Die assesseringspraktyke van laerskoopopvoeders in respons tot die verwagtinge van die nasionale kurrikulumverklaring

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The political dispensation in South Africa after 1994 experienced a complete change in different spheres of life. Not only was the country greeted with a new democratic government system, but also with widespread educational reform, of which curriculum reform in schools was one of its main drivers. This study focuses on implementation dynamics related to the latest iteration of curriculum reform namely the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) that was introduced in all public schools in 2005. Educators were sent for in service training in order to implement the new curriculum in their classrooms. Continuous assessment (CASS) became the operative on everybody's lips, though learners would be assessed according to continuous assessment activities. These assessment marks or codes, obtained by the learners, would determine progression to the next grade. This resulted in a new educator practice, namely an assessment practice. Their initial encounter was somehow problematic because they found it difficult in marrying this new practice with their teaching and learning practices due to various reasons. One of the main reasons was that the NCS was never part of their tertiary education.The study's main point of departure is that the assessment practices of primary school educators are diverse and divergent in response to the expectations of the NCS. The study uses the analytical lenses of forward and backward mapping as well as the ambiguity-conflict model in order to investigate and ascertain the underlying relationship between educator's assessment practices and the assessment policy. The study belongs within the qualitative interpretative paradigm, as I attempt to form an understanding of the nature and range of their assessment practices. It emphasises the manifestation of the assessment practices of educators. Qualitative research instruments, which include individual interviews, were used to answer the research question and achieve the research objectives of the thesis.The research shows how these educators experience, interpret and implement the assessment policy in unique ways. It indicates how they, in striving to adhere to the expectations of the NCS, respond by tackling their respective assessment practices in a diverse and divergent way and at times deviate from what is expected of them as set out in the NCS.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University