Trustee Education Workshop 2016...Dear Trustee Thank you for accepting the invitation to attend the...
87
Trustee Education Workshop 2016 Map the Future
Transcript of Trustee Education Workshop 2016...Dear Trustee Thank you for accepting the invitation to attend the...
Trustee Education Workshop
2016
Map the Future
Dear Trustee
Thank you for accepting the invitation to attend the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment’s Trustee Education Workshop at the Royal Marang Hotel outside Rustenberg from 23rd to 24th September 2016. This preparation pack is aimed to help you maximise your workshop engagement and to provide you with a stimulating immersion into the South African education sector.
While there are many crucial aspects for better understanding the state of education within South Africa, the focus for the weekend will be unpacking two key dimensions: the case for technology and leadership interventions within the local education environment. The programme content will ensure a deepened continuation of Endowment discussions to date.
More specifically, we will focus on opportunities to maximise the impact of technology that is employed in a transformational context and of an aspirational educational fellowship’s ability to mobilise future educational leadership. Both of these central topics will benefit from firstly being framed by subject matter experts at a research and public sector level before then being unpacked further at a practitioner level, to maximise the strategic, contextual and implementation dimensions that require consideration.
Piecing Together the Educational Puzzle
The Trustee Education Workshop bears similarities with building a large puzzle. What is required is an understanding of not only the specific pieces of the puzzle but how they fit together to construct a coherent big picture. We will draw on this metaphor to help bring the weekend conference to life.
Included in this preparation pack is a proudly South African product called Map Blitz. It is the innovative work of an Allan Gray Fellow and Astrophysicist Wandile Mbanga. It started out as a plan to better entertain his siblings: devising a puzzle with irregular shapes. From there it morphed into a startup that has already received critical acclaim in numerous classroom settings across the country and was recently featured on a national radio station.
Wandile has graciously honoured the Trustee Education Workshop with a special edition puzzle that was built using transparent Perspex in the colours of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment logo. The Map Blitz Africa puzzle has 49 inland pieces each representing a country in Africa and the objective of the game is to build the continent within three minutes. Building the puzzle in as short a time as possible will be your ice breaker challenge at the start of the workshop on 23rd September so be sure to brush up on your Africa map building skills in the interim!
This preparation pack also includes all the Trustee Board Reports that have been drafted to date. They represent endeavours at better understanding opportunities for technology and leadership impact within the educational system. We have also included Professor Jonathan Jansen’s book How to Fix South Africa’s Schools. Familiarising yourself with this material is a helpful first step in understanding the outline of the puzzle we will be collectively piecing together over the course of the 23rd and 24th of September.
The Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment looks forward to your participation in charting a landscape that offers much complexity alongside the promise of much transformational impact.
Yours in Educational Excellence
Anthony FarrChief Executive Officer Allan Gray Orbis Foundation
Friday 23 September 2016
Start End Session Speaker / Facilitator Details Description
16h00 17h30 Registration and Check-in Allan Gray Fellow Entrepreneurial Exhibition
17h30 17h45
Welcome and Ice Breaker
Anthony Farr, Eugene Daniels Workshop
Introduction and Overview17h45 18h00 Wandile Mbanaga,
Allan Gray Fellow
18h00 19h00
HIGH-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL
OVERVIEW 1
Dr Nic Spaull, Educational Researcher;
Thomas J. Alexander Fellow at the OECD
Binding Constraints
in the Education
System
Key Constraints and Considerations Prohibiting
Successful Educational Interventions within The South African Education
System
19h00 20h00 Dinner
20h00 21h00 Socialising
Saturday 24 September 2016
Start End Session Speaker / Facilitator Details Description
6h45 8h00 Breakfast
8h00 9h00
HIGH-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL
OVERVIEW 2
Advocate Alison Bengtson, Chief Director: Districts Operations Management
in the Gauteng Department of Education
Reflections from the Gauteng
Department of Education
Improving Learner Performance in South African
Schools by Pioneering Change Strategies to Improve
Learner Performance and the Development of Leaders
in Education
9h00 9h20
BUILDING THE TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
PLATFORM
Eugene Daniels, Education Consultant and previous District Director, Western Cape Education
Department
Overview of Endowment
Global Research
Key Technology Education Lessons Emanating from Best Practices at a Global
and Emerging Market Level
9h20 10h10 Devang Vussonji, Partner with Dalberg leading
their Employment and Education practice
Technology in Education: A South African
Context
Specifics of Various Technology Interventions
within the South African Environment
10h00 10h30 Julian Hewitt, Educational Consultant and previous Head of Fellowship, Allan
Gray Orbis Foundation
Identified Opportunities
for Engagement
Identification and High-Level Summary of 4 Key Areas
for Impact Arising from the Technology in Education
Research Report
10h30 11h00 Tea Break
Agenda
Saturday 24 September 2016 Continued
Start End Session Speaker / Facilitator Details Description
11h00 12h00
BUILDING THE TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
PLATFORM
Café Conversation
Contextualising Key Themes
from the Technology
in Education session
Question 1: What lessons can we draw from technology to rebuild a faltering
school system?
Question 2: What are the binding
constraints of technology interventions within
the South African educational space?
12h00 13h00 Lunch
13h00 13h15
BUILDING THE EDUCATIONAL
LEADER PLATFORM
Anthony Farr
Exploration of the Educational
Fellowship Opportunity
Exploration of the Rationale, Components and Impact through the
Creation of a High-Impact Educational Fellowship within the South African
Educational System
13h15 14h15 Education Department Deans Panel
Professor Maureen Robinson (Stellenbosch);
Professor Pam Christie (UCT);
Professor Braun (UP)
Educational Pipeline, Current
Realities, Future Prospects
Pre-service Training Side Opportunities and Hopes
for Future Educators
14h15 15h00
High School Principal Panel
Educational Pipeline, Current
Realities, Future Prospects
Teaching Profession Perspective of Hopes for
Future Educators
15h00 15h15 Tea Break
15h15 15h45
BUILDING THE EDUCATIONAL
LEADER PLATFORM
Café Conversation
Contextualising Key Themes
from the Educational
Leader session
Question 1: What lessons can we draw
from Deans and School Principals to rebuild a
faltering school system?
Question 2:What are the Binding
Constraints of Leadership Pipeline interventions
within the South African educational space?
15h45 16h00CLOSING Anthony Farr Wrap Up Consolidation of Learnings
and Input and Next Steps
Nic Spaull
Dr Nic Spaull is a well-known education researcher in South Africa. He has recently returned from Paris where he was a Thomas J. Alexander Fellow at the OECD. Before that he was a Visiting Scholar in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University in the United States. Nic has a PhD in economics and has published numerous journal articles on education focusing on assessment, accountability, literacy and education policy in South Africa. He is a research fellow at Stellenbosch University and the University of Johannesburg and also sits on the Joint Advisory Committee of the South African Human Rights Commission. He has recently been awarded an ESRC/DFID grant to research exceptional township and rural schools in South Africa in 2016/17. Nic has been involved in a number of research projects for local and international organisations, including the South African Presidency, the Department of Basic Education, UNICEF, the EU, UNESCO and SACMEQ. The most recent of which was the “Binding Constraints in Education” project for the South African Presidency and the EU. He advises numerous NGO’s, policy-makers and grant-making bodies and also regularly updates his website (nicspaull.com) with new research and articles he finds interesting.
Alison Bengtson
Alison is the Chief Director of Districts Operations Management in the Gauteng Department of Education. She is managing five Educational Districts’ offices comprising 860 schools within the Gauteng province. Her role is to ensure that relevant and coordinated support is given. Her expertise includes motivating and influencing others to drive change. She is also passionate about the development of leaders in education. Her legal and human resources qualifications have assisted her in being able to navigate the complex system of education and create powerful teams for driving change. Alison has worked in key leadership roles within the systems value chain. This diverse experience has given her a unique insight into the system at various levels. She holds the following qualifications: LLB (UNISA) (Admitted on the roll of advocates (2007), Master’s Diploma in Human Resources Management (RAU), Bachelor of Education (UNISA), Higher Education Diploma (UNISA), and Bachelor of Science (UKZN). In September 2014 she was re-elected as the President of the Education Management Association of South Africa (EMASA).
Devang Vussonji
Devang is a Partner with Dalberg and he leads Dalberg’s Employment and Education practice. He advises both public and private sector clients on topics such as youth unemployment, employment readiness, vocational training, primary and secondary education, and innovative financing mechanisms. He recently assisted the CDC Group in conducting due diligence on a chain of technology-enabled private schools in Kenya. He has also assisted Dalberg’s sister entity, D. Capital Partners in studying the impact investment landscape in the education sector in Africa and identifying opportunities for future investments. Devang has also written articles for publications such as The Financial Times’ This is Africa, The Mail & Guardian and NORRAG and he has been quoted in publications such as Devex. Prior to joining Dalberg, Devang worked for six years with Mercer Consulting in the United States where he advised Fortune 500 companies on strategic human capital and performance measurement issues. Devang holds an MBA with honours from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. He was born and raised in India.
Speakers and Presenters
Eugene Daniels
Eugene started teaching in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, in 1982 and progressed to become a Circuit Manager within the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) in 1997. He initiated and managed the WCED Provincial Safe Schools Programme to safeguard 400 high-risk schools. He was appointed as a District Director of Metropole South in 2001. After resigning from the WCED in 2012, he joined the Citizen’s Movement for Social Change to champion a cradle-to-career strategy and meaningful change in education. He has been involved a range of interventions to support districts and schools in five provinces. He is currently involved in the School Turnaround Foundation, an NGO that champions a unique turnaround methodology that has yielded significant improvement in learner outcomes.
Julian Hewitt
Julian is an Educational Consultant who previously headed up Allan Gray Orbis Foundation’s Fellowship Programme. He also currently sits on the Board of Trustees for the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s flagship Lebone II College. Having travelled to almost 50 countries, Julian’s global engagement has been recognised as a recipient of the Clinton Democracy Fellowship, Chinese Government Scholarship and Global Award for Individual Leadership through AIESEC. A social entrepreneur at heart, he is the founding member of four social enterprises, including Brightest Young Minds, and has helped initiate the GIBS Network of Social Entrepreneurs.
Anthony Farr
Anthony qualified as a CA (SA) and a CFA after finishing his B.BusSci degree inFinance and Accounting at UCT. After articles, he worked for a number of years in the international corporate finance team of Standard Bank in London. He then co-founded the Starfish Greathearts Foundation in 2001, which currently supports around 15 000 children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. He is the founding CEO of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation that was established in 2005 as an education and development catalyst to assist a generation of high-growth responsible entrepreneurs to bring about job creation and poverty alleviation in South Africa. The Foundation has 750 of these individuals across its entire talent pipeline starting at high school (Scholarship) through university (Fellowship) to those now pursuing their careers and enterprises as part of the Association of Allan Gray Fellows. The Foundation seeks to harness the full opportunity for entrepreneurship to shape human potential for society’s benefit. As part of this journey the Foundation is a founding member of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network. Anthony serves as a council member for the recently establish Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa.
Maureen Robinson
Maureen has been Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University since 2012. Prior to that appointment she was Dean of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She has worked as a high school teacher and at the University of the Western Cape, where she completed her Master’s degree and PhD. In 2013 she was a Fulbright Scholar in the United States. Prof. Robinson’s research interests are teacher education and educational change and the relationship between theory, policy and practice in teacher education. She has served on the executive committees of various research and policy organisations, including the South African Education Research Association and the Education Deans’ Forum.
Pam Christie
Pam Christie is Professor of Education at the University of Cape Town, Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Honourary Professor at the University of Queensland. Her South African publications include Opening the Doors of Learning: Changing Schools in South Africa (2008), Open Schools (1991) and The Right to Learn (1985; 1991). In Australia she is co-author of Reconciliation and Pedagogy (2012), Teachers and Schooling Making a Difference (2006), and Leading Learning (2003). She was the lead author, with Mark Potterton and Dawn Butler, of the Ministerial Report on Schools that Work (2007).
Max Braun
Professor Braun was appointed as Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Education of the University of Pretoria in 2014 after acting in the position for six months. Before then Prof. Braun has held the positions of professor, in the Department of Physics in the School of Physical Sciences in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, and Head of the Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria. He holds an MSc and DSc in Physics, and an MSc in Engineering Management: Technology Management. Prof. Braun supervises or co-supervises students at PhD level in Computational Physics, Biophysics, Science Education and Computer Integrated Education. He has been an external examiner to the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, UNISA, Rhodes University and the University of Swaziland.
Technology In Education: High Level Opportunity Report
Author: Anthony Farr, Educational Research Team
Date: October 2015
Description: Identification and High Level Summary of Key Areas for Impact Arising from the Technology in Education Research Report
Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 2
Tech Ed Opportunity Graphic ........................................................................................................ 3
Tech Ed Opportunity Summary ...................................................................................................... 4
Research Report References.......................................................................................................... 8
2
Executive Summary
Based on feedback from Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment’s September 2015 Board of Trustee meeting, a research
report was commissioned to address to identify both the international trends in the application of technology in education
as well as the potential gaps that existed in South Africa relative to these international trends.
The document, ti tled ‘Technology in Education: High Level Research Report’ was drafted by an Educational Research Team
in October 2015. The report was also helpful in shedding l ight on a number of opportunities that currently exist within the
application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a classroom and school-based context.
This report exists to highlight and summarise four avenues for further exploration by the Board of Trustees. It serves as a
discussion point to unpack these opportunities in more detail while paving the way for the Board to a lso identify additional
gaps for consideration.
Furthermore, clarifying these prospects will a lso help guide the other Board request of ‘gather(ing) a group of educational
luminaries with cutting edge ability and understanding of the unique aspects related to technology in education’ in that more
specific individuals and subject matter expertise can be invited to form part of this follow up forum.
3
Tech Ed Opportunity Graphic
71
28
5
4
Total Research Areas Identified
Research Areas Filtered through Importance
Thematic Areas Prioritised
Tech Education Opportunities Identified
1 2
3 4
Foundational Literacy and Numeracy
University Enrolment Pipeline
Pre-Service Teacher Training
Content and Context Intervention
1
Gr 1 Gr 3 Gr 12 Gr 8 B.Ed
2 3 4
Figure 1:
TechEd
Research
Process
Synopsis
Figure 2: Four
Primary
TechEd Opportunities
Figure 3: Academic Timing of TechEd Opportunities
4
Tech
Ed O
pp
ortu
nity Su
mm
ary
The
fou
r prim
ary aven
ues of p
otential B
oard co
nsid
eration th
at have a
risen fro
m th
e rep
ort are tab
ulated b
elow in te
rms o
f the
problem
s that e
xist, the
solution to
these gaps an
d the kind of
pro
du
ct ne
eded
to a
ddress this. Fo
r the sake o
f simplicity, th
ese o
pportunities h
ave be
en p
resented as standalon
e initiatives, b
ut th
ere is also the p
ossibility o
f com
bining d
ifferent elem
ents
into
on
e ventu
re. The m
ain o
verriding co
nsideration sh
ould be to
no
t lose focus b
ut it wo
uld be p
ossible to
consider ‘Pre
-Service Teacher Trainin
g’ as an integral a
nd lon
g term
elemen
t on the
‘Con
ten
t and Co
ntext Interve
ntion’ th
at proactively e
ngages with fu
ture ed
ucators on h
ow
to b
est em
ploy ICTs w
ithin a classro
om co
ntext.
Figure 4: Summ
ary of the four primary Tech Ed O
pportunities
1. F
oundational Literacy and N
umeracy
2. U
niversity Enrolment Pipeline
3. Pre
-Service Teacher Training
4. Content and Context Intervention
Problem
Critical that b
y the
end o
f Grade
3 learn
ers are able to
read
for
me
anin
g and p
leasure in th
eir
ho
me
language a
nd then
fluent
in En
glish by G
rade 5, e
lse they
will b
e silently e
xcluded
.
1) The
re a
re no
learner-d
riven p
latform
s
tha
t track h
olistic academic p
rogress and
no
table a
chievemen
ts and o
ver th
e full high
scho
ol du
ration
2) Aca
de
mic resu
lts ou
tside o
f standardised
testin
g (AN
As) an
d year-en
d matric re
sults
are
incom
parable across differing schooling
en
vironm
ents
3) No
time
ly info
rmational is a
vailable to
learn
ers about va
lue-added
, co-cu
rricula
op
po
rtunities w
ithin th
eir sphere o
f interest
an
d ge
ographical location
1) Th
e su
ccess of Tech Ed
solutions is often
limited b
y the
educators’ w
illingn
ess and
pro
ficiency to
utlise te
chnology
2) No
B.Ed
de
grees co
ver m
aterial on
how
to e
ffectively u
se ICTs in the classroom
Tech
no
logy does n
ot exist in
isolation of
its con
text. An
y tech
nology initiative
ne
eds to
take into a
ccount th
e context
in w
hich
the te
chnology w
ill be
intro
duced
. Ultim
ately techno
logy can
on
ly be
a tool a
nd th
e success of th
e
too
l will b
e determ
ined b
y the
con
text
in w
hich
it op
erates and th
is is often
the
rea
son wh
y so many w
ell
inte
ntioned
ICT initiatives in SA
schools
ha
ve failed
.
