Learner centred pedagogy - an existence of virtual reality? : an investigation into grade three learners' experiences of pedagogy and schooling.
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Date
2006
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Abstract
The rationale and motivation for this study was based on my personal need to try and
understand the relationship between theory and practice (praxis) and the normative and
empirical variables (hermeneutics) evident in my research, so as to contribute to the body
of literature around learner centredness and learners' experiences of pedagogy and
schooling. Review of educational studies conducted in South Africa reveals that most
research is driven by 'common sense' understandings of learner centredness or what
constitutes 'good teaching practice'. These studies illustrate that well intentioned but
simplistic acceptance at the level of policy is hazardous and that we need to know more
about practices within the classroom. Similarly, within South African policy documents,
a paradox exists around the pedagogic discourse for learner centredness. The majority of
education policy documents implemented after 1994 advocates a learner centred
approach to teaching and learning, which is associated with weak framing over the
instructional and regulative discourse while the National Curriculum Statements calls for
a strongly framed pedagogic discourse. This paradox has significant implications for
policy implementation at the classroom level.
The objective of my study was to capture and analyse learners' experiences of Grade 3
teaching within one school context by focusing on control and regulation within the
pedagogic relationship. Consequently, the research focused on the 'how' of pedagogic
practice i.e. how do learners experience the transmission of knowledge through the
educator's pedagogic practices? The case study involved non - participant observation to
illustrate how different modalities of pedagogic practice provide for acquirers the
principles for the production of what counts as a legitimate text. Bernstein's concept of
framing was used to understand and analyse the locus and relative strength of control of
how knowledge was transmitted, how it was received and of what may or may not be
transmitted in the pedagogic relationship.
The methodology employed in the research was based on developing an external
language of description derived from Bernstein's internal language of description. The
internal language of description was drawn from Bernstein's theory of pedagogic
discourse. The external language of description provided textual pointers of specific
characteristics relating to the internal framing of educational knowledge. It provided the
means to identify specific pedagogic practices of educators and teaching strategies
employed in the transmission-acquisition process. The findings depicted a mixture of
pedagogic practices within one school context with one being based on a mixed
pedagogic mode and the other on a performance pedagogic mode.
The study revealed the possibility of extrapolating findings reliant on interaction with
relevant literature around the framing of pedagogic discourse and the data obtained in the
study. The conclusions reached in the study revealed strong framing over evaluation
criteria, selection and sequencing of educational knowledge. While research has shown
that weak framing over the pacing of knowledge is more likely to promote learning, the
study revealed differential pacing of knowledge ranging from weak to strong. However,
it was evident that learners had adapted themselves to the educators' modus operandi.
Both educators in the study attempted to cater for differential learning needs of learners
by the utilising different teaching strategies. The study revealed strong framing over
hierarchical rule in terms of learner-learner interactions and educator-learner interactions.
The research illustrated that giving learners control at the level of hierarchical rule posed
a significant challenge for both educators. Both educators would make use of school and
classroom rules as a means of maintaining social control.
The study contributes to a better understanding of pedagogy and schooling. It makes
clear that for learners to acquire the competencies and knowledge laid down in policy
documents, the educator would need to make a pedagogic assessment in terms of the
level of difficulty of the lesson, concepts and knowledge to be acquired and the
differential needs of learners. This is more likely to increase the success of learners so
that their enhancement, inclusion and participation in schooling does not become an
existence of virtual reality.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.
Keywords
Theses--Education., Student-centred learning., Critical pedagogy.