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Masters Degrees (Social Science Education)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7162

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Social Science Education) by Author "Dube-Xaba, Zanele Heavy-Girl Winnie."

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    Examining learners’ perceptions of formative assessment in tourism as a subject.
    (2020) Ngiba, Siza.; Dube-Xaba, Zanele Heavy-Girl Winnie.
    This study focuses on the learners’ perspectives of formative assessment in Tourism as a subject in South African secondary school. This study, therefore, includes the voices of the learners in the Tourism classroom which has been missing and unheard. This study examines learner’s perception and uses of formative assessment to enhance learning within their Tourism class by using the constructivist theory as it lens to guide the study. The study followed the qualitative approach and adopted the interpretive paradigm in conducting a case study research in one secondary school in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The semi structured interviews and focus group discussion were used to generate data from eight Grade 11 learners. The findings in this study revealed that learners perceive formative assessment in Tourism through its nature and purpose of formative assessment. The findings further revealed that learners use formative assessment for various reasons such as summative benefits; to monitor their ability and progress; use feedback from formative assessment; and that the learners use of formative assessment as a means to learn in different ways. The study concludes that the learners in Tourism are benefiting from formative assessment and that it has a great potential to enhance their learning.
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    Learners’ voices in school based assessment: a case of one school in the Uthukela District.
    (2019) Xulu, Rosemary Busisiwe.; Dube-Xaba, Zanele Heavy-Girl Winnie.
    Guided by my understanding of the importance of SBA in Tourism, my main aim was to determine if both summative and formative assessment helped learners to master the required SBA tasks. My desire to pursue this study emanated from my personal interest in and professional experiences of teaching Tourism in Grades 10-12. In my experience, new curriculum changes resulted in the introduction of new assessment practices. This study was framed by the learners’ (or students’) conceptions of assessment theory (SCoA) that was developed by Brown, Irving and Peterson (2008) as a theory that aims to understand learners’ conceptions of assessment. According to Brown and Hirschfeld (2012), learners have at least four major conceptions about assessment as revealed in the Student Conception of Assessment model. Although this theory that was developed by Brown and colleagues was suitable for a survey, this study adapted it as a suitable theoretical framework for a qualitative study on learners’ experiences of SBA in Tourism. Learners who participated in this study demonstrated wide ranging perceptions of SBA, and many of these perceptions contributed to their learning. All participating learners also perceived SBA as a means of improving their ability to be promoted to the next grade at the end of the year as they emphasised the importance of SBA marks for promotion. They also highlighted the challenges that they faced when required to complete SBA tasks; such as time constraints, poor feedback and lack of resources. In general learners commented favourably on the role of SBA in their learning.
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    Teachers’ understandings and uses of the case-based method to teach Tourism in Grades 10-12.
    (2021) Dlamini, Mlungisi.; Dube-Xaba, Zanele Heavy-Girl Winnie.
    The current national curriculum for secondary schools in South Africa envisages learners who can think critically and will be able to solve problems in the real world of work. To achieve this goal, the case-based methodology is often used as a teaching strategy because it provides a fertile ground to apply theoretical concepts to real-world situations while enhancing learner participation and developing critical skills. Given the practical nature of Tourism as a subject in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase in schooling in South Africa, the study examined teachers’ understandings and use of the case-based method in teaching Tourism in Grades 10-12. A qualitative case study methodology and interpretive paradigm were used. Three teachers from one school participated in this study and were purposely selected. Data were generated using semi-structured face-to-face interviews, lesson observations, and teachers’ reflective writings. The findings indicated a paradox in teachers’ understandings of the case-based method of teaching Tourism. On the one hand, they understood the case-based method as a valuable teaching strategy while, on the other hand, they perceived this method as complex and difficult to apply. It was evident from the data that the teachers predominantly used the traditional way of classroom instruction (often referred to as the ‘chalk and talk’ method) as they did not engage in active learning strategies such as discussions of case studies, which are required in the case-based method in teaching and learning. This suggests that the teachers did not provide opportunities for the formation of a learning community in which the learners could explore tourism concepts while also engaging in the collaborative construction of knowledge using the case-based method. The implication is that teachers’ use of case-based methodologies as a teaching and learning strategy in Tourism classrooms is dependent on their understanding of the case-based methodology. Therefore, this study concludes that these Tourism teachers did not possess adequate skills in transmitting the required knowledge of Tourism as the case-based method was not appropriately applied.