5
4) Scho
larship and
Bursary p
roviders d
o n
ot
ha
ve a
detailed
national, search
able
da
tabase from
which
to lo
cate po
tential
can
didates
5) Scho
larship and
Bursary p
roviders h
ave a
low
er th
an desire
d retention ra
te of
Un
iversity e
ntrants d
ue to
lack of re
liable
historical academ
ic data
Solution
De
velop a
n on
-line m
ultimed
ia
inte
rvention th
at pro
vides a
structu
red w
ay to lea
rn ho
w to
tea
ch re
ading of 80 le
ssons and
tran
slated in
to all 11 official
lan
guages
1) Free
access to
a U
SSD Platform
for
learn
ers to initiative a
nd maintain a
Perso
nal Portfolio o
f acad
emic re
sults,
lead
ership positions, an
d extra cu
rricula
activities
2) Free
access to
South A
frica’s leading
ad
aptive learn
ing platform givin
g learners
fea
ture o
r smartph
one access to
High
Scho
ol M
aths a
nd Science
exercises
3) Scho
larship and
Bursary Pro
vider access
to a
com
pre
hensive, h
ighly searchable
da
tabase o
f High Sch
ool Learners a
cross
Sou
th A
frica
4) Lea
rne
r and Ed
ucator incentive
s (free
airtim
e, gamification) to
maintain an
up
-to-
1) Co
spo
nsor Tech
Ed m
odules a
t all major
B.Ed
un
iversities to cre
ate confiden
ce and
fam
iliarity in best e
mplo
ying technolo
gy.
2) Crea
te a
fund
that these p
re service
ed
ucato
rs can th
en ap
ply wh
en th
ey enter
form
al e
mploym
ent to
assist in supp
orting
the
m to
mo
bilise an
d drive th
e
ap
pro
priate ICT interven
tion at th
eir
scho
ol
The
un
it of ch
ange must b
e the sch
ool.
From
this startin
g poin
t the app
roach
wo
uld invo
lve pilo
ting an determ
ining
the
mo
st impactful interve
ntions
rela
ting to
creating
:
1) Stab
le Con
text: This is th
e base o
n
wh
ich th
e techno
logy can th
en b
e
ove
rlaid. There a
re three
possible
me
ans o
f achieving th
is: wo
rking w
ith
scho
ols that alrea
dy ha
ve a m
easu
re of
stab
ility and
functio
nality, bringin
g
stab
ility thro
ugh targeted
leadership
inte
rventions a
nd finally creating
stab
ility by cre
atin
g new
schools.
2) Tech
no
logy Enhan
cemen
t: On
ce a
stab
le context h
as bee
n established th
e
6
da
te H
igh School CV
5) Com
mu
nicatio
n of relevan
t and tim
ely
extra
curricula a
ctivities to Le
arners
tech
no
logy platfo
rm can th
en b
e
intro
duced
.
Why N
ow
Afte
r five ye
ars of sch
ool, 13
pe
rcen
t of G
rade 5s (11-yea
r-
old
s) are illiterate. With
out
literacy, a
school w
ill beco
me
wh
at is kno
wn
as a “ritual
Scho
ol” w
here th
ey go th
rough
the
mo
tions of class a
nd
atte
ndance b
ut n
o learning is
taking p
lace
Give
n th
at only 15%
of SA
’s un
iversity
stud
ents gra
duate, there is a
need to
build a
pip
eline to supp
ort the successful u
niversity
en
try an
d grad
uation startin
g from
high
scho
ol. In this re
gard, th
e National
De
velopm
ent Plan
has a
n objective o
f
incre
asing un
iversity enrolm
ents in
South
Africa
from
950k in 2010 to 1.62m
by 2030
Re
cen
t research
in South
African
un
iversities co
ncluded
that p
rovision of ICT
train
ing for teach
ers wo
uld be m
ore
effe
ctive if it is o
ffered d
uring p
re-service
train
ing in an e
mergen
t country co
ntext.
The
We
stern Ca
pe Education
De
partm
ent h
as annou
nced p
lans to
pro
vide a
fibre op
tic link to all scho
ols
in th
e p
rovince b
y the
end o
f 2016. The
Kha
nya
Project is a
nother R
2 billio
n
initiative
to investigate inn
nocative
wa
ys to u
sing ICTs in schools. Th
e
Ga
ute
ng Dep
artmen
t of Edu
cation is
sho
wing sim
ilar ambition. H
ow
ever,
succe
ss has bee
n limited a
nd there is
scop
e to n
udge th
e system b
y
de
velo
ping impactful b
enchm
arks on a
sma
ller scale
Total Market
Size
1.92 million Fo
undation Ph
ase
Lea
rners
4.1 million H
igh School Le
arners 394,225 Te
ach
ers 4.1 m
illion High Sch
ool Learners
Product
On
-line m
ultimed
ia
inte
rvention
USSD
platfo
rm w
ith p
otential of a
dding a
n
Ad
ap
tive Learnin
g com
ponen
t to b
olster
Ma
ths a
nd Science
key con
cept co
re
ma
stery
3 we
ek lo
ng modu
le focusing on b
est
pra
ctice exam
ples and te
chnologies
Fun
d fo
r edu
cators w
ho co
mplete th
is
mo
du
le to a
pply to w
hen
placed in a
Fun
din
g a 30 scho
ol pilot for th
e
reco
mm
ended
Context a
nd Platform
initiatives a
mo
unts to an
annual o
utlay
of R
16.1 million o
ver th
e initial thre
e
yea
r piloting stage d
uration that
en
gage
s directly w
ith at least eight
7
scho
oling e
nviron
men
t to supp
ort a
rele
vant Tech Ed
inervention
orga
nisatio
ns and app
roximately 3
360
learn
ers
Relevant N
DP
Goal
Ab
ou
t 90 pe
rcent o
f learners in
grad
es 3, 6 a
nd 9 m
ust a
chieve 50 p
erce
nt o
r mo
re in th
e
an
nual n
ational assessmen
ts in
literacy, m
aths an
d science
Incre
asing university e
nrolm
ents in Sou
th A
frica to
1.62m b
y 2030 from
950 000
stud
ents in 2010
In
creasing u
niversity enro
lmen
ts in So
uth
Africa to
1.62m b
y 2030 from
950 000 stud
ents in 2010
Endowm
ent contribution to
this increase
50 000 learn
ers (20%
of th
e p
rop
osed increa
se)
50 000 stud
ents
(5% o
f the
curre
nt n
umber o
f university
en
rolm
ents a
nd arou
nd 10% o
f the
pro
po
sed incre
ase in futu
re enrolm
ents)
50 000 stud
ents
(5% o
f the
curre
nt n
umber o
f university
en
rolm
ents a
nd arou
nd 10% o
f the
pro
po
sed increa
se in futu
re e
nro
lmen
ts)
8
Research Report References
The opportunities highlighted in this report are based on over-arching trends identified in the ‘Technology in Education: High
Level Research Report.’ The content below is taken directly from this document and serves as a reference point for the four
opportunities identified above and the various research that relates to each category.
1. Foundational Literacy And Numeracy
Another NGO in South Africa, FunDza Literacy Trust have built on this approach by utilising ICT to empower its
literacy goals. This non-profit is dedicated to growing generations of South Africans, empowered through
l iteracy and a love of reading. To this end, the Trust’s ‘Growing Communities of Readers’ programme provides
young people across the country with access to quality, locally-generated reading content via their mobile
phones. FunDza’s mobi network (responsive website and Mxit app) is accessible to users on smartphones,
feature phones, tablets and computers with Internet access. FunDza’s programme is demonstrating impact with
approximately 50,000 unique readers access its content each month.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The opportunity exists to utilise ICT to reach marginalised communities in a cost effective manner. FunDza
Literacy Trust is a good example of how digital media can impact if we change the culture and fan the flames to
promote literacy and numeracy across South Africa.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
A research article titled, ‘Teaching Numeracy Pre-School and Early Grades in Low-Income Countries’ highlighted
the following critical issues in relation to educating teachers for parental involvement:
The need to forge parental and community involvement in mathematics education;
recognize social and cultural differences and relations of power;
respond to cultural diversity in numeracy practices;
support administrators and teachers to work with parents;
enhance communication between teachers and parents; and,
connect home school support
ICT and especially mobile technology lend themselves to build these relationships and create a conducive
culture to enhance both literacy and numeracy.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Welliver’s Instructional Transformation Model (Welliver 1990) has teachers progressing through five hierarchical states in
order to integrate ICT effectively. Figure 1 below shows these five s tates.
9
1. Familiarisation Teachers become aware of technology and i ts potential uses.
2. Uti l ization Teachers use technology, but minor problems will cause teachers to discontinue its use.
3. Integration Technology becomes essential for the educational process and teachers are constantly
thinking of ways to use technology in their classrooms
4. Reorientation Teachers begin to re-think the educational goals of the classroom with the use of
technology
5. Revolution The evolving classroom becomes completely integrated with technology in all subject
areas.
Technology becomes an invisible tool that is seamlessly woven into the teaching and learning process. These 5 states are
especially relevant to integrating ICT into the classroom and offer tremendous possibilities especially with regards to
enhancing literacy and numeracy outcomes. However teachers need leadership, training and support to move beyond the
first two states. Greenshoots has largely succeeded in this achieving these transitions in many disadvantaged schools.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Sadly, both provinces (Gauteng and Western Province) are currently rol ling out ICT interventions in education without
learning from lessons from the past such as developing software programmes that are relevant in terms of language and
context to enhance Literacy and Numeracy at primary school level. Most of the software could have been game-orientated
to increase its level of leanrner engagement.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Sourcing lesson plans from gi fted and experienced teachers from all over the country would be a feasible quick-win which
would greatly add value to a portal of this nature. This portal needs to cover all the grades from 1 to 12 and should cater for
barriers to learning, home languages and various contextual factors. Ideally this portal should be available to parents so that
they too can understand their particular role and have access to resources to support their children. This process should
commence at Foundation Phase to ensure that our high dropout rate (56% on average) is reduced.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Interventions in South Africa are often directed at high school or even Grade 12 level whilst neglecting pre and primary school
levels. The high dropout rate and mediocre learner performance emanate from there. Literacy, numeracy, care and
support interventions at foundation phase should therefore take centre stage so that we hold the hand of every child
from Cradle to Career to Citizenship.
2. University Enrolment Pipeline
These are the digital best practices with regards to promoting ICT related teaching:
Evidence of student problem-solving and/or i ssues resolution
Personalising and globalising content by making authentic connections,
Learning connected to one or more 21st Century Themes
Outcomes require sustained investigation
Emphasis on multiple interpretations and outcomes
10
Adjustments to the content, process, and/or product based on learner readiness, profile and interests are
documented
Digi tal tools and resources adjusted to the needs of the learner
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The greatest challenge for South African education is the serious lack of educational apps that meet the following needs:
Is aligned to the curriculum,
Is age appropriate
Channels quality content,
Offers career guidance appropriate to the geographical region of the learner
Champions entrepreneurship and vocational training
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Computers have the capability to store and transmit patterns of use thus making research affordable, comprehensive and
timely in South Africa. If the intensity and type of use determines the potential impacts, computers can be programmed to
record and transmit s tudents’ patterns of use. This type of reporting can produce free, large-scale, detailed monitoring of
how the program is proceeding. Computers can also be an inexpensive way to test students to generate quick reports on
trends in final academic outcomes.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The overa ll availability of ICT (especially mobile devices) could be utilised to provide better possibilities to meet the needs
of learners at risk, and especially empower all individuals to become active participants in society. We should therefore
deploy our efforts to enable marginalized benefit from ICTs through creating awareness about the benefits and opportunities
offered by ICTs among marginalized, capacity building in ICT use, setting up projects or initiative s a imed at increasing
marginalized access and use of ICTs, encouraging to taking up ICT opportunities.
3. Teacher Training
Recent research in South African universities concluded that provision of ICT training for teachers would be more effective
if it is offered during pre-service training in an emergent country context.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Data analysis indicated that offering an ICT course at an institution of higher learning has a number of advantages over
offering the course to in-service teachers. It has been noted that the majority of pre-service teachers were motivated to
learn about new technologies for teaching.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Teachers are not often taught how to revise their pedagogical practices , how to replace other traditional lessons without
depleting the curriculum coverage and so on. This means that after teachers had attended a course they s till d id not know
how to use ICT for teaching pupils.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
11
Teachers who promote the infusion of mobile technology live in perpetual white-water. They have to be continuously
supported to manage the pace of rapid change. They have to continually adapt and there is very little research to guide them,
given that the use of these tools in the field of education is in i ts innovation s tage.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Educators in South Africa need to be orientated and trained to utilise mobile technology more effectively given that most
learners have access to these devices across our country.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Donors should ensure that planning and budgeting factors in ALL necessary inputs. To succeed, i t is necessary to provide SIX
cri tical complementary inputs: hardware, software, electrici ty, teacher training and pedagogical support. The last two are
often neglected in many projects across the world.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Every public school in the Fairfax County has a full-time, school- based technology specialist who serves as an instructional
technology coach. Fi rs t and foremost, the role of these coaches i s to help teachers learn and refine instructional practices
us ing technology to facilitate student learning. The task of the coach is not just to help the teacher use the technology; rather,
i t i s about how to use the technology to provide excellent instruction. It i s important for the coach to enable and empower
teachers with the technological tools to personalize instruction and provide collaborative learning.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The Internet has to be introduced to teachers and learners, but teachers do not have access to the Internet, nor do they
know how to introduce the Internet, or how to implement Internet or related strategies in teaching and learning . The
evidence is quite persuasive that programmes that overlook teacher training and the development of software may yield
low returns. Both Gauteng Online (R 3 bi llion) and Khanya (R2 bi llion) did not prioritise teacher training and content
development. This shortcoming meant that both projects yielded l ittle impact on learner outcomes and quality of teaching
in the classroom.
Six fundamental principles of good practice must be addressed for such programmes to be effective: a shift from an emphasis
on ‘education for ICT’ to the use of ‘ICT for education’; an integration of ICT practice within the whole curriculum; a need for
integration between pre-service and in-service teacher training; a need for the development of relevant and locally
produced content;
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Research on Cri tical success factors for ICT interventions in Western Cape Schools proposes that teachers need to find the
relevance of ICTs in their personal and professional capacities to develop the motivation to use ICTs in their teaching .
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Teacher education programs must be revised and improved to provide new teachers the skills to implement digital
learning in their classrooms. Greater progress needs to be made in universities of education to prepare new teachers to
leverage technology in schools that are moving forward with digital learning. Partnerships with higher education institutions
are cri tical to achieve this goal.
12
4.1 Content
Greenshoots won the award for “Improving the quality of Mathematics education through ICT: Use of an online
Mathematics Curriculum to progressively track individual learners to promote data informed decision making by a ll role
players within the education system.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Even with big western names now in the business of MOOCs or distance learning, Kanwar believes that “ We can use the
technology to enhance learner experience especially through the use of mobile devices. Learning analytics will certainly
help improve teaching through constant feedback and data.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
TeachPitch, one of the five WISE Award winners, is a remarkable online resource that helps teachers and sch ools identify the
best online resources available. TeachPitch offers its users a teacher-curated library system accessible through a community
technology. Their platform allows you to see, save, rate and share the most relevant digitally available educational resources
whi le discovering the personal learning ideas and questions from other teachers from around the world.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Internet connectivity has the potential to unleash many opportunities for students in terms of accessing vast amounts of
information and collaborating and communicating with peers and experts. It levels the playing field and most provinces,
especially Gauteng and the Western Cape have plans to link all schools to the internet within the next few years.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Centennial School District in Pennsylvania converted its planetarium into a 21st Century Learning Lab. The facility functions
as a dynamic digital learning space for use across all curricular areas, configurable for a variety of challenge-based learning
experiences.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Placing computers in classrooms — rather than separate computer laboratories — enables much greater use of ICTs for
‘higher order’ skills. Indeed, a smaller number of computers in classrooms may enable more actual use than a greater number
of computers located in separate computer labs).
4.2 Context
The feedback about each learner is stakeholder driven where, “Each stakeholder within the education system receives
analysis that is tailored to their particular requirements ranging from the Education District Director, Education District
officials, the school managements and the teachers.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Grove Heights Community Schools in Minnesota holds a “Student Led Technology Conference” every year. Teachers,
students, administrators and technology team members design and lead the conference sessions. These sessions enable
parents and community members to experience technology in action and interact with s tudents to find out about their
13
capability with digital media for learning. Any effort to make substantial changes in the learning culture of schools is not
likely to succeed without a high level of parent and community endorsement and support.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Focus on pedagogical practices in addition to the technical aspects. Much research by Fullan (1991) and others has shown
that the most effective way to bring about the adoption of an innovation in schools is to engage the whole school in a
democratic process of planning change. If the school, and particularly the head teacher, are not committed to adopting
change and particularly ICT, then if one teacher goes on a course, the rest of the school sets up antibodies to any new ideas,
which the unfortunate teacher brings back into the school. The last thing the other teachers will then do is to change their
practice.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Sadly, both Gauteng and the Western Cape are currently rolling out ICT interventions in education without learning from
lessons from the past such as:
Effective Stakeholder consultation: both interventions were top down and most officials, principals, educators
and communities did not take ownership
Lack of capacity to support schools: both interventions lacked sufficiently qualified personnel to rol lout and
support to all the schools in the province.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
It i s increasingly recognised that the so-called digital divide is not just a matter of unavailability of information and
communication technologies (ICTs), but also of the social, political, institutional and cultural contexts which shape
people’s lack of access to ICTs, or their inability to use them effectively. This implies that a ll projects must address the
contextual issues to ensure their success and sustainability. Many interventions in South Africa have fallen short with regards
to teacher tra ining, pedagogical support and a range of contextual issues that contribute to social inclusion.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Kentaro Toyama: The reality i s that the history of electronic technologies in schools is fraught with failures.
