical learning aspect of the curriculum. Inadequate resources were caused by delayed procurement processes as well as funding constraints. Students were sent to neighbouring farms and institutions for practical work to curb resource limitations. This caused learning deficiencies as student resource ratios were high thus forcing some students to observe rather than do practical. The study also found limited lecturer professional capacity in pedagogy negatively influenced curriculum delivery. While all the lecturers possessed tertiary qualifications in related fields in agriculture, the majority lacked professional teaching qualifications and pedagogical competences, thus struggled to be creative in using diverse teaching methods to enhance students’ learning outcomes. Even though some staff had to undergo Assessor and Moderator training paid by the college, as part of professional development, this staff development approach was viewed by lecturers as inadequate to improve primary agriculture curriculum implementation. The study also found that curriculum support structures in the college took many forms such as literature or materials on Subject Guidelines, Integrated Summative Assessment Task (ISAT), Internal Continuous Assessment Guidelines, textbooks and sometimes funds to take learners out on field and moderation of students work. The study found that monitoring of the curriculum implementation was weak because various errors made by lecturers in their lesson planning and students Portfolios of Assessment went uncorrected despite it being expressly stated by the moderators that corrections had to be made. The study recommends strengthening partnerships between TVET colleges and the private sector businesses and other public institutions such as the Sector Education and Training Authorities so as to improve the quantity and quality of learning resources and exposure of both staff and students. Also there is need to ensure speedy procurement and delivery of learning resources. In addition, Workplace-Based Exposures (WBE) for lecturers could enhance knowledge on developments of the industry so as to align their teaching methods emerging industry needs. The Department of Higher Education and training could consider fast-tracking strategies to enhance professional capacity of lecturers to allow them to effectively deliver the primary agriculture curriculum.
- Description
- Thesis (M.Ed) -- Faculty of Education, 2016
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xi, 264 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
UFH School of Education
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | M.Ed final draft6 23 August 2016.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |