OBE,RPL and adult education: good bedfellows in higher education in South Africa?

As its title suggests, this paper explores the compatibility of outcomes-based education (OBE), the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and adult education in higher education in South Africa. OBE and RPL entered the consciousness of South African educators in the 1990s, when policymakers, responding to economic and political imperatives to develop a more skilled and flexible workforce, turned to overseas models of integrated education and training systems. OBE and RPL are often described as ‘learner-centred practices’, meaning that learning goals, teaching and assessment processes, content and pace of learning are mutually determined by the tutor and student. Such practices are grounded in a humanistic approach to adult education which places emphasis on the person as a holistic being and allows for considerable differences which characterize mature adult learners. The paper explores the relationship between OBE, RPL and the andragogical model of adult education proposed by Malcolm Knowles, whose theories have acquired the status of established doctrine in South Africa. The paper points to areas of compatibility and difference between OBE, RPL and adult education, and concludes that problems which arise in introducing OBE and RPL in higher education have more to do with features of the context, and the processes of design and implementation, than with inherent defects in the theories underpinning them.     

Three pathways to support the professional and career development of casual academics

Almost half of current academic staff will need to be replaced within three years in the Australian academic workforce. Literature suggests that casual academics are a potential solution, yet they are frequently excluded from the career development opportunities that would allow them to fulfil an ongoing academic role. Most academic development programmes designed for and delivered to casual academics are constructed by academic developers with little or no input from casual academics themselves. This paper documents what casual academics determine to be their academic development needs and how they could be addressed using three pathways of professional and career development.     

The AAMD ABS-SE,Part Two: Criterion-related validity in a behavior-disordered sample

The purpose of this research was to determine the diagnostic validity of Part Two of the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale-School Edition (ABS-SE) for the classification of behavior-disordered (BD) children. The sample consisted of 66 elementary school students ranging in age from 7-0 through 12-11. There were three groups of subjects: (a) children classified BD; (b) children referred for behavior problems, but not classified; and (c) children in regular classrooms, neither referred nor classified. Teachers completed Part Two of the ABS-SE for all subjects. Validity was investigated for both domain and factor scores, with discriminant analyses yielding significant classification results. Using the domain scores generated by the stepwise discriminant analysis, the overall rate of correct classification was 71.21%; using factor scores, the level of correct classification increased to 77.27%.     

Scale and the evolutionarily based approximate number system: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Crosscutting concepts such as scale, proportion, and quantity are recognised by U.S. science standards as a potential vehicle for students to integrate their scientific and mathematical knowledge; yet, U.S. students and adults trail their international peers in scale and measurement estimation. Culturally based knowledge of scale such as measurement units may be built on evolutionarily-based systems of number such as the approximate number system (ANS), which processes approximate representations of numerical magnitude. ANS is related to mathematical achievement in pre-school and early elementary students, but there is little research on ANS among older students or in science-related areas such as scale. Here, we investigate the relationship between ANS precision in public school U.S. seventh graders and their accuracy estimating the length of standard units of measurement in SI and U.S. customary units. We also explored the relationship between ANS and science and mathematics achievement. Accuracy estimating the metre was positively and significantly related to ANS precision. Mathematics achievement, science achievement, and accuracy estimating other units were not significantly related to ANS. We thus suggest that ANS precision may be related to mathematics understanding beyond arithmetic, beyond the early school years, and to the crosscutting concepts of scale, proportion, and quantity.     

How Constructivist-Based Teaching Influences Students Learning Science

The purpose of this article is to provide details about the beneficial processes the constructivist pedagogy has in the area of teaching science. No Child Left Behind could possibly cause detrimental effects to the science classroom and the constructivist teacher, so this essay tells how constructivist-based teaching influences students and their learning of science.     

Improving pre-laboratory preparation of first year university chemistry students

This study uses an action research approach to investigate how different modes of pre-laboratory preparation contribute towards a fruitful laboratory experience for first year students on an access programme. We considered the experience to be fruitful if the students successfully acquired procedural understanding, communicative competence and were able to apply the conceptual understanding to make the purpose of the labs meaningful. A group of students was observed by participant observers during 1996. Data was gathered during laboratory sessions and from written pre-laboratory work. These data were analysed and changes were instituted in the running and conceptualization of the laboratory in the subsequent year. A group of students was again observed and data collected. Two important factors emerged from the analysis of the data. One finding was the importance of adequate student preparation for the laboratories, regardless of the mode of preparation employed. Another was that the ability to prepare depended on the conceptual and procedural understanding of the laboratory as a whole. Preparedness is also important if conceptual benefit is to be obtained from the practical experience.