Technology at best only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems.
It makes good schools better, but it makes bad schools worse.
In particular, the attempt to use technology to fix underperforming classrooms (or to replace non-existent ones)
is futile.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Students, parents, staff, districts, community members must be actively involved in developing, supporting and
maintaining a transformed learning culture. This involves a bottom up and top down approach where districts make a critical
leadership contribution. This process involves teachers, principals and other school s taff as co -creators in achieving a
transformed learning culture.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
14
The introduction and use of ICTs in education can be a useful tool to help promote and enable educational reform, and
that ICTs are both important motivational tools for learning and can promote greater efficiencies in education systems
and practices.
1
Technology in Education: High Level Research Report
Author: Anthony Farr, Educational Research Team
Date: October 2015
Description: Research to identify both the international trends in the application of technology in education as well as the potential gaps that existed in South Africa relative to these international trends
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
(Wayne Gretzky, former Canadian professional ice hockey player)
2
Contents 1. Preface ..........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................3
1.2 Research Process ....................................................................................................5
2. Key Thematic Research Areas ........................................................................................... 11
2.1 Implementation.................................................................................................... 11
2.2 Emerging Technology............................................................................................ 20
2.3 Impact, Monitoring and Assessment ...................................................................... 26
2.4 Teacher Support ................................................................................................... 33
2.5 Teacher Training ................................................................................................... 35
4. Strategic Recommendations ......................................................................................... 41
5. Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 42
3
1. Preface
1.1 Introduction
Included below is an extract from the minutes of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment’s September 2015 Board
of Trustee meeting. These minutes form the bas is for this research report and guidance for identifying the key
international trends relating to the application of technology in an educational context. This report also focuses on
highlighting the key research areas in this field within both a developed and emerging nation context. Finally,
cons ideration is a lso given to cri tical success factors in the implementation of technological solutions within the
educational environment so that there is continuity regarding the next step in the process of “gather(ing) a group of
educational luminaries with cutting-edge ability and understanding of the unique aspects related to technology in
education.”
1.1.1 In response to a request previously made by the Board, a written report entitled “Endowment Technology in
Education Summary” and associated annexures had been prepared and distributed prior to the meeting. The
purpose of this report was to assist and inform the Board’s consideration as to how i t might best engage in
making a contribution i n the field of education through the harnessing of technology.
1.1.2 The report proposed a model, which took into account the requirement that technology could not exist in
i solation and therefore required a s table school context in which it might operate. The report concluded with
the suggestion that a dialogue be conducted later in the year with key stakeholders in both the area of school
context, s tabilising (leadership) and potential technology platforms. This dialogue would then inform a
proposed pilot to be initiated in 2016.
1.1.3 During a wide-ranging discussion it was suggested that the current report was not supported by sufficient
research to identify both the international trends in the application of technology in education as well as
the potential gaps that existed in South Africa relative to these international trends . Fol lowing such an
assessment the Endowment could then clarify in which particular area i t should operate in order to make a
s ignificant impact in education. The Endowment should a lso be clear as to the expected and targeted
outcomes from any proposed intervention (pilot or otherwise) before considering any investment.
1.1.4 It was suggested that the Endowment connects with individuals that are at the cutting edge of developments
concerning technology in education globally in order to fully appreciate the complexities and possibilities of
this field. A further suggestion was to cons ider inviting Al lan Gray Scholars to use different technology
platforms to establish which ones might have the most impact on the academic progress of the Allan Gray
Scholars.
1.1.5 The discussion included consideration of potential interventions outside of technology in education. One such
suggestion, which would further develop and extend the impact of the Foundatio n, was to establish capacity
to accelerate the advancement of s tandout Allan Gray Fellows in areas outside of entrepreneurship. This
4
could further be extended to finding ways to facilitate and encourage outstanding South Africans currently
res iding overseas to return to South Africa.
1.1.6 The discussion was closed with the following agreed way forward. It was decided that the Executive
Committee proceeds into a further process of high-level research and review of the technology in education
sector (in particular looking at international trends). This is to be undertaken within a realistic but ambitious
time frame in order to then gather a group of educational luminaries with cutting-edge ability and
understanding of the unique aspects related to technology in education. This forum would be for the purposes
of canvassing their views and informing the Endowment’s decisions as to a s trategy, which would have a
systemic and disruptive impact on education in South Africa. This process should further identify the critical
success factors for interventions in this area, as well as defining the clear objectives, which would be used to
quantify future success.
5
1.2 Research Process
The Research process involved seven s tages as outlined below:
1. A prel iminary l i terature review to research the impact and use of ICT in education was conducted by
reviewing:
a . peer researched literature pertaining to emergent countries;
b. peer researched literature pertaining to developed countries;
c. credible blogs of world-renowned experts;
d. web pages of credible and respected institutions and organisations
2. 62 key research issues in emergent countries were identified.
3. A further nine research areas specific to developed countries were identified: s trengthening public action at
institutional, local, regional, national and European levels; boosting ICT use at school; building capacity for
RESEARCH PROCESS
1. Prel iminary l i terature
review
2. Identification of key research
i s sues in emergent
nations
3. Identification of key research
i s sues in developed
nations
4. Selected and priori tised common
research issues
5. Conducting extended
l i terture review with regard to these priorities
6. Focussing research report
on five key overriding
themes
6
ICT pedagogical expertise at school level; increasing public/private partnerships and professional
development opportunities for teachers; providing not only technical but pedagogical support to teachers;
nurturing online professional collaboration, facilitating the use of online resources and networks and ensuring
that technology promotes good teaching.
4. A fi l tering exercise of the 71 research areas was conducted, ranking each of the 71 research areas on a scale
of 1 to 5 (see scale below) according to the minuted Board research requirements of:
a ) Relation to International Trends
b) Appl ication of Technology
c) Gaps in South Africa relative to international trends
Figure 1: Ranking Scale Utilised to Shortlist Research Areas
Ranking
Scale
a) Related to
International Trends
b) Application of
Technology in Education
c) Gaps in SA relative to
international trends
5 Global Highly Relevant Very Significant
4 Emerging Relevant Significant
3 National Average Average
2 Regional Limited Relevance Low
1 Local Irrelevant Inconsequential
5. A cumulative scoring system based on the overall ranked scores was utilised to finalise the shortlist of 28
research areas that were prioritised in the ‘Technology in Education: High-Level Research Report.’
7
Figure 2: Research A
rea Matrix re
pre
sents th
e overall 71 re
search area
s according to attrib
utes of ‘App
lication of Techn
ology’ and ‘G
aps in South A
frica
rele
vant to In
ternational Trends.’ Th
e level o
f impact is re
flected by th
e o
verall ra
ting that also includ
es the
‘International Scale’ o
f the re
search a
rea. The
sho
rtlisted 28 re
search
areas are co
lour co
ded
to re
present five
overridin
g them
atic areas.
8
6. The above research areas were prioritised into five thematic areas to assist in directing the subsequent
research process. These included issues pertaining to both developed and emerging economy countries.
a . Implementation
b. Emerging technology
c. Impact, monitoring and assessment
d. Teacher Support
e. Teacher Training
The research is modelled on key questions identified by Michael Trucano, a world-renowned ICT and
Education Specialist. These questions relate to ICT use in education in less developed (LDC) or emerging
countries. Additional key questions were also identified by the research team relating to ICT use in education
in developed countries. (DC)
7. An extended l i terature review was conducted with regard to these priorities as i s conta ined in this
‘Technology in Education: High-Level Research Report.’
9
Figure 3: Sum
marised Table of Five K
ey Thematic A
reas and their Associa
ted Research Issues
# Year
Context Category
R
esearch Them
e
Sub Category
Description
1
20
15
D
evelop
ed
Imp
lemen
tation
1
Ineffective
utilisatio
n
of
digital
learnin
g
resou
rces
Wh
y digital learn
ing
resou
rces are n
ot u
sed m
ore
and
ways to
imp
rove th
e situatio
n b
y increasin
g p
ub
lic/private
partn
ership
s w
ith
pu
blish
ers, d
evelop
ing
teachers’
on
line
com
mu
nities
for
con
tent
creation
an
d
op
en
con
tent
pro
du
cts
2
20
05
LD
C
Imp
lemen
tation
1
Teach
ers, Teach
ing an
d IC
Ts H
ow
are ICTs cu
rrently b
eing u
sed at th
e pre-service
level (if at all) to train
teachers in
LDC
s and
wh
at can w
e learn
from
such
use?
3
20
05
LD
C
Imp
lemen
tation
1
Teach
ers,
Teachin
g and
ICTs
Wh
at are the m
ost su
ccessful an
d relevan
t strategies fo
r usin
g ICTs to
chan
ge ped
agogical
practices?
4
20
05
LD
C
Imp
lemen
tation
1
Sch
oo
l-level issues
Wh
at are successfu
l examp
les of h
ow
ICTs h
ave been
intro
du
ced an
d m
aintain
ed in
scho
ols?
5
20
05
LD
C
Imp
lemen
tation
1
Sch
oo
l-level issues
Wh
at types o
f info
rmatio
n m
ust b
e pro
vided
to sch
oo
ls to aid
in th
e intro
du
ction
and
main
tenan
ce o
f ICT
-related
equ
ipm
ent an
d to
pro
mo
te ICT-related
in
structio
n?
6
20
05
LD
C
Emergin
g Tech
no
logy
2
Specific
ICT
too
ls u
sed in
edu
cation
Ho
w h
ave/can
han
dh
eld
devices
(inclu
din
g SMS-en
abled
an
d 3
G m
ob
ile p
ho
nes) b
e u
sed to
sup
po
rt edu
cation
(esp
ecially related to
the p
rofessio
nal d
evelop
men
t of teach
ers and
scho
ol ad
min
istrators), an
d w
hat are th
e emergin
g
best p
ractices?
7
20
15
LD
C
Emergin
g Tech
no
logy
2
Emergin
g R
esearch To
pics
Mo
bile learn
ing
8
20
15
LD
C
Emergin
g Tech
no
logy
2
Emergin
g
Research
Top
ics M
OO
CS
9
20
15
LD
C
Emergin
g Tech
no
logy
2
Emergin
g R
esearch To
pics
Op
en Ed
ucatio
n R
esou
rces (OER
s)
10
2
01
5
LDC
Em
erging
Techn
olo
gy 2
Em
erging
Research
Top
ics In
ternet co
nn
ectivity op
tion
s
11
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Imp
act o
f ICTs
on
learn
ing
and
ach
ievemen
t H
ow
do
es expo
sure to
and
use o
f ICTs in
scho
ol affect fu
ture em
plo
ymen
t?
12
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Imp
act o
f ICTs
on
learnin
g an
d
achievem
ent
Ho
w can
ICTs b
e used
to p
resent, co
mm
ent o
n an
d d
iscuss stu
den
t wo
rk and
wh
at are the im
plicatio
ns an
d im
pact o
f
such
activities?
13
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Mo
nito
ring
and
evaluatio
n issu
es W
hat w
ou
ld b
e a usefu
l set of ‘co
re’ ind
icators th
at cou
ld b
e used
across co
un
tries?
14
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Mo
nito
ring
and
evalu
ation
issues
Ho
w h
as mo
nito
ring an
d evalu
ation
wo
rk related to
the u
ses of IC
Ts in ed
ucatio
n b
een co
nd
ucted
in LD
Cs, an
d w
hat
can w
e learn fro
m th
is?
15
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Mo
nito
ring
and
evaluatio
n issu
es H
ow
sho
uld
mo
nito
ring an
d evalu
ation
stud
ies of th
e imp
act of IC
Ts in ed
ucatio
n in
LDC
S be co
nd
ucted
?
16
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Equ
ity issu
es: G
end
er, sp
ecial n
eeds
and
margin
alised
grou
ps
Wh
at are the em
otio
nal, p
sycho
logical an
d cu
ltural im
pacts o
f ICT u
se on
learners fro
m d
isadvan
taged,
margin
alised
an
d/o
r min
ority co
mm
un
ities?
10
17
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Cu
rrent
imp
lemen
tation
s o
f IC
Ts in
edu
cation
Ho
w sh
ou
ld IC
T com
po
nen
ts in ed
ucatio
n p
rojects su
pp
orted
by d
on
ors b
e iden
tified an
d q
uan
tified?
18
2
00
5
LDC
Im
pact/M
&E
3
Specific
ICT
too
ls u
sed in
edu
cation
W
here sh
ou
ld co
mp
uters resid
e if they are to
have th
e greatest learnin
g imp
act in ed
ucatio
n?
19
2
00
5
LDC
Teach
er Su
pp
ort
4
Teachers,
Teachin
g and
ICTs
Wh
ich m
od
els of IC
T use can
pro
vide th
e mo
st effective and
relevant su
pp
ort fo
r pro
fession
al develo
pm
ent,
inclu
din
g
enab
ling p
eer netw
orks, an
d h
ow
wo
uld
they d
o th
at?
20
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Su
pp
ort
4
Techn
ical an
d
ped
agogical
teacher su
pp
ort
Ho
w d
o w
e give teachers su
pp
ort – n
ot o
nly tech
nical b
ut also
ped
agogical? In
creasing th
e trainin
g pro
vided
by sch
ool
staff and
oth
ers to teach
ers of all d
isciplin
es sho
uld
therefo
re b
e enco
uraged
, in
clud
ing su
bject- sp
ecific trainin
g on
learn
ing ap
plicatio
ns.
21
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Su
pp
ort
4
On
line
pro
fession
al teach
er
collab
oratio
n
Ho
w d
o w
e nu
rture O
nlin
e pro
fession
al collab
oratio
n b
etween
teach
ers that w
ill lead to
effective chan
ges in th
eir p
ractice, and
a deep
er awaren
ess of th
eir ow
n p
rofessio
nal d
evelop
men
t need
s
22
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Su
pp
ort
4
On
line
resou
rces
and
n
etwo
rks to
sup
po
rt teach
er
engagem
ent
Ho
w d
o w
e facilitate th
e use o
f on
line reso
urces an
d n
etwo
rks to h
elp teach
ers engage
in p
rofessio
nal d
evelop
men
t
given th
at on
ly a min
ority are exp
loitin
g their b
enefits
23
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Pro
fession
al d
evelop
men
t
op
po
rtun
ities fo
r teach
ers
Ho
w d
o w
e go ab
ou
t increasin
g pro
fession
al develo
pm
ent
op
po
rtun
ities for teach
ers given th
at the evid
ence sh
ow
s th
at it an efficien
t way o
f bo
ostin
g ICT u
se in teach
ing an
d learn
ing, sin
ce it help
s bu
ild h
ighly co
nfid
ent an
d su
pp
ortive
teachers.
24
2
00
5
LDC
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Specific
ICT
too
ls
used
in ed
ucatio
n
Wh
at mo
dels exist fo
r the effective
utilizatio
n o
f ICTs to
sup
po
rt on
-goin
g pro
fession
al develo
pm
ent
for ed
ucato
rs?
25
2
00
5
LDC
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Teachers,
Teachin
g and
ICTs
Can
the sam
e types o
f ped
agogical
practices an
d tran
sform
ation
s tho
ugh
t to b
e enab
led b
y the in
trod
uctio
n o
f ICTs
be in
trod
uced
and
main
tained
in en
viron
men
ts wh
ere ICTs are n
ot u
sed?
26
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Bu
ildin
g cap
acity
for IC
T ped
agogy
Ho
w d
o w
e orien
tate such
pu
blic actio
n p
referably
tow
ards b
uild
ing cap
acity for IC
T ped
agogical exp
ertise at sch
ool
level
27
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Co
mp
ulso
ry Teach
er IC
T
Trainin
g
Ho
w d
o w
e ensu
re that IC
T trainin
g – co
nsisten
tly specified
and
app
lied – is m
ade
a com
pu
lsory co
mp
on
ent o
f all
initial teach
er edu
cation
pro
gramm
es
28
2
01
5
Develo
ped
Teach
er Train
ing
5
Am
plificatio
n
vs
Magic W
and
Ho
w d
o w
e ensu
re that tech
no
logy en
han
ces goo
d teach
ing b
y b
eing an
amp
lifier rather
than
a magic w
and
wh
ich
transfo
rms b
ad teach
ers into
goo
d teach
ers? Research
sho
ws th
at the b
est teachers u
se ICT m
od
erately
11
2. Key Thematic Research Areas
2.1 Implementation
INEFFECTIVE UTILISATION OF DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES:
Critical Success Factor:
Change the school and departmental culture to embrace digital media:
Digi tal learning resources will only be utilised in an innovative manner in the classroom when schools change their
cul ture. This culture shift should occur on a range of levels so that it impacts the learning environment in a meaningful
way. A school’s culture consists of the traditions, beliefs, policies and practices of teachers, administrators, students
and s taff members. This cul ture shift i s especially applicable to dis tricts, provinces and the Department of Basic
Education.
A good example of this shift at school and district level is the work of an NGO in Cape Town called Greenshoots. The
World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) recently chose five innovative projects relating to ICT in Education for
2015-2016 Accelerator Awards from Canada, United Kingdom, USA and South Africa.
