An investigation into mentoring as a possible tool to alleviate practice shock among primary school educators in the context of curriculum 2005

[摘要] Once South Africa was democratized in 1994, it was discovered that the education system ofthe apartheid legacy failed to produce citizens who could compete internationally. It was alsoproved that the system was unable to develop essential human skills that would create jobs forall scholars at the end of their schooling career.For this purpose an Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) model for General Education andTraining (GET) in South Africa, called Curriculum 2005 (C2005), was implemented since1998. This sudden implementation ofa new curriculum in primary schools allegedly resultedin practice shock among the relevant educators with the result of many of them opting to leavethe education profession. In light of these developments the researcher decided to undertakean investigation in order to establish whether the alleged practice shock indeed exists amongthese educators. The researcher also opted to investigate the feasibility of a mentoringprogramme for these educators as a possible solution for the problem of the apparent practiceshock.The researcher then found it necessary to do a literature study on the following issuespertaining to the research problem:�?The implementation of C2005 as an outcomes-based educational model in primaryschools in S.A.�?Practice shock as a possible consequence of the sudden implementation of the newcurriculum; and�?Mentoring of primary school educators as a possible tool to alleviate the allegedpractice shock.The afore-mentioned literature study was subsequently supplemented by a case study surveyamong the educators of a selected primary school in the Ladybrand district. This case studysurvey took the form of a qualitative interview survey with selected educators at the primaryschool involved, qualitative observations of all the educators by the researcher (who also wasthe principal of the particular school) as well as a quantitative questionnaire survey among allthe educators at the school. During the investigation possible problems experienced by theeducators, the existence of practice shock among the educators as well as their views regardingmentoring as a possible tool to alleviate these problems and the emanating practice shock wereinvestigated.On the basis of the data obtained during this investigation the researcher subsequentlycritically analysed and interpreted the data and eventually made the conclusion that theeducators who took part in the project did indeed experience problems with theimplementation of C2005; that practice shock was indeed a reality at the primary schoolinvolved; and that these educators were in fact of the opinion that a mentoring programme wasa definite necessity. A number of recommendations regarding a mentoring programme foreducators at primary schools were finally made.

[发布机构] University of the Free State