Greenshoots won the award for “Improving the quality of Mathematics education through ICT: Use of an online
Mathematics Curriculum to progressively track individual learners to promote data informed decision making by all role
players within the education system.” What needs to be emphasized is systemic na ture of the intervention where all
s takeholders were challenged to take ownership of the intervention and adapt their daily schedule to champion its
objectives. The feedback about each learner i s s takeholder driven where, “Each s takeholder within the education
system receives analysis that i s ta ilored to their particular requirements ranging from the Education District Director,
Education District officials, the school managements and the teachers.”
Greenshoots not only transformed the culture of the schools involved but also impacted on the way of work of the
education district. This in turn reinforced change at school level and led to s ignificant improvements in the ANA
numeracy results at both Grade 3 and Grade 6 levels in more than 20 schools over the past 3 years.
The use of ICT’s in education and the resultant culture shift begs the question of whether ICTs benefits or results in
more harm to younger learners. It i s crucial to be aware that the jury i s s till out regarding the use of ICT at pre-school
and primary school level. Shah and Godiyal of India concluded that there is a, ““scarcity of good quality research findings
on us ing ICT in educational settings for pre-school children” In the end, it cannot be stated in absolute terms that early
introduction of ICT i s beneficial or harmful to young childre n for ‘there are far more questions than there are answers
2.1.1 Why digital learning resources are not used m ore, and w ays to im prove the s i tuation, by increas ing publ ic/private partnerships w ith publ ishers , develop teachers ’ onl ine com m unities for content creation and open content products :
12
about what computer and video games and internet use mean to the social, intellectual and physical development of
chi ldren today’.
A 2014 WISE Award winner from the Middle East, WE LOVE READING (WLR) highlighted that technology i s not the silver
bul let, rather parent involvement i s cri tical. Reading i s essential for the development of chi ldren’s personalities,
imaginations and cognitive skills yet chi ldren do not read for pleasure in the Arab world, not for lack of books but
because their parents did not read to them. We Love Reading aims to encourage children to read for pleasure by
tra ining women to read aloud to children in their neighborhoods. These read-aloud sessions are the project’s libraries.
The model is innovative because it is simple, cost-efficient, grassroots and sustainable. WLR has tra ined 700 women
and opened 300 l ibraries in Jordan, impacting more than 10,000 chi ldren. The model has spread throughout the Arab
world and beyond.
Estimates of the number of pages read for pleasure in the Arab world are low, negatively impacting education systems
and the economic productivity of the region. Children must learn to enjoy reading to reap its benefits. Many programs
that attempted to increase reading by providing books have failed. Research shows that being told stories and being
read to are the two factors most likely to help make children successful learners at school. This i s because stories,
particularly when read or heard in home languages, help children develop their language skills and imagination as well
as their problem-solving skills.
Nal ’ibali, a large NGO in South Africa confirms that parent involvement rather than technology is pivotal. They are
working with and encouraging parents and caregivers across the country to use s tory power to spark the potential of
al l South Africa’s children including the very young. They are championing that parents can support schools and their
chi ldren if they read to babies and young children right from birth. In this way they are helping to stimulate and support
powerful parts of their language and literacy learning as well as other essential aspects of early childhood development.
This type of engagement provides a solid base for later learning at school and Nal’ibali has developed Storyplay as a
way to provide the very young with an opportunity to develop a love of s tories and storytelling in a fun and informal
way.
Another NGO in South Africa, FunDza Li teracy Trust have built on this approach by utilising ICT to empower i ts literacy
goals. This non-profit is dedicated to growing generations of South Africans, empowered through l iteracy and a love of
reading. To this end, the Trust’s ‘Growing Communities of Readers’ programme provides young people across the
country with access to quality, locally-generated rea ding content via their mobile phones. FunDza’s mobi network
(responsive website and Mxit app) is accessible to users on smartphones, feature phones, tablets and computers with
Internet access. FunDza’s programme is demonstrating impact with approximately 50,000 unique readers access its
content each month.
13
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Changing the culture of our schools in this manner i s challenging in South Africa. Resistance to change is especially
di fficult because there is little awareness across our provinces about what constitutes good teaching with or without
digital media. There is also little consultation with parents and teachers because most projects are driven from the top
down. There is a need to promote new ways to interact between teacher and learner, teacher and principal, principal
and the district.
Grove Heights Community Schools in Minnesota holds a “Student Led Technology Conference” eve ry year.
Teachers, students, administrators and technology team members design and lead the conference sessions.
Participants rotate through four sessions, held in the Media Centre and computer labs, with students and/or
teachers demonstrating how they are using devices or other resources for instruction.
These sessions enable parents and community members to experience technology in action and interact with students
to find out about their capability with digital media for learning. Any effort to make substantial changes in the learning
cul ture of schools is not likely to succeed without a high level of parent and community endorsement and support.
Parents and community members can be effective advocates for technology initiatives but only i f they are informed of
the plans and the expected learning benefits. Communication should occur at the inception of new initiatives, at the
kick-off of the program and throughout the process to get the support from parents and the community. Our top down
approach, so prevalent in South Africa needs to include a bottoms up approach to ensure that digital media is effectively
uti l ised in our classrooms.
The opportunity exists to utilise ICT to reach marginalised communities in a cost effective manner. FunDza Li teracy
Trust i s a good example of how digital media can impact if we change the culture and fan the flames to p romote literacy
and numeracy across South Africa.
Ineffective Utilisation of Digital Learning Resources:
Critical Success Factor:
Copyright issues hinder access: Digi tal technology provides new opportunities for rich reuses of content in
many educational contexts, from the traditional classroom to the cutting- edge openness of Wikipedia. The
internet and other digitized networks remove most practical impediments to distribution of information
including the costs of paper, printing, and mailing; the need for access to a physical copy of a work; the
marketing and related costs necessary to publicize the existence of content and help interested users find it.
In response, passionate advocates of the open access movement have promoted the potential for distributing
knowledge over these networks unencumbered by most copyright restrictions.
14
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
But s ignificant obstacles a lso confront educational uses of content in South Africa. The law i tself i s often
unclear or unfavorable. Pervasive use of digital resource materials (DRM) and the permissions maze created
by the present l icensing regime further impede such uses. Educators and intermediaries have too often
responded to these problems with inertia or fear rather than action. Educational uses of content would face
fewer obstacles if more content were available under less restrictive terms. The move toward more open
dis tribution of content, both within academia and outside of it has picked up significant momentum in recent
years . Most high quality resources such as the E-PORTAL recently launched in the Western Cape largely
cons ist of copyright material, which i s inaccessible to disadvantaged learners. This needs to be addressed to
ensure that disadvantaged learners have greater access. Many gi fted educators around South Africa a re
wi l ling to develop and freely share lessons and resources to others. This opportunity should be explored and
acted upon.
Teachers, Teaching and ICT’s:
Critical Success Factor: The focus in some African teacher tra ining colleges is sound in that education philosophy is balanced with practical
tra ining to champion good teaching. The focus is on the acquisition of basic ICT skills, self-paced learning through access
to resources on servers, either on CDs or online. Group discussion of audio and video tra ining materials are available
on videos, CDs , DVDs, or even online. Group discussion of audio and video training materials are available on videos,
CDs , DVDs, or even online. Filming of practice teaching sessions, are followed by individual review and group discussion
(as is currently taking place in some parts of rural China).
What i s especially useful i s the tra ining in use of educational management information systems (EMIS). Learning
Management Systems is also taught at a more advanced level. Group development of learning resources are shared
col lectively. Inclusion is a lso prioritised in that the training includes the use of ICT in support of young people with
disabilities in the classroom.
It i s however crucial to note that the tra ining of educators in the utilisation of ICT in the classroom needs to be rooted
in forging strong relationships with the community to reinforce the learning culture both at home and school. A research
article ti tled, ‘Teaching Numeracy Pre-School and Early Grades in Low-Income Countries’ highlighted the following
cri tical i ssues in relation to educating teachers for parental involvement:
2.1.2 How are ICTs currently be ing used at the pre-serv ice leve l ( i f at al l ) to train teachers in less developed countries (LD Cs ) , and w hat can w e learn f rom such use?
15
The need to forge parental and community involvement in mathematics education;
recognize social and cultural differences and relations of power;
respond to cultural diversity in numeracy practices;
support administrators and teachers to work with parents;
enhance communication between teachers and parents; and,
connect home school support
ICTs and especially mobile technology lend themselves to build these relationships and create a conducive culture to
enhance both l iteracy and numeracy.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends: Dr Nic Taylor’s research at 5 universities has highlighted that South Africa have serious challenges with regards to the
quality of training pre-service teachers. An example of his findings is the worrying reality that there is a vast difference
in entrance criteria across the 5 HEIs, with one institution requiring a 60% pass in Maths to qualify and another requiring
only 30%. This discrepancy mi litates against his recommendation that all Intermediate Phase (Grades 4,5,6) teachers
be specialists in Mathematics. The consequence is that weak candidates enter the teaching profession and this
trans lates into under performance in Mathematics, languages and the use of ICT’s in education.
Recent research in South African universities concluded that provision of ICT tra ining for teachers would be more
effective if it is offered during pre -service tra ining in an emergent country context.
Data analysis indicated that offering an ICT course at an institution of higher learning has a number of advantages over
offering the course to in-service teachers. It has been noted that the majority of pre -service teachers were motivated
to learn about new technologies for teaching. However they had limited understanding of and experience with such
technologies. The research noted that the support and involvement of the institutional management as well as other
lecturers has substantial impact on the success of the programme.
School Level Issues:
Critical Success Factor:
Focus on pedagogical practices in addition to the technical aspects . Much research by Fullan (1991) and
others has shown that the most effective way to bring about the adoption of an innovation in schools is to
engage the whole school in a democratic process of planning change. This means that all the teachers are
involved in the decision to adopt ICT in the school and are supportive of any individual teacher going on a
course and willing to learn from their new knowledge and skills when they return. If the school, and
particularly the head teacher, are not committed to adopting change and particularly ICT, then i f one teacher
2.1.3 What are the m ost success ful and re levant s trategies for us ing ICTs to change pedagogical practices ?
16
goes on a course, the rest of the school sets up antibodies to any new ideas, which the unfortunate teacher
brings back into the school. The last thing the other teachers will then do is to change their practice.
Welliver’s Instructional Transformation Model (Welliver 1990) has teachers progressing through five hierarchical states
in order to integrate ICT effectively. Figure 1 below shows these five states.
1. Familiarisation Teachers become aware of technology and i ts potential uses.
2. Uti l ization Teachers use technology, but minor problems will cause teachers to discontinue its
use.
3. Integration Technology becomes essential for the educational process and teachers are constantly
thinking of ways to use technology in their classrooms
4. Reorientation Teachers begin to re-think the educational goals of the classroom with the use of
technology
5. Revolution The evolving classroom becomes completely integrated with technology in all subject
areas. Technology becomes an invisible tool that is seamlessly woven into the teaching
and learning process.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
These 5 s tates are especially relevant to integrating ICT into the classroom and offer tremendous possibilities
especially with regards to enhancing literacy and numeracy outcomes. However teachers need leadership,
tra ining and support to move beyond the first two states. Greenshoots has largely succeeded in this achieving
these transitions in many disadvantaged schools.
The majority of courses offered to tra in teachers in South Africa in the uses of ICT have focused on the
technical aspects of ICT with l ittle training about the pedagogical practices required and how to incorporate
ICT in the curriculum. In many ICT professional development courses, teachers are not often taught how to
revise their pedagogical practices, how to replace other traditional lessons without depleting the curriculum
coverage and so on. This means that after teachers had attended a course they s till did not know how to use
ICT for teaching pupils. They only knew how to run certain software packages and to fix the printer. There
were many such courses offered all round the world which had very l i ttle long term impact on the uptake of
ICT in schools. This i s especially true for most ICT interventions in South Africa because there i s little
awareness about what constitutes good teaching and learning even in traditional classrooms.
2.1.4 What are success ful exam p les of how ICTs have been introduced and maintained in schools?
17
School Level Issues:
Critical Success Factor: Expand interventions gradually. Nic Spaull, a well-known South African education researcher recommends that
learning from experience on the ground is cri tical because you don’t know if i t is a dead end until you tried it. He argues
that i t is wise to first pilot 5 schools, then 30 schools then a district, then a province and finally the entire country. What
works in one school may not work in 5 schools, 30 schools, a district or country because there is so many variables shift
or emerge as the project expands.
Michael Trucano has evaluated and been part of hundreds of ICT interventions in education all over the world. He
related that the most common research-type question he has to face i s:
What is the impact of (this type of) technology on education?
His response is i lluminating:
This is a fair question, to be sure. I often find that my reflexive reply to this seemingly simple question
("it depends: what are you trying to accomplish?") is often not viewed as tremendously satisfying by
many people. While I increasingly come across academic papers which attempt to identify the
'impact' of the use of a particular educational technology or technology-enabled approach, I remain
quite frustrated that there is comparatively little interest in a related but, from the perspective of
the people who make huge and often very costly decisions about such stuff, far more important and
practical questions related to understanding how or why this 'impact' occurred: under what specific
contexts or circumstances did it take place; what was the related enabling environment or key
factors that led to failure; what were the costs of achieving this impact; etc. (A recent interesting
paper examining The Effect of Access to Information and Communication Technology on Household
Labor Income: Evidence from One Laptop Per Child in Uruguay is one of dozens of examples of
research that identifies and investigates 'impact', but offers little guidance for policymakers on
specific circumstances, contexts or explanations of why and how such impact may have been
achieved.)
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends We would do well to heed Nic Spaull’s advice to pilot and then to expand gradually. ICT in education programs are
costly and may crowd out important alternatives with significant returns. Given their irreversible nature, the significant
uncertainties regarding their impact, and the challenges for management that these complex programs pos e, it is best
to proceed gradually, as was done in Chile with Enlaces, where the rollout took ten years. Gradual expansion allows
feedback from experience and the results of pilot evaluations to improve implementation. It also allows for a better
deployment of resources, as project managers can focus their attention and limited capacity on newly covered areas.
18
South Africa more often than not tends to go to scale instead of piloting costly interventions such as Gauteng Online
(R3 bi llion) and the Khanya Project (R 2 bi llion) in the Western Cape. Sadly, both provinces are currently rolling out ICT
interventions in education without learning from lessons from the past such as:
Rol ling out gradually instead of as soon as possible
Effective Stakeholder consultation: both interventions were top down and most officials, principals, educators
and communities did not take ownership
Lack of Project Implementation plan: led to procurement irregularities and infrastructure backlogs
Lack of capacity to support s chools: both interventions lacked sufficiently qualified personnel to rollout and
support to all the schools in the province.
Poor quality assurance, support, monitoring and evaluation processes (more than 60 % of the labs were under
uti l ised at the height of the Khanya roll-out)
Developing software programmes that are relevant in terms of language and context to enhance Literacy and
Numeracy at primary school level. Most of the software could have been game-orientated to increase its level
of learner engagement.
School Level Issues:
Critical Success Factor: Digital age best practices:
Chris topher Moersch’s research (2011) provides six instructional strategies referred to as the Digital Age Best Practices
(DABP) that when applied and used in conjunction with the aforementioned instructional s trategies have the potential
to elevate student academic growth beyond those documented by conventional best practices alone.
These are the digital best practices with regards to promoting ICT related teaching:
Promote shared expertise with networked collaboration;
Students able to articulate a common group goal
Evidence of s tudent problem-solving and/or issues resolution
Individual and group accountability s tructures in place
Employment of digital tools and resources (e.g., blogs, wikis, discussion forums) to promote
col laboration
2.1.5 What types of inform ation m ust be provided to schools to aid in the introduction and m aintenance of ICT - re lated equipm ent and to promote ICT-related instruction?
19
Bolstering purposeful inquiry through s tudent questions,
Student-generated questions drive the inquiry
Evidence of one or more teacher-generated Focus Activities
Presence of complex thinking processes
Presence of a student-centered learning environment
Personalising and globalising content by making authentic connections,
Learning connected to one or more 21st Century Themes
Outcomes require sustained investigation
Emphasis on multiple interpretations and outcomes
Learning possesses an interdisciplinary perspective
Accelerate individual growth through vertical/horizontal differentiation;
Adjustments to the content, process, and/or product based on learner readiness, profile and
interests are documented
Presence of learning centres
Digi tal tools and resources adjusted to the needs of the learner
Multiple LoTi (Levels of Technology Implementation) levels s imultaneously employed in the
classroom
Many, i f not all, of the digital age best practices can be integrated seamlessly into any learning experience ranging from
a s ingle day lesson plan to a multi-day instructional unit. As with other “re search-based best practices,” their combined
impact on student achievement consistently produces the greatest overall effect size. The deliberate use of these other
best practices can ensure that s tudents are given the best opportunity to maximize their academic success as well as
prepare for their eventual matriculation into a digitally based global environment.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Chris topher Moersch’s groundbreaking research (2011) has not yet permeated into South African classrooms. This is
desperately needed given that we continually feature at the bottom of international league tables especially with
regards to our literacy, mathematics and digital literacy scores. His work provides cutting-edge professional learning in
the teaching of higher level learning skills.
When schools, systems, states and nations (e.g. Singapore) need to equip students with the skills that will facilitate
creativity here is the blueprint. We would well i f we heeded his carefully crafted advice that has been road tested and
i t works . His research should be essential reading for every preservice teacher and every teacher currently teaching in
our schools.
One of the cri tical digital age best practices is data analysis and remedial action. This i s especially relevant to analyzing
examinations such as ANA (Annual National Assessment in Literacy and Numeracy/Mathematics). Teachers s truggle to
20
l ink specific items in an assessment to a detailed understanding of the skill being tested and to understand how they fit
into the sequence of skills described in the CAPS curriculum.
Some teachers struggle to come up with alternative teaching s trategies to address gaps in learner competency. Others
s truggle to summarise the gaps identified through a common task assessment and link it to specific actions steps to
remediate gaps in schools’ academic improvement plans. Such teachers are not able to use common task assessment
data in a formative way: feedback is not taking place successfully. Teacher development efforts should take cognisance
of the need to remedy this s ituation, especially in the l ight of the rollout of the ANA by the Department of Basic
Education (DBE).
There is a need for higher education institutions, non-governmental organisations and the DBE to join hands to ensure
that the rich data generated through the ANA are used to full effect by a ll teachers. This can be achieved by developing
assessment grids for the ANA tests to be completed by teachers, detailing the specific skill or concept tested in each
i tem. However, this on i ts own would not be sufficient to assist teachers to address learners’ weaknesses. Information
about the common mistakes made by learners in specific questions, as well as possible teaching strategies to remedy
this , needs to be made available to teachers.
Furthermore, all content tra ining for teachers should make provision for the analysis of concepts and skills with regard
to the curriculum, including what concepts and skills precede and follow the specific concept or skill in the curriculum,
common misconceptions, and how best to teach these concepts and skills. This would ensure that teacher
development goes beyond content tra ining by making the pedagogical aspects of learning a specific concept or skill
clear, preferably through demonstration lessons and practical activities.
Lastly, teachers, HODs and principals should receive specific training on the analysis and summarising of and reporting
on the ANA data. The l ink between the findings in the ANA and other common tasks and schools’ academic
improvement plans should be emphasized as it would have a significant impact on the literacy and numeracy outcomes
from Foundation Phase all the way to Gr 12.
2.2 Emerging Technology
2.2.1 How have/can handheld dev ices ( including SMS-enabled and 3G m obi le phones) be used to support education (especial ly re lated to the profess ional development of teachers and school adm inis tration) , and w hat are the em erging best practices?
21
Specific ICT Tools Used in Education:
Critical Success Factor: 3 Levers for change: There are three motivators to ensure that handheld devices are effectively utilised to develop
teachers: an institutional commitment to innovation, a belief in the importance of being on the cutting edge, and
expectations from local school districts. The on-going professional development of educators and district officials using
ICT has the potential to disrupt traditional teaching and learning environments. Teachers who promote the infusion of
mobi le technology l ive in perpetual white-water. They have to be continuously supported to manage the pace of rapid
change. They have to continually adapt and there is very l ittle research to guide them, given that the use of these tools
in the field of education is in i ts innovation stage.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Even though South Africa celebrated a major political transformation in 1994, not much has changed in the classroom.
Teachers are by nature conservative and the education department has not championed innovation. Bureaucracies are
res istant to change and are largely inflexible. They have therefore not embraced the opportunity to communicate or
develop educators professionally despite the reality that most teachers have mobile devices.
Ideally the education department should ensure that teachers have free connectivity for professional and educational
purposes. District officials should be affirmed when they support or initiate innovation around using mobile devices for
administration or the professional development of teachers. This will only happen i f districts across South Africa help
teachers to redefine their work where they don’t see themselves as the fountain of all knowledge. In a knowledge
economy, Districts need to support teachers to facilitate learning in the classroom rather than dispensing i t. This calls
for change management processes in our schools. Education departments and civil society organisations have sorely
neglected this across South Africa.
Critical Success Factor:
Emerging Research Topic:
Mobile learning is evolving rapidly. The latest trend being debated at mLearn 2015, 14th World conference on mobile
and contextual learning is "handheld learning" or hand e-learning". A distinction will be made where the original term
‘mobi le learning’ will refer to mobile technology s upporting learning opportunities that involve the learners physically
moving between contexts. "Handheld learning" will refer to s tatic learning through classroom-based learning
opportunities using tablets such as iPads or students’ own mobile devices.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Educators in South Africa need to be orientated and trained to utilise mobile technology more effectively given that
most learners have access to these devices across our country. There are more than 4 bi llion users across the planet
and mobile traffic on the Internet is expected to surpass desktop traffic; and mobile users will have downloaded 70
22
bi l lion apps across smartphones and tablets. Educational apps are the second-most downloaded in iTunes of all
categories, surpassing both entertainment and business apps in popularity. South Africa surpasses any other African
country with regards to downloading apps for mobile phones. The greatest challenge for South African education is the
serious lack of educational apps that meet the following needs:
Is a ligned to the curriculum,
Is age appropriate
Speaks to the home language of the learner,
Addresses barriers to learning,
Channels quality content,
Offers career guidance appropriate to the geographical region of the learner
Champions entrepreneurship and vocational tra ining
Emerging Research Topic:
Critical Success Factor:
MOOCs: FAD or FUTURE: Whilst there are numerous advantages to Massive Open Online College (MOOC) courses, the
most common challenges are individual instruction, student performance assessment, and long -term administration
and oversight. A number of respected thought leaders believe that the current MOOC model has deviated significantly
from the ini tial premise outl ined by George Siemens and Stephen Downes in 2008, emphasizing lecture over
connectivity. Ei ther way, educators across the globe are doing some amazing things with MOOCs. The hope is that they
wi l l eventually s trike a balance between automating the assessment process while delivering personalized, authentic
learning opportunities.
One of World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Award winners i s Kepler This organisation have successfully
overcome many of the challenges of MOOC’s . Kepler founded in the USA and based in Rwanda has developed a model
to address the youth employment crisis by s imultaneously increasing the quality, a ffordability, and accessibility of
higher education. The model overcomes the typical trade offs between those objectives by combining elements of
leading education institutions around the world in a unique and mutually reinforcing way. The three core components
of this model are:
1. World-class online content: Kepler curates and delivers courses from professors at the world’s leading
universities through MOOCs, combined with competency-based projects.
2. Intensive in-person learning: With lecture and passive learning taken outside of the classroom, trained
teachers at Kepler are using class time for pedagogical approaches that best improve twenty-first century
ski lls. These methods will include discussion seminars, project-based learning, and frequent coaching and
feedback.
3. Work-based learning: Kepler complements full-time classroom instruction with extensive on-the-job learning.
This will enable students to directly apply concepts they are learning to real -world situations, gain practical
23
work experience before graduating, and benefit from hands-on support as they make the education-to-
employment transition.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Kepler a ims to expand access to higher education not just in Rwanda, but als o at campuses across Africa. The gap
between human potential and the opportunity to rea lize i t through continuing education is enormous across the
continent, most particularly in nations that have been through conflict and those that do not have the resources to
bui ld functional traditional universities. This promises to be a solution to the poor MOOC throughput, (85-95% do not
go on to complete the exam) and to the high unemployment prevalent in African nations.
Professor Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning argues that three factors affect higher
education today – the unprecedented demand, as tertiary enrolments in sub-Saharan Africa have doubled in the last
10 years ; the escalating costs, which have risen way above inflation rates in the last three years, and the unimaginable
pace of technological change, with the digital divide being the widest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The issues of demand, affordability and accessible to technology have together generated a response in the form of
MOOCs. The MOOC effect, she continued, i s somewhat unexpected, but what has emerged from research is its
“potential to reach the unreached”.
The MOOC platform can reach large numbers more effectively, especially in mega universities where materials
production and despatch is a massive and time-consuming operation. MOOC platforms also provide for excellent online
networking opportunities among s tudents and between the s tudent and the tutor. In addition, good quality Open
Educational Resources OER can enhance the learner-content interaction.
Constraints of access to devices and connectivity are being addressed at many levels by governments who are providing
free low-cost devices and connectivity at affordable costs. Even with big western names now in the business of MOOCs
or dis tance learning, Kanwar believes that “We can use the technology to enhance learner experience especially
through the use of mobile devices. Learning analytics will certainly help improve teaching through constant feedback
and data. Ultimately the transformation can only h appen i f we use MOOCs to address the issues of access, quality,
costs , relevance and equity.”
Emerging Research Topic:
Critical Success Factor:
Open Content has enormous advantages over textbooks in that they are easy to update, free, and easily accessible but
there are challenges that must be addressed. Open Education Resources (OER) are generally released under a Creative
Commons or similar license that supports open or nearly open use of the content. The abundance of OER can leave
users spending a long time searching for a resource that fits their needs, and the volume of OER will only increase. OER
repositories and the tools to search for and filter resources will need to build out their capacities and capabilities to
24
help teachers and individual learners to navigate the growing sea of open content. Part of this process is evaluating the
credibility of individual resources or collections, and new mechanisms are likely to emerge to facilitate this.
TeachPitch, one of the five WISE Award winners, i s a remarkable online resource that helps teachers and schools
identify the best online resources available. The website was founded by a former teacher who, constantly constrained
for time and budget, s truggled to find and manage the best and most relevant answers to his questions among the
abundance of learning resources, platforms and content already available on the Internet.
TeachPitch offers its users a teacher-curated library system accessible through a community technology. Their platform
a l lows you to see, save, rate and share the most relevant digitally available educational resources while discovering the
personal learning ideas and questions from other teachers from around the world.
TeachPitch was founded in 2014 with the goal of building a platform for teachers and schools to find, post, and share
lesson plans, course materials, teaching s trategies, and more. TeachPitch has a curated, searchable collection of high-
quality, open-source materials from sources such as Khan Academy, UK Open Learning, English Up, and Yale University.
Teachers and schools can build their own vi rtual library of resources tailored to their own needs.
Materials that used to be locked inside expensive textbooks and databases are increasingly ava ilable for free. By
bui lding a global community, TeachPitch can provide fresh insights and a broader perspective to all of its users. Like
entrepreneurs, teachers are innovators, constantly s triving to find better ways to serve their s tudents and schools;
seeing their ideas and work make an impact also inspires both teachers and entrepreneurs. TeachPitch allows teachers
to spread their successful ideas and methods beyond their own students and schools.
Currently the platform has around 10,000 teachers registered from over 100 countries.
TeachPitch works with a great variety of publishers and schools that are using our repository technology to share and
save the best online learning resources.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
The future is promising in the sphere of OER in South Africa where it could lead to a future where a quality education
wi l l be available online for free and that learners will have the opportunity to construct a course of study that suits their
s trengths, aptitudes and career path. There is a need to source and accredit this wide range of resources so that it is
accessible to disadvantaged learners. These learners must be supported in a personalised manner to counter the high
drop out rate prevalent in MOOCs.
Another serious challenge is access to content. A range of portals exist such as the Department of Basic Education Portal
ca l led Thutong but content is limited. To this end the Western Cape Education recently launched an E-Portal to facilitate
access to digital content but much of the content is proprietary.
The E-Portal is however very accessible as individuals can easily access it from any location. Users can search for a range
25
of content, including videos, apps, eBooks, courses and digital documents. The content available on the ePortal will be
enti rely demand-driven, with content suppliers competing to provide the best digital resources. Learners and teachers
can rate the content, with the most popular content surfacing to the top in search results. This s ignals a fundamental
shi ft away from top-down, supply-driven government. Users can explore this content by keyword or by using a wide
range of filters, including the type of user (for example, learners and teachers), subject, grade, language, paid for and
free resources, and type of activity, for example, teaching or school administration. Contributors can register on the
s i te and upload information using online templates. They can tag their content according to content types, for example,
subjects, grades, end users and types of activi ties.
Sourcing lesson plans from gifted and experienced teachers from all over the country would be a feasible quick-win
which would greatly add va lue to a portal of this nature. This portal needs to cover a ll the grades from 1 to 12 and
should cater for barriers to learning, home languages and various contextual factors. Ideally this portal should be
ava ilable to parents so that they too can understand their particular role and have access to resources to support their
chi ldren. This process should commence at Foundation Phase to ensure that our high dropout rate (56% on average)
i s reduced.
Emerging Research Topic:
Critical Success Factor:
Internet connectivity has the potential to unleash many opportunities for students in terms of accessing vast amounts
of information and col laborating and communicating with peers and experts. It levels the playing field and most
provinces, especially Gauteng and the Western Cape have plans to l ink a ll schools to the internet within the next few
years .
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
The general answer, according to the report from the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and the
International Telecommunication Union, is that, when i t comes to schools, "while Internet access has been universally
achieved in the majority of European and other OCED countries, Internet connectivity i s lagging behind in most
emergent countries. Only 10 percent of schools in emerging nations such as Latin America, Caribbean, Asia and Africa
are connected with sufficient and consistent bandwidth. Analysis has shown that while countries may have some
success in building a computer infrastructure, connecting these devices to the Internet may lag behind." In South Africa,
i t i s crucial to s trengthen existing electrical infrastructure because the 'digital divide' is often closely related to the
'electricity divide'. Improving access to the Internet may not be possible without first, or concurrently, addressing issues
related to the reliability and availability of power.
26
2.3 Impact, Monitoring and Assessment
Monitoring and Evaluation Issue:
Critical Success Factor:
Transforming our Computer Labs into 21st Century Learning Labs
Significant Gaps ahat Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Most computer labs in South Africa are under utilised and focus on IT skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) instead of utilising
technology to facilitate learning. Recognizing that creating new knowledge through technology is integral not only to
how today’s students learn, but also to preparing students for the careers of tomorrow, Centennial School District in
Pennsylvania converted i ts planetarium into a 21st Century Learning Lab. The facility functions as a dynamic digital
learning space for use across all curricular areas, configurable for a variety of challenge-based learning experiences. An
instructional technology specialist and coach collaborates with teachers to try out new ideas with students, design and
del iver lessons, eva luate ways to leverage emerging technologies, support col laborative learning, bri dge the
phys ical/digital realms, and support an instructional shift from learners being information consumers or spectators to
being information users and knowledge creators.
Monitoring and Evaluation Issue:
Critical Success Factor:
Put the LEARNING back into E-learning. Focus on education fi rst, then technology.
Strive for impact and sustainable change. See Dr. Nick Taylor’s steps towards sustainable change below.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Recent research studied a large-scale public program that increased computer and Internet access in secondary public
schools in Peru. Rich longitudinal school-level data from 2001 to 2006 was used to implement a di fferences-in-
di fferences framework. (Difference in di fferences requires data measured at two or more di fferent time periods.)
Results indicate no statistically significant effects of increasing technology access in schools on repetition, dropout and
ini tial enrolment. Large sample s izes allow ruling out even modest effects. Even in the most advanced schools in OECD
countries, ICTs are generally not considered central to the teaching and learning process. Many ICT in education
ini tiatives in emergent countries seek (at least in their rhetoric) to place ICTs as central to teaching and learning. One
2.3.1 How does exposure to and use of ICTs in school af fect future em ploym ent?
2.3.2 What w ould be a useful set of ‘core’ indicators that could be used across countries?
27
of the enduring difficulties of technology use in education is that educational planners and technology advocates think
of the technology first and then investigate the educational applications of this technology only later. This is especially
true in our South African context.
Dr Nick Taylor, i s a highly experienced and talented South African education researcher. He argues that given the high
nature of spending on education programmes and teacher development, gains in terms of systems change have been
relatively small. To this end he has outlined key lessons for achieving measurable impact in learning and finding ways
to support sustainable change, which is relevant to Teacher Education and ICT’s in education.
Figure 4: Steps to Ensuring Sustainable Impact
Steps Action
Step 1 Start with all research on the topic in question
Step 2 Plan the programme and try i t out fi rst with a few schools
Step 3 Keep measuring the effects, and adjust accordingly, until impact i s noticeable
Step 4 When you get impact in a few schools, try i t at scale. Repeat the above steps
Step 5 Make the results public – negative results are va luable too
Step 6 Don’t paint yourself into a corner by launching programmes with public, triumphalist fanfare - adopt a modest,
scientific, research-oriented, impact-approach to INSET (In-service training of teachers)
Step 7 Realisation: certain kinds of INSET are necessary (e.g. assisting teachers to use workbooks and supporting
teachers to use ANA results effectively).
2.3.3 How has m onitoring and evaluation work re lated to the uses of ICTs in education been conducted in LDCs , and w hat can w e learn f rom this?
28
Monitoring and Evaluation Issue:
Critical Success Factor:
A review of the research on impacts of ICTs on s tudent achievement yields few conclusive statements, pro or contra,
about the use of ICTs in education. For every s tudy that cites significant positive impact, another s tudy finds little or no
such positive i mpact.
Many s tudies that find positive impacts of ICTs on student learning rely (to an often uncomfortable degree) on self-
reporting (which may be open to a variety of positive biases).
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Most interventions in developing countries and especially in South Africa have not commissioned comprehensive
monitoring and evaluation research. Quality assurance processes or research of this nature are often considered as an
after thought because we need to get on with real work. Research is also often considered to be poor va lue for money
because i t “too expensive” and/or “time consuming”.
The reality is that computers have the capability to store and transmit patterns of use thus making research affordable,
comprehensive and timely in South Africa. If the intensity and type of use determines the potential impacts, computers
can be programmed to record and transmit students’ patterns of use. Privacy considerations can be safeguarded under
“anonymous” reporting (reporting by individual computers without identifying the user). This type of reporting can
produce free, large-scale, detailed monitoring of how the program is proceeding. Computers can also be an inexpensive
way to test students to generate quick reports on trends in final academic outcomes. A learner management system
can easily track individual learners and highlight trends to pick up learners at ri sk. Most of the data available to
administrators have not been analysed or utilised in this manner. This is easily remedied through the development of
a school intelligence system.
Critical Success Factor: Foster cooperation across countries to increase chances of success e.g. large scale rigorous evaluations in a region
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Given our poor performance with regards to digital l iteracy on the world stage, Sub- Saharan countries should engage
in rigorous evaluations to support and stretch one another. This would be cost effective and spur countries to cooperate
and share insights, strategies and digital resources.
Al l countries share an increasing interest in determining how to use computers effectively in education. There are
important ways in which they can cooperate to increase their chances of success. They should concentrate on
supporting activities that generate benefits for a l l (public goods): either individually, or col lectively, by pooling
29
resources. The implementation of large-scale rigorous eva luations wi ll benefit a ll countries in the region, as they
produce evidence about what works in the context of developing countries.
Monitoring and Evaluation Issue:
Critical Success Factor:
Michael Trucano, argues that where evaluation data is available and monitoring and evaluation projects have occurred,
much of such work i s seen to suffer from important biases. It i s crucial that monitoring and e valuation studies are
empirically sound. Furthermore, there are no common international usage, performance and impact indicators for ICTs
in education. Examples of monitoring and evaluation indicators and data collection methods exist from many countries.
The process for the development of ICT in education indicators is the same as the process for the development of
indicators in other fields.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
The jury i s s till out on large, carefully planned one computer-per student programmes in Latin American and Caribbean
countries because very l ittle research has been done. This is especially true for South Africa where billions is being
invested in various provinces and where expensive lessons have not yet been learnt because high quality independent
monitoring and evaluation was not built into these programmes e.g. Gauteng Online and Khanya Projects. It i s critical
that we pilot, experiment and learn from experience in South Africa. This is only possible if on going monitoring and
evaluation processes are commissioned throughout interventions. The ‘pilot effect’ can be a n important driver for
pos itive impact. Dedicated ICT-related interventions in education that introduce a new tool for teaching and learning
may show improvements merely because the efforts surrounding such interventions lead teachers and s tudents to do
‘more’ (potentially diverting energies and resources from other activities).
2.3.4 How should m onitoring and evaluation s tudies of the im pact of ICTs in education in LDCs be
conducted?
2.3.5 What are the emotional, psychological and cultural impacts of ICT use on learners f rom
disadvantaged, m arginal ized and/or m inori ty com m unities ?
30
Equity Issue: Gender, Special Needs and Marginalised Groups
Critical Success Factor:
It i s clear that ICT in education interventions targeting marginalized and indigenous groups must place ICT-related
interventions within the broader cul tural and social contexts that frame education in i ssues in such groups more
generally. Fa ilure to do so may result in minimal results from such programs.
The best way is in working and collaborating with experts and s takeholders who belong to marginalized groups and
des ign methodologies in developing technologies for the marginalized groups.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
The DBE’s ‘Care and Support’ Framework is provides a unique opportunity to harness the limited resources maximally.
The data captured about each learner on various government databases could be integrated into a coherent dashboard
to ensure action what the United Kingdom achieved through their ‘Every Chi ld Matters’ strategy.
The high dropout rate (56% between Grade 1 to 12) across all nine provinces bear testimony to the reality that learners
at ri sk are not catered for. There is very l ittle awareness or action with regards to addressing marginalised groups,
special needs or barriers to learning in most of our provinces. ICT interventions need to be customised to address this
serious shortcoming. ICTs can be used to reach marginalised groups (social, economic, cultural, gender and others) to
benefit people in disadvantaged communities. The overall availability of ICT (especially mobile devices) could be utilised
to provide better possibilities to meet the needs of learners at ri sk, and especially empower a ll individuals to become
active participants in society. We should therefore deploy our efforts to enable marginalized benefit from ICTs through
creating awareness about the benefits and opportunities offered by ICTs among marginalized, capaci ty building in ICT
use, setting up projects or initiatives aimed at increasing marginalized access and use of ICTs, encouraging to taking up
ICT opportunities.
2.3 .6 How should ICT components in education projects supported by donors be ident ifie d
and quant ified?
31
Current Implementation of ICT’s in Education:
Critical Success Factor:
Donors should ensure that planning and budgeting factors in ALL necessary inputs. To succeed, it is necessary to provide
SIX cri tical complementary inputs: hardware, software, electricity, teacher tra ining and pedagogical support. The last
two are often neglected in many projects across the world.
It i s increasingly recognised that the so-called digital divide i s not just a matter of unavailability of information and
communication technologies (ICTs), but a lso of the social, political, institutional and cul tural contexts which shape
people’s lack of access to ICTs, or their inability to use them effectively. This implies that all projects must address the
contextual issues to ensure their success and sustainability.
One response to the above over the last decade or so has been a variety of digital inclus ion projects in a wide range of
contexts and countries. These projects normally aim not only to deliver ICT access to particular targeted groups, but
a lso to provide various types of support for learning and capacity building. Thus they a im to use ICTs to contribute to
the broader goal of social inclusion.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
The consensus among the education specialists in South Africa is that increasing access to computers in schools in
i solation has low returns. Many interventions in South Africa have fa llen short with regards to teacher training,
pedagogical support and a range of contextual issues that contribute to social inclusion. This is especially needed in
South Africa because Verwoerd’s s tructural design (badly tra ined teachers will produce cheap labour) continues to
bedevil education. Poor tra ining and support to teachers continue to yield mediocre results at Grade 12 level, high
dropout rates, rampant unemployment and grinding poverty. Thus, teacher tra ining and pedagogical support must be
given priority especially if large amounts of funds are invested in ICT.
2.3.7 Where should computers res ide i f they are to have the greatest learning im pact in
education?
32
Specific ICT Tools Used in Education:
Critical Success Factor:
Placement of computers / ICT: Computer laboratories all over the world have seldom yielded return on investment.
Many of them are under-utilised, poorly maintained, locked and inaccessible. Other possibilities need to be considered
such as placing them in classrooms, making them accessible after hours at school or at home.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Placing computers in classrooms — rather than separate computer laboratories — enables much greater use of ICTs
for ‘higher order’ skills. Indeed, a smaller number of computers in classrooms may enable more actual use than a
greater number of computers located in separate computer labs). Related to this is an increasing amount of attention,
given by both teachers and students, to the use of laptops (and in some places, ‘computers-on-wheels’), as well as, to
a much lesser extent, the use of personal digital assistants and other mobile devices. Students who use a computer at
home also use them in school more frequently and with more confidence than pupils who have no home access. There
are few successful models for the integration of student computer use at home or in other ‘informal settings’ outside
of school facilities with use in school. Increased computer access at home can have negative consequences. These
negative effects are concentrated among students with weaker adult supervision. If a program contemplates greater
access at home, these considerations should be seriously taken into account and mechanisms to s timulate proper use
should be implemented. In particular, computers could be loaded with interactive educational software, and
competitions could be launched to s timulate use of the software.
33
2.4 Teacher Support
Teachers, Teaching and ICT’s:
Critical Success Factor:
Instructional Technology Coaches in Action . Many teachers fear ICT given that they did not grow up with this
technology. The vast majority of teachers need to be coached and supported to understand the technology. They
especially need training to utilise ICT in their classrooms so that each lesson becomes interesting, relevant and engaging
for their learners.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Every publ ic school in the Fairfax County has a full-time, school- based technology specialist who serves as an
instructional technology coach. Fi rst and foremost, the role of these coaches i s to help teachers learn and refine
instructional practices using technology to facilitate s tudent learning. The task of the coach is not just to help the
teacher use the technology; rather, it is about how to use the technology to provide excellent instruction. It is important
for the coach to enable and empower teachers with the technological tools to personalize instruction and provide
col laborative learning so that technology i s used to facilitate s tudent learning. The task of the coach is not just to help
the teacher use the technology; rather, i t is about how to use the technology to provide excellent instruction. It is
important for the coach to enable and empower teachers with the technological tools to personal ise instruction and
provide collaborative learning. This model was implemented in the Khanya Project in the Western Cape but the coach
largely focussed on the hardware and software issues. Most of them were not good teachers and had little opportunity
or abi lity to impact on teaching in the lab or classroom.
Teachers, Teaching and ICT’s:
Critical Success Factor:
Communities of Practice: Communities of practice can play a va luable role for researching and sharing ideas and
resources and provide a forum for disciplined discussions over time. Cohorts of teachers, students, administrators,
researchers and others can apprentice, share and learn from one another in online and offline communities of practice.
2.4.1 Which m odels of ICT use can provide the m ost ef fective and re levant support for
profess ional development, including enabl ing peer netw orks , and how ?
34
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Many provinces and projects have initiated Communities of Practice for various constituents such as principals, subject
heads, and teachers. The prevalence of ICT has led to the creation of o nline communities of practices. These empower
participants to extend face-to-face interactions, or collaborate with others exclusively online. Within this online space,
a l l s takeholders can share, s tart conversations, reply to discussions and ask questions. Small groups conduct res earch
and bring back knowledge. It should be noted that communities of practice can be very effective in a digital world,
where the working context is volatile, complex, uncertain and ambiguous. A large part of the lifelong learning market
wi l l become occupied by communities of practice and self-learning, through col laborative learning, sharing of
knowledge and experience, and crowd-sourcing new ideas and development. Communities of Practice are being
implemented across South Africa quite successfully but are struggl ing where the department has imposed structure
and processes.
Technical and Pedagogical Teacher Support:
Critical Success Factor:
A national framework for teacher development in ICT has to be developed by the Department of Basic Education.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
In terms of the White Paper on e -Education, a national framework for teacher development in ICT has to be developed
by the Department of Bas ic Education. The framework should provide an understanding of the interrelationship
between different components of teacher development in order to assist teachers, managers, policy makers and service
providers.
This document sets out the ICT knowledge, skills, va lues and attitudes needed by teachers to implement the National
Curriculum Statement effectively.
This framework has not yet been implemented and needs urgent attention given the fact that what happens in the
computer room is not directly l inked to what happens within the classroom. Teachers want to be responsible for their
own class’s computer integration, but they are unsure what to do as they lack the basic computer and Internet skills.
There is a need to establish the integration of computers within learning areas and assistance with the implementation
of integration.
2.4.2 How do w e giv e teachers support – not only technical but also pedagogical . Increas ing the
training provided by school s taf f and others to teachers of al l discipl ines should therefore be
encouraged, including subject - speci f i c training on learning appl ications
35
There is a need to get personally involved with computer integration and to play an active part in the establishment
and implementation of computer integration at schools.
In many cases, one person is responsible for teaching computer literacy to the whole school. The Internet has to be
introduced to teachers and learners, but teachers do not have access to the Internet, nor do they know how to
introduce the Internet, or how to implement Internet or related s trategies in teaching and learning.
Technical and Pedagogical Teacher Support:
Critical Success Factor:
The evidence is quite persuasive that programmes that overlook teacher training and the development of software may
yield low returns. Dr Nick Taylor, is a highly experienced and talented South African education researcher. He argues
that given the high nature of spending on education programmes and teacher development, gains in terms of systems
change have been relatively small.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Both Gauteng Online (R 3 bi llion) and Khanya (R2 billion) did not prioritise teacher tra ining and content development.
This shortcoming meant that both projects yielded l ittle impact on learner outcomes and quality of teaching in the
classroom.
2.5 Teacher Training
2.5.1 How do w e go about increas ing profess ional dev elopm ent opportunities for teachers given
that the evidence show s that i t an ef f icient w ay of boosting ICT use in teaching and learning,
s ince i t he lps bui ld highly conf ident and supportive teachers . This seem s only sens ible given that
teachers ’ opinions (Survey of Schools: ICT in Education, Benchmarking access, use and attitudes
to technology in Europe’s schools ) , about the im pact of us ing ICT for learning purposes are
already very pos i tive and about 80% of s tudents are in schools w here the school head also shares
such pos i tive view s
36
Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers:
Critical Success Factor:
“ICT for education” instead of “education for ICT”.
We often lose the plot in these modern times and prioritise ICT for education. There needs to be a shift from ‘Education
for ICT’ to the use of ‘ICT for Education’. This means that ICTs should be integrated throughout the curriculum, blending
their use with other tools and resources to support s tudent learning; It is necessary to prioritise provision of initial and
on-going in-service teacher education that effectively equips teachers to integrate ICT into subject teaching and
learning using contemporary pedagogical approaches.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
This shift is especially necessary in South Africa because good teaching is not prioritised by the department and in the
vast majority of schools. Six fundamental principles of good practice must be addressed for such programmes to be
effective: a shift from an emphasis on ‘education for ICT’ to th e use of ‘ICT for education’; an integration of ICT practice
within the whole curriculum; a need for integration between pre-service and in-service teacher training; a need for the
development of relevant and locally produced content; a need for appropriate educational partnerships; and an
emphasis on the development of sustainable costing models.
Specific ICT Tools Used in Education:
Critical Success Factor:
In OECD countries, research consensus holds that the most effective uses of ICT are those in which the teacher, aided
by ICTs , can challenge pupils’ understanding and thinking, either through whole-class discussions and individual/small
group work using ICTs. ICTs are seen as important tools to enable and support the move from traditional 'teacher-
centric' teaching styles to more 'learner-centric' methods.
ICTs can be used to support change and to support/extend existing teaching practices
2.5.2 What m odels exis t for the ef fective uti l i zation of ICTs to support on -going profess ional
deve lopm ent for educators?
37
Pedagogical practices of teachers using ICT can range from only small enhancements of teaching practices using what
are essentially traditional methods, to more fundamental changes in their approach to teaching. ICTs can be used to
reinforce existing pedagogical practices as well as to change the way teachers and s tudents interact.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Research on Cri tical success factors for ICT interventions in Western Cape Schools proposes that:
1. Teachers need to find the relevance of ICTs in their personal and professional capacities to develop the
motivation to use ICTs in their teaching. This relevance is found as their use of ICTs is reinforced by positive
outcomes for themselves and from the learners.
2. Teachers need unambiguous communication that supports and encourages their use of ICTs . This
communication needs to be in the form of regular direct messages and leadership by example, to enve lop
the educator in a culture of ICT acceptance and expectation. This communication must come from the school
leadership, the Western Cape Education Department and the ICT intervention project facilitators. The more
effective this communication, the higher the level of the adoption will be.
3. Finally, teachers need to have and perceive they have the skills and resources at their disposal to successfully
use ICTs in their teaching. The skills need to be developed from a combination of comprehensive training a nd
experience. The equipment resources must be accessible, easy to set up and relentlessly maintained. The
support must be responsive and available.
Teachers, Teaching and ICT’s:
Critical Success Factor:
“Why can teachers survive without ICT while workers in many other professions cannot?”
The short answer according to Kentaro Toyama is that, there are no technology shortcuts to good education. He goes
further to argue that for primary and secondary schools that are underperforming or limited in resources, efforts to
improve education should focus a lmost exclusively on better teachers and s tronger administrations. Information
technology, i f used at a l l , should be targeted for certa in, specific uses or l imited to wel l -funded schools whose
fundamentals are not in question.
2.5.3 Can the same types of pedagogical practices and transformations thought to be enabled
by the introduction of ICTs be introduced and m aintained in environm ents w here ICTs are not
used?
38
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Kentaro Toyama’s arguments especially challenge the prevailing belief in South Africa technology can remedy the
fa i lings of the current education system. He argues that:
The rea lity i s that the history of electronic technologies in schools is fraught with failures.
Technology at best only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems.
It makes good schools better, but it makes bad schools worse.
The inescapable conclusion is that significant investments in computers, mobile phones, and other electronic
gadgets in education are neither necessary nor warranted for most school systems.
In particular, the attempt to use technology to fix underperforming classrooms (or to replace non-existent
ones) is futile.
Qual ity primary and secondary education is a multi-year commitment whose s ingle bottleneck is the
sustained motivation of the student to climb an intellectual Everest. Though children are naturally curious,
they nevertheless require ongoing guidance and encouragement to persevere in the ascent. Caring
supervision from human teachers, parents, and mentors i s the only known way of generating motivation for
the hours of a school day, to say nothing of eight to twelve school years.
While computers appear to engage students (which is exactly their appeal), the engagement swings between
uselessly fleeting at best and addictively distractive at worst. No technology today or in the foreseeable future
can provide the tailored attention, encouragement, inspiration, or even the occasional scolding for students
that dedicated adults can, and thus, attempts to use technology as a stand -in for capable instruction are
bound to fail.
Ke n ta ro To yama i s W.K. Ke l log g Associate Pro fesso r o f Co m mu nity I nform ation a t th e Un ivers i ty
o f Mi ch i gan S ch o o l o f I n fo rm ation, a fe l l ow o f th e D a l a i La m a Ce n te r fo r Eth i cs and
Tra n s fo rmative Va lues at MI T, a nd au thor o f G e ek H e resy: R escuin g S o cia l Ch ange f ro m the Cult
o f Te ch n olo gy.
39
Building Capacity for ICT Pedagogy:
Critical Success Factor:
Students, parents, s taff, districts, community members must be actively involved in developing, supporting and
maintaining a transformed learning culture.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
This involves a bottom up and top down approach where districts make a cri tical leadership contribution. This process
involves teachers, principals and other school staff as co-creators in achieving a transformed learning culture. Fairfax
County Publ ic School welcomed students and their voice resulted in a district wide initiative which included BRING
YOUR OWN DEVICE (BYOD). South Africa has yet to embrace cell-phones in the classroom and they are sadly banned
even though they are affordable, accessible and often the only technology device available to a learner.
Compulsory Teacher ICT Training:
Critical Success Factor:
Teacher education programs must be revised and improved to provide new teachers the skills to implement digital
learning in their classrooms.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Greater progress needs to be made in universities of education to prepare new teachers to leverage technology in
schools that are moving forward with digital learning. Partnerships with higher education institutions are critical to
achieve this goal. Nic Spaul recently posted that Nick Taylor, one of the education champions in South Africa, is pushing
ahead with his Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITREP). It a ims to identify to what extent we are producing
teachers who are better able to address the challenges of schooling. The initial results have found especially damning
2.5.4 How do w e orientate such public action preferably tow ards bui lding capaci ty for ICT
pedagogical expertise at school leve l
2.5.5 How do w e ensure that ICT training – cons is tently speci f ied and appl ied – i s m ade a
compulsory component of all initial teacher education programmes
40
results for university’s existing teacher tra ining programs. Hopefully the positive energy and attention will lead to
reform especially with regards to the use of ICT in education.
Amplification VS Magic Wand:
Critical Success Factor:
The temptation to seek a quick fix to remedy poor teaching prevails throughout the world. The reality i s that ICT could
never replace a teacher or transform a bad teacher into good teachers. Teachers need on -going regular professional
development to enhance their craft, especially in the ever-changing world of ICT.
Kentaro Toyama’s research is especially relevant in that he argues that technology at best only amplifies the pedagogical
capacity of educational systems. It makes good schools better, but i t makes bad schools worse.
Significant Gaps that Exist in South Africa Relative to International Trends
Qual ity professional development is crucial for transformation to occur across entire districts in South Africa, rather
than as isolated pockets of success. Teachers and officials need time and tra ining to acquire new skills and strategies,
practice new techniques, and reflect on effectiveness and needed redesign. On -site professional development,
graduate courses and cohorts of learning communities that al low choice, personalisation, and flexible teaching and
learning opportunities are cri tical. In an ongoing professional development system, with clear professional
development objectives, teachers can rely on one another for support and continuing professional growth. Teachers in
South Africa have mostly received Orientation courses instead meaningful professional development.
2.5.6 How do w e ensure that technology enhances good teaching by being an amplif ier rather
than a m agic w and w hich transform s bad teachers into good teachers? R esearch show s that the
best teachers use ICT m oderate ly
41
4. Strategic Recommendations
4.1 Interventions in South Africa are often directed at high school or even Grade 12 level whilst neglecting
pre and primary school levels. The high dropout rate and mediocre learner performance emanate from
there. Li teracy, numeracy, care and support interventions at foundation phase should therefore take
centre s tage so that we hold the hand of every child from Cradle to Career to Ci tizenship.
4.2 Given that the impact of ICT use on student achievement remains difficult to measure and open to much
reasonable debate i t is critical to pilot interventions and strive towards sustainability.
4.3 This involves clear goals at the outset because ICTs are seen to be less effective (or ineffective) when
the goals for their use are not clear. While such a statement would appear to be self-evident, the specific
goals for ICT use in education are, in practice, are often only very broadly or rather loosely defined.
4.4 These goals should especially focus on complementing and enriching a teacher’s existing pedagogical
phi losophies.
4.5 While impact on student achievement is still a matter of reasonable debate, a consensus seems to argue
that the introduction and use of ICTs in education can be a useful tool to help promote and enable
educational reform, and that ICTs are both important motivational tools for learning and can promote
greater efficiencies in education systems and practices.
4.6 Michael Trucano, a world-renowned ICT Education Specialist has written a thought provoking piece in
the EduTech blog ti tled Worst Practice in ICT use in education. We would do well to avoid following:
4.6.1 Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen
4.6.2 Des ign for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) learning
environments and then implement elsewhere
4.6.3 Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware
4.6.4 Assume you can just import content from somewhere else
4.6.5 Don’t monitor, don’t evaluate
4.6.6 Make a big bet on an unproven technology (especially one based on a closed/proprietary
standard) or single vendor, don’t plan for how to avoid ‘lock-in
4.6.7 Don’t think about (or acknowledge) total cost of ownership/operation issues or ca lculations
4.6.8 Assume away equity issues
4.6.9 Don’t tra in your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter)
This is a timely reminder that amid all the excitement and optimism regarding the potential use of ICTs in education,
there’s still room for error and the larger the sums of money involved, the larger the margin for error is. It all comes
down to the same old thing, lack of strategic planning, and lack of a ‘joined -up’ view of what the whole system needs
to provide.
42
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1
Jakes Gerwel Fellowship
Author: Anthony Farr, Educational Research Team
Date: January 2016
Description: Exploration of the rationale, components and possible impact through the initiation of a high-impact educational fellowship within the South African education system
2
Contents 1. Preface ..........................................................................................................................3
2. Research: Best Practices Informing Teacher Education ....................................................4
3. Rationale .......................................................................................................................6
Vision.................................................................................................................................6
Envisaged Goals and Impact ................................................................................................6
4. Implementation Aspects: ............................................................................................. 10
4.1. Training Options ................................................................................................... 10
4.2. Selection .............................................................................................................. 10
4.3. Programmatic Component .................................................................................... 12
Fellowship Year 1.......................................................................................................... 12
Fellowship Year 2.......................................................................................................... 14
Fellowship Year 3.......................................................................................................... 15
Fellowship Year 4.......................................................................................................... 16
5. Unique Fellowship Characteristics ................................................................................ 16
6. Risk Management ........................................................................................................ 17
6.1. High Failure Rate .................................................................................................. 17
6.2. Union Support ...................................................................................................... 17
6.3. University Partners ............................................................................................... 17
6.4. Graduates Not Entering Local Profession................................................................ 18
6.5. High Professional Attrition Rate............................................................................. 18
8. Potential Next Steps..................................................................................................... 19
9. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 19
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1. Preface South Africa faces daunting challenges in the political and socio-economic spheres. Education represents a key lever to
address these challenges, but our education system has been in crisis since 1994. One of the key challenges is a severe
shortage of suitably tra ined, motivated and qualified language, mathematics and science teachers. This i s a systemic
chal lenge that cripples education and must be addressed.
Nick Taylor, a prominent and highly respected educationist, i s currently engaged in extensive research in South Africa
as part of the Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITERP). He argues that:
“Many problems beset the South African school system, including, in many instances, poor management and
leadership and the inefficient distribution of resources. But, even where institutions are well managed and
teachers have access to sufficient resources, the quality of teaching and learning cannot rise above the ceiling
imposed by low teacher capacity. This ceiling may be high in a minority of schools, but in the large majority
teaching is often ineffective and learners fall progressively behind the expectations of the curriculum with
each passing year. While there are undisciplined teachers who don’t make the best use of time, the majority
are doing the best they can and would dearly love to be more effective. The cause of poor performance, by
and large, lies not with teachers but with the teacher education system that produced them. Evidence has
accumulated over the last two decades to suggest that in-service interventions have had limited impact.
This understanding, in turn, has led to a growing realisation that the greatest opportunity for improving
the quality of schooling lies with ITE (Initial Teacher Education) programmes.
This paper motivates for the ultimate development of 100 teacher-training Fellows per year (with a focus on scarce
ski lls subjects such as languages, mathematics and science at high school level). These 100 Fellows per annum will
impact across hundreds of schools within a decade and should be named in honour of a leading South African and
prominent educational leader. In recognition of his role as confidant to former President Nelson Mandela, his passion
within the educational sphere and inaugural Chairperson of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, i t is recommended that
these Educational Fellows are known as “Jakes Gerwel Fellows.”
4
2. Research: Best Practices Informing Teacher Education
The fol lowing insights gleaned from research and promising practices across the world should be considered with
regards to the selection and tra ining of Jakes Gerwel Fellows as many of these i ssues are not adequately addressed in
current teacher tra ining programmes. These educational be st practices form the bas is for the Fellowship’s
programmatic content. They are considered in more detail under the Programmatic Component of this report and can
be summarised as follows:
“Achieving universal prim ary education alone cal l s for m ore and better trained teachers . Countries that have achieved high learning s tandards have invested heavi ly in the teaching profess ion.” (2005 UNSECO EF A MONITOR ING R EPOR T)
5
Figure 1: Educational B
est Practice Informing Teacher Education (Tabulated according to K
ey Themes)
No
Educational B
est Practice
Source
Country
Key Lesson
1
Ne
w Te
acher G
raduates
Ina
dequately Ed
ucated o
r T
rain
ed
Sou
th A
frica
Lack o
f rigour in selection
processes re
sults in low p
rofessional stan
dards
De
ficiencies in p
rogram
me co
heren
ce, con
tent, cognitive d
eman
d impact o
n subseq
uent p
edagogical a
bility
Failures to
take into a
ccount th
e nee
ds and rea
lities of th
e education
system set e
ducators u
p fo
r failure
Low
ad
missio
n criteria is an im
portant facto
r due to
wea
ker studen
ts being
attracted to
the B
.Ed pro
gramm
e
2
Loss o
f Teaching Tim
e
Sou
th A
frica
Ma
jority o
f teaching tim
e spen
t on a
dmin
and n
on-adm
in activities
3
Orga
nising System
atic
Lea
rning
U
SA
Tea
chers u
nder-prep
ared to
teach large classes
4
Thre
e V
alues Pa
radigm
Singapo
re
Lea
rner Ce
ntred
Valu
es nee
d to
take centre stage
Tea
cher Ce
ntred
Values re
quire discipline an
d accountability to
high stan
dards
Va
lues o
f Service to Pro
fession and
Com
mu
nity allow fo
r increa
sed collabo
ration
5
Classro
om M
anagem
ent
an
d D
iscipline
Inte
rnatio
nal Po
or cla
ssroom
managem
ent stim
ulates student re
sistance
6
Re
search
-Based Te
aching
Finland
Stud
y pro
gram
me is stru
ctured acco
rding to a
systematic a
nalysis of e
ducation
All te
aching is based
on re
search
Tea
ching o
rientated to
assist learners in
solving p
edagogical p
roblem
s
Stud
ents learn
form
al research
skills
7
Alte
rnative A
ssessmen
t A
ustra
lia
Alte
rnative assessm
ent p
ractices nee
d to p
rom
ote eq
uity by virtu
e of th
eir cultu
ral fairness
Sou
th A
frica
Curricu
lum h
as bee
n d
esigned fo
r mid
dle class children
8
Com
mu
nities o
f Practice
Singapo
re
Pre-se
rvice and in
-service educators m
ove b
eyond
sense
-making to
critical reflective
learning
9
Ap
plication o
f Technolo
gy In
tern
ational
ICTs are
generally n
ot con
sidered
central to
the teach
ing bu
t will fo
rm key p
art of fu
ture classroom
s
6
3. Rationale
Vision
“An aspirational Educational Fellowship for future high-impact educators creating a community of practice,
individually and collectively solving today’s most pressing educational challenges”
In the same way that i t is difficult to imagine the combination of a great econom y and dysfunctional government, it is
a lso difficult to imagine a great economy built around an educational system that despite significant financial resources
i s one of the worst performing in the world. Initiating an Educational Fellowship will complement the long-term vision
of the Foundation to contribute to stabilising the broader economic environment.
The Jakes Gerwel Fellowship also a ims to bring a greater level of aspiration to the teaching profession in Sou th Africa.
There i s currently no premium scholarship programme in this area and weaker s tudents are attracted to the B.Ed
programme due to due to low admission criteria. The Fellowship therefore aims to support the passions of potential
educators a lready committed to the teaching profession while a lso attracting high -performance learners to the
profession who otherwise would have considered a different field of s tudy.
Envisaged Goals and Impact
In discussion with various principals that are part of the Foundation’s Ci rcle of Excellence, there is growing concern as
to the future pipeline of great educational leaders. The Foundation has already established the infrastructure, processes
and content for creating a pipeline of high-impact leaders and entrepreneurs. It has become apparent that a qualified
teacher is not necessarily a good teacher.
Thus an opportunity exists to match the current need in the education sector by focusing on developing and impacting
on the teachers who are committed to enhancing and leading the teaching profession.
“How teachers are prepared for teaching i s a cri tical indicator of education qual i ty. Preparing teachers for the chal lenges of a changing w orld m eans equipping them w ith subject - speci f ic
expertise , e f fective teaching practices , an understanding of technology and the abi l i ty to w ork col laborative ly w ith other teachers , m em bers of the com m uni ty and parents .” (2005 UNESCO EF A R eport)
“Not al l qual i f ied teache rs are com petent profess ionals able to provide qual i ty teaching and learning. It i s com m on cause that the qual i ty of m ost ITE program m es leaves a lot to be des i red and the resul t i s that m ost of the current teaching force has been inadequate ly educated and
trained, w hether during aparthe id or in the recent past.” Centre for Developm ent and Enterprise
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The tra ining of teachers has been prioritised in the National Development Programme (NDP) and as a result, significant
resources have a lready been a llocated. The primary source i s the Department of Bas ic Education Funza Lushaka
programme, which has a budget of R1billion in the form of education bursaries. This bursary programme is available to
25 percent of the national s tudent teacher intake at various universities. It has largely been reserved for s tudents who
wish to s tudy Foundation Phase (grades 1 to 3) teaching, in an indigenous African language. This means that other
s tudents who wish to teach the other phases are not eligible for a Funza Lushaka bursary.
8
Figure 2: Envisaged Program
matic and Professional Im
pact of the Jakes G
erwel Fellow
ship and its associated N
DP R
eference Point
No
University
Province
N
ational Developm
ent Plan Goal
Profe
ssion Imp
act
An
nu
al Size of Intake
10
0 learn
ers “In
itiate bursary p
rogram
mes to
imp
rove th
e quality o
f
tea
ching an
d help attract a
nd retain te
achers”
Fellow
ship Com
munity
3000 gra
du
ate Fellows (at p
eak co
hort size) “In
itiate bursary p
rogram
mes to
imp
rove th
e quality o
f te
ach
ing and h
elp attract and
retain teachers”
Lifetim
e Impact
5000 lea
rners per grad
uate Fellow
“Bo
lstering te
acher training” so th
at:
1. 45
0 000 Gra
de
12 learners a
chieve a u
niversity
en
tran
ce pass with m
athem
atics and p
hysical scien
ce
by 2030 (trip
le the cu
rrent n
umbers)
2. In
creasing th
e num
ber of stu
dents achieving abo
ve
50% in
literacy and m
athem
atics
Gra
du
ation Rate
70%
(Na
tional average = 9.8%
) “W
ell e
ducated
, trained and
caring”
Re
ten
tion with
the Pro
fession
(or re
lated)
80% a
fter 10 ye
ars
“Lo
ve te
achin
g and lea
rning”
Asp
irational
Attra
ct 40% o
f Can
didates p
assionate abo
ut e
du
cation b
ut wh
o otherw
ise would
have studied
an
alte
rnative deg
ree
“High
ly valued
profession
”
Fellow
ship Impact
Len
gth o
f Fellowship
70%
Inta
ke of H
igh Scho
ol Phase
30% In
take o
f Primary Sch
ool Ph
ase
“Tea
cher shortages a
re addressed
in languages, m
athem
atics,
science, te
chnology a
nd th
e arts”
Dive
rsity 80%
Bla
ck African
10%
Wh
ite
10% In
dian
, Colou
red, A
sian
“Tea
cher shortages a
re addressed
in languages, m
athem
atics, scie
nce, technolo
gy an
d the arts”
Ge
nd
er 40 – 60%
ran
ge fo
r male
-female Fellow
ship co
hort “Te
ach
er shortages are a
ddressed in
languages, math
ematics,
science, te
chnology a
nd th
e arts”
Selection
Criteria M
inim
um B
Ave
rage (Grad
e 11) M
inim
um C
Ma
ths (Grad
e 11) “Te
ach
er shortages are a
ddressed in
languages, math
ematics,
science, te
chnology a
nd th
e arts”
Re
ten
tion on
Fellow
ship
90% Ye
ar o
n Ye
ar Reten
tion b
ased o
n a m
inimu
m o
f
a “C” A
vera
ge
“We
ll ed
ucated, trained
and carin
g”
9
Teacher Fellows (100 per annum) would undoubtedly develop into an influential Community of Practice that would
have noteworthy impact on the teaching profession in the following manner:
The s tatus of the teaching profession wi ll be s ignificantly enhanced by the support of the Al lan Gray
Endowment Board. The teaching profession is seldom championed as a meaningful career option in most
universities and communities. Teachers were respected and revered decades ago in South Africa, just as they
currently are in Finland, Singapore and South Korea.
The teaching profession needs new blood as the average age of teachers nation-wide is 49 years. The injection
of passionate, talented and committed teachers would undoubtedly have a ripple effect through the teaching
profession by tra ining them to be:
Master teachers who impact across classrooms via the internet, social media and ICT
Share their strategies, methodologies and lesson plans via technology platforms
Ini tiators and leaders of Communities of Practice
Research outlined in this report has proven that mathematics results would improve s ignificantly.
In the same vein, learner dropouts would decline and learner throughput would be enhanced.
Enhancing and enriching the quality of teaching at the partner university. This would undoubtedly have
sustainable benefits to generations to come
The Fellowship would nurture entrepreneurship and advocate a cradle-to-career-to-citizenship tra jectory for
each learner.
On average, teachers impact on the lives of 5 000 learners. Thus, 70 Graduating Fellows per annum (allowing
for a 70% graduation rate) would impact on 350 000 learners in their l i fetimes. If this programme had
commenced in 1994, the possibility of impacting on millions of lives would have begun to be realised. Nic
Taylor’s research, outlined earlier, then becomes relevant. He argued that: The cause of poor performance,
by and large, lies not with teachers but with the teacher education system that produced them.
Addressing the on-going glaring need that has hindered the delivery of quality education in thousands of
schools across the country.
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4. Implementation Aspects:
4.1. Training Options
The focus of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship will be on developing highly skilled high school teachers in scarce skills subjects
(languages, mathematics and science), who are committed to the teaching profession over the long term and will be
developed to become master teachers, leaders and managers in the education sphere. There are two possible routes
with regards to the tra ining of teachers, namely:
1. Undergraduate teacher tra ining, i .e. a 4-year Bachelor degree in Education for Primary School
Teachers.
2. Postgraduate teacher tra ining i.e. any 3-year Bachelor degree with PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate
in Education) for High School Teachers.
4.2. Selection A crucial challenge in implementing this stream is ensuring that individuals are fully committed to a career in public
school education in South Africa. The selection cri teria should be rigorously applied and should involve the following
cons iderations:
Commitment to citizenship in creating a high-quality public school education system
A record of past achievement: achieving ambitiously, measurable results in academics, leadership or work
experience
Perseverance in the face of challenges and the ability to be resourceful
Strong cri tical thinking and problem-solving skills
The ability to influence and motivate others
Organisational ability: planning well, meeting deadlines and working efficiently
An understanding of our vision and the desire to work relentlessly in pursuit of i t
Respect for s tudents and families in low-income communities
Evidence that applicants operate with professionalism and integrity
Successfully pass the cognitive assessment that measures basic reading, writing and comprehension skills
Pass assessment to measure competencies for content area assigned to teach
11
Figure 3: Selection Criteria and Selection Process Considerations
University
Province
Aca
de
mics
Min
imum
C (Level 5) fo
r Pure
Ma
thematics in
Grade 11
Min
imum
B (Level 6) A
vera
ge for G
rade 11 R
esults (e
xcluding Life O
rientation)
Cou
ntry o
f Citizenship
So
uth
Africa
Un
iversity Selected
We
stern Ca
pe Phase 1
Un
iversity o
f Cape To
wn, U
niversity o
f the
Western Ca
pe, Stellenb
osch Un
iversity
Ga
ute
ng: Phase 2
U
nive
rsity of th
e Witw
atersrand, U
niversity o
f Joh
annesburg, Un
iversity of Pre
toria
Extram
ura
l Activities
Spo
rt Cu
ltural
Lea
dership
Com
mu
nity Se
rvice/Involvem
ent
Kno
wled
ge
Of Te
ach
ing Professio
n
Of Se
lf
Mo
tivatio
nal Fit
Alignm
ent w
ith Jakes G
erwel Pro
gramm
e Ob
jectives
Pa
ssion for Ed
ucatio
n
Com
mitm
ent to
Fellow
ship Program
me
En
gagem
ent w
ith Com
munity
Alignm
ent w
ith Jakes G
erwel Fellow
ship V
ision
Alignm
ent w
ith V
alues
Perse
verance
Pro
ble
m So
lving
Lea
dership (Pe
rsonal and O
rganisational)
Aca
de
mic Exce
llence
Cre
ativity
12
4.3. Programmatic Component
The programmatic component of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship is indep endent of the learner’s academic course work
and represents a 4-year Fellowship engagement. Graduating Fellows are required to not only meet annual university
academic benchmarks but a lso actively engage with the programmatic aspect of the Fellowship. The intention of this
programme is to create a platform for Fellowship recipients to embark o n a journey that provides them with cutting-
edge educational exposure and increasing depth to their personal leadership development. It i s through the synthesis
of this programmatic content, their academic course work and the Fellowship community that their potential of
becoming ‘Master Teachers’ is expected to be unlocked within their professional environment.
Figure 4: Programmatic Overview of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship
Fellowship Year
Educational Theme Personal Leadership
Theme Personal Coach
Personal Mentor
1 Classroom Management Grounding Yes No
2 Uti l ising ICT in Education Bui lding Yes No
3 Global Best Practice Deep Focus Yes Yes
4 Communities of Practice Setting Yourself Apart Yes Yes
Fellowship Year 1
Educational Theme: Classroom Management
Linda Chisholm’s research of 2005 revealed that teaching happens for 82 days out of 170 days per year (48%)
in the average South African school. Stallings and Mohlman’s research argued that simply making the school
day longer did not necessarily lead to better performance. More important, ultimately, is how effectively time
is spent. Studies of effective teachers showed that they spent some 15% of the school day on organisation,
management and lesson planning; 50% on interactive teaching and 35% on monitori ng pupils’ work. It is
therefore crucial to champion that ITE (Initial Teacher Education) programmes prioritise the cri tical issue of
uti l ising time optimally by ra ising awareness and developing s trategies to achieve this objective. The crucial
loss of teaching time results in South Africa’s high dropout rate and mediocre learner outcomes. If every
school guarded teaching time then learner outcomes would undoubtedly improve. The fi rst year of the
Fel lowship Programme would focus on developing healthy habits regarding effective time utilisation.
13
Figure 5: Admin vs Teaching Time – benchmarking South African Educational Reality Against Global Best
Practice
Personal Leadership Theme: Grounding
The focus of the first year of the Fellowship Programme is to assist university students in the creation of a
sol id connection to both themselves and their new environment that enables healthy academic and social
engagement. The intention of this year is to create a strong platform from which to build on for the rest of
the individual’s personal and Fellowship journey. Jakes Gerwel Fellows are also each assigned an individual
Personal Leadership Coach who meets with them each quarter with the intention of holding them
accountable to their personal development, professional and academic goals.
15%
52%
85%
48%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Ideal SA Reality
Teaching and Monitoring
Admin
14
Fellowship Year 2
Educational Theme: Utilising ICT in Education
Even in the most advanced schools in OECD countries, ICTs are generally not considered central to the
teaching and learning process. Many ICT-in-education initiatives in emergent countries seek (at least in their
rhetoric) to place ICTs as central to teaching and learning. One of the enduring difficulties of technology use
in education is that educational planners and technology advocates think of the technology first and then
investigate the educational applications of this technology later. This is especially true in our South African
context.
However, there can be l ittle doubt that our society as a whole is moving towards a more technology reliant
era and that as many future solutions to current challenges will be driven by technology, there will be a more
important role for technology to play in education – particularly the sort of disruptive platform that can
ci rcumnavigate or at least address many of the current inefficiencies in the South African system. An example
of such a platform is that of adaptive learning technologies which cleverly promote mastery of core curricular
concepts while personally adapting questions to individual aptitude. This technology tool also allows teachers
the holistic tracking of learner progress and thus also timeous teaching interventions. There are already good
examples of this platform that have been ta ilored to the South African mathematics and science curriculum
whi le Mark Zuckerberg has also specifically focussed on adaptive learning as one of his newly established
Trust’s key focal points.
It should be noted that both the Gauteng and Western Cape Educational Departments are a lready in the
process of rolling out high-speed, fibre optic connections to all the schools under their jurisdiction. In essence
then, whi le current technology solutions are not sufficiently fea sible in addressing existing educational
problems in the South African educational environment – with faster connectivi ty, cheap data, increased
access and better technology interventions – i t is likely the future educational environment will be a much
more fertile one than might be presently the case.
Personal Leadership Theme: Building
The second year of the Fellowship’s Personal Leadership programme focuses on reinforcing the individual’s
self-identity and leadership skills to impact the community at large while developing basic academic research
experience regarding the application of a growth mindset to approaching and tackling problems. The Fellows
continue this journey together with regular face-to-face meetings with their assigned personal coach.
15
Fellowship Year 3
Educational Theme: Global Best Practice
In his influential book, “Learning to teach in South Africa”, Prof Wally Morrow, one of South Africa’s most
ta lented academics and a highly gi fted teacher, challenges us to “Knock contact-time off i ts pedestal and
replace it with something like the idea that teaching is centrally about the organising of systematic learning.”
The reality in South Africa is that we cannot afford small classes of 20–25 learners, rather we have to prepare
teachers to teach large classes of 40 or more by organising systematic learning. Organised systematic learning
i s evident in the groundbreaking work of Doug Lemov. He visited hundreds of classrooms to establish what
the best teachers are doing. He then wrote a best-seller ca lled, “Teach like a Champion”, which is compulsory
reading for all third year Fellows to assist them in facilitating an exciting and engaging lesson.
Va l Klenowski engaged with the cri tical i ssue of assessment while working with Australian Indigenous
s tudents. This is a vexing problem in South African schools and her insights are particularly relevant given the
diversity (race, culture, language and special needs) prevalent in most classrooms. Our high dropout rate and
poor learner outcomes can be remedied if, “students’ prior knowledge and experience is woven into new
concepts and ideas.”
Personal Leadership Theme: Deep Focus
The third year of the Fellowship Programme aims to provide the cohort of future educators with a greater
level of focus and depth in developing their own personal teaching s tyle in a way that focusses on their
passions, abilities and expertise. This will draw largely from the Finnish Education system that is considered
to be the best in the world. Part of this success is the emphasis on research. Finnish research -based teacher
education has four characteristics: (1) the study programme is structured according to a systematic analysis
of education; (2) a ll teaching is based on research; (3) activities are organised in such a way that students can
practice argumentation, decision-making a nd justification when inquiring into and solving pedagogical
problems; and (4) the s tudents learn formal research skills during their s tudies. The heightened prominence
given to research should be replicated at university and classroom level in South Africa. In addition to drawing
on the individualised support of a personal coach, in the third year of the Fellowship Programme, Fellows are
a lso assigned a Mentor for the fi rst time. These individuals are selected according to s ignificant educational
track records and in-depth knowledge of their field of specialisation.
16
Fellowship Year 4
Educational Theme: Communities of Practice
Communities of practice have mushroomed all over the world but Pak Tee Ng and Charlene Tan have argued
that while collaborative learning among teachers is encouraged and practiced in many schools today, the
process of learning through ‘communities of practice’ may involve ‘sense -making’ rather than critical
reflective learning. They contend that sense-making in a community of practice utilises a restricted form of
reflective learning that i s largely technical in nature and confined to immediate practice concerns. They
maintain that communities of practice should move from sense-making, which is too technical and narrow to
enable and empower teachers to become creators of new knowledge and teaching practices, to critical
reflective learning. This shift should ideally be championed at university and departmental level s o that pre-
service and in-service educators move beyond sense-making to cri tical reflective learning.
Personal Leadership Theme: Setting Yourself Apart
The final Fellowship year revolves around leveraging off the greater level of depth and focus from the previous
year and synthesising this to take meaningful personal and professional next s teps into the world outside of
university. In their last year of the Fellowship Programme, Fellows have regular contact time with both their
assigned personal coach and mentor. On the mentoring side, the overriding focus is on crystallising personal
vis ions to assist their mentees to successfully transition into the professional world following the completion
of their degree and Fellowship.
5. Unique Fellowship Characteristics The Jakes Gerwel Fellowship represents a unique opportunity to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. This
programme will therefore advocate the following to ensure impact and sustainability:
Engage in monthly team sessions to glean promising practices, share insights, challenges and support one
another in groups of four.
Attend quarterly coaching sessions with a professional coach to ensure personal growth, interpersonal
development and professional development as a teacher.
Participate in a social media support group to support peer coaching, collaboration, sharing of new ideas and
s tretching one another.
Practice teaching at Ci rcle of Excellence schools during university vacations. This will involve observation of
highly experienced and competent teachers in the fields of languages, mathematics and science. It will also
include practice teaching sessions during normal school times and supplementary classes to learners
attending holiday programmes.
Develop online education resources and lessons for widespread dissemination to the public school system.
Access a highly experienced educational mentor in their third and fourth year of the Fellowship programme.
17
6. Risk Management
Given the significant investment into Jakes Gerwel Fellows and their potential impact on the education system, the
fol lowing risks need be considered and managed carefully:
6.1. High Failure Rate
More than 85% of all undergraduate students enrolled at South Africa’s 23 public universities fail their studies a nd drop
out, according to a report by Department of Higher Education. A report by the HSRC outlined that this risk is a threat to
the future of South Africa. Fortunately, the Alan Gray Orbis Foundation has years of experience in managing the risk of
the high drop-out and failure rates at university level. This could be achieved by selecting prospective teachers in the
same way that Finland does. Finland now leads the international pack in literacy, science, and math ematics. Until the
1960s the level of educational attainment in Finland remained rather low. Since then becoming a teacher in Finland is
a very competitive process and only Finland’s best and brightest are able to fulfil those professional dreams. The issue
of peer support, on-going mentoring and coaching i s a lso an essential element in the Fellowship to ensure that a
s ignificant proportion of s tudents complete their university tra ining and entry into the teaching profession.
6.2. Union Support
The support of the Teacher Unions is cri tical in a programme of this nature. Fortunately, a ll the teacher unions reali se
the dire need to train new educators given that most teachers are older than 40 years. The largest teachers union,
South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) has ca lled for more government spending on teacher professional
development, teacher recruitment and public education. The Union celebrated World Teachers Day on 5 October 2015
under the theme ‘Build the future: invest in teachers now!’ and issued the following press statement: “This year̀ s focus
i s on the global teacher shortage and the challenges of being a teacher today. According to UNESCO, an estimated 10.3
mi l lion new teachers must be recruited worldwide by 2015 to achieve Universal Primary Education. In the sub-Saharan
Africa we would need approximately 2.4 mi llion teachers in order to meet the goal of universal primary education. At
a time when global economic s lowdown risks putting tight constraints on education budgets, i t i s cri tical that
governments support the recruitment, tra ining and professional development of teachers.”
6.3. University Partners
The current crisis in many of our universities represents a real risk to a programme involving significant investment and
promising real change in the lives of thousands of learners. Some universities have experienced greater upheaval than
others due to socio-political reasons. This ri sk can be managed by selecting one university that i s relatively stable ,
especially in the first year of the programme in 2017. It is recommended that the programme be piloted in the Western
Cape s o that this risk can be managed as part of the Phase 1 rol l out. Phase 2 should extend to the Gauteng universities
by the year 2019. Furthermore, the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship should only consider universities that the Al lan Gray Orbis
Foundation currently partner with so that existing relationships can be more easily tapped into. Once the Fellowship
programme has reached a steady s tate, consideration can be given to incorporating new universities.
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Figure 6: South African Tertiary Institutions that offer Educational Degrees and their AGOF Status
No University Province Current AGOF Partner
1 Stel lenbosch University Western Cape Yes
2 University of Cape Town Western Cape Yes
3 University of the Western Cape Western Cape Yes
4 University of Pretoria Gauteng Yes
5 University of Johannesburg Gauteng Yes
6 University of Witwaterand Gauteng Yes
7 University of the Free State Orange Free State Yes
8 University of KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal No
9 University of the North West North West No
10 Walter Sisulu University Eastern Cape No
11 University of Venda Limpopo No
6.4. Graduates Not Entering Local Profession According to Geyser and Polluter’s research, approximately 6% of s tudent teachers do not enter the profession upon
graduation for various reasons. A recently published s tudy by Bertram into final year education students revealed that
27.4% intended to teach abroad and 7.2% said that they did not plan to teach. C. Wolhuter argues that a severe teacher
tra ining shortage is looming worldwide and that a brain drain from developing nations to developed nations is a risk. It
i s important that the selection process place s trong emphasis on selecting potential s tudent teachers that are
committed to teach in the South African public school system and whose va lues align with those of the Fellowship.
6.5. High Professional Attrition Rate According to the Centre for Development and Enterprise’s report ti tled, ‘Teachers in South Africa: Supply and demand
2013–2025,’ there is a high teacher turnover, especially with regards to NTG’s (new teacher graduates) because of a
range of challenges encountered at schools. To mitigate this ri sk, the Fellowship wi ll need to initiate s tronger
institutional networks at schools to actively place s tudent teachers. These s trategies can include placing graduates as
group of four persons at one public school to ensure that cri tical mass and peer support i s prevalent in the traumatic
fi rs t two years of teaching as well as placing these graduates into new public schools as a group of 10 or more to ensure
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that the school culture and functionality is enhanced by innovative teaching methods and young talent. Another option
i s for student teachers to be contracted to public schools for a minimum period of four years. Organisations such as
Teach SA, City Year and the Posse Foundation all rely on strong cohort hubs to support the retention and impact of their
members at selected schools. Developing an on-going support and tra ining programme, through communities of
practice, and regular workshops, through an active graduate network, will a lso play a significant role in this regard.
8. Potential Next Steps
If the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship concept i s adopted, the following issues will need to be researched and actioned to
ensure that a teacher-centric approach is successfully implemented:
a ) Selecting a university that conforms to the highest s tandards in terms of:
Selection of s tudents
Accreditation, programme coherence, content, cognitive demand
Practice teaching, support and mentoring of s tudents
b) Developing a selection process to identify s tudent teachers who are committed to teaching in the public school
system to manage the ri sks of failing, dropping out or emigration.
c) Negotiations with a university on the ba sis of partnering to champion ICT and entrepreneurial thinking in the
classroom.
d) Negotiations with the education department re garding : teaching practice placement and appointment of graduates
in groups of four or more into new schools or schools that are receptive, nurturing and supportive to new graduates
into the profession.
9. Conclusion
In the interest of making a long-term contribution both to the country and the on-going sustainability of the existing
Al lan Gray Fellowship, it is proposed that serious consideration be given to initiating an Education Fellowship on the
bas es described in this paper.
