BUILDING CAPACITY BY MENTORING MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE TEACHERS E. Horak1 and I. Fricke2 1
Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering University of Pretoria, Pretoria. E-mail:
[email protected] 2 Teachers Mentorship Programme Project Leader Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria. E-mail:
[email protected]
ABSTRACT International benchmark studies confirm that school education of mathematics and science in South Africa is weak and suffers from systemic problems. All possible help to promote mathematics and science is needed to attract potential students to engineering studies. The teacher mentorship programme (TMP) was borne out of lessons learnt from ongoing outreach and awareness creation projects and recent research findings. Application of the Pareto principle on all factors indicated that the most cost effective and sustainable support for mathematics and science learners can be achieved by mentoring such teachers by experienced teachers in their work environment. A pre-pilot implementation was launched in 2003 and a pilot project with 6 disadvantaged schools in Greater Pretoria (Tshwane) was implemented 2004. The approach followed and lessons learnt are reported.
1. INTRODUCTION The number of students in civil engineering has declined steadily in South Africa for the past decade. This is in line with trends elsewhere in the world (ASCE, 1999). There has been a swing to engineering disciplines like Mechanical, Electronic and Computer Engineering. (Onsongo,1998 and UK Built Environment, 2002) On closer inspection it seems that in South Africa there is in effect a shift between disciplines within a limited pool of which prospective students. Grade 12 figures have not only declined steadily in South Africa over the past 5 to 8 years, but the proportion of learners with mathematics and science at the higher grade has kept at very low levels (Horak, 2002 and 2003). Those that pass with acceptable symbols for admission to studies in engineering at universities are even less and the demographic distribution is still heavily biased towards white learners (Muwanga-Zake, 2003, Horak 2002 and Philip, 2003). The engineering profession in South Africa is under tremendous pressure to transform and to reflect South African demographics (Silbernagl, 2003). It is clear that the engineering profession in South Africa needs to grow the small school pool of mathematics and science learners in order to grow and prosper (Horak, 2003). The question is however how to do this in a cost effective way without causing an interference in the school system. The reasons for the small pool of learners with mathematics and science were explored. International bench mark studies, such as the Third International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) clearly indicated a systemic problem linked to the consistent weak performance of South African participants. The reasons are broadly grouped into issues linked to language of tuition, learner specific socio-economical situations and linked to the teachers attitude, level of qualification and competence. (Howie, 2002). Further analysis of such studies have helped to identify areas where the engineering profession could potentially get involved to promote Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)”. Recent research results were analysed and compared with other research and experience in outreach activities run by the University of Pretoria (Horak, 2003). Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa (CAPSA'04) ISBN Number: 1-920-01718-6 Proceedings produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc
12 – 16 September 2004 Sun City, South Africa
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
The lessons learnt from other outreach activities confirmed that the most cost effective way in making an impact seems to be by concentrating on the teachers. A new programme of outreach were subsequently developed by the University of Pretoria. The Teachers Mentorship Programme (TMP) was developed to give assistance to mathematics and science teachers. Senior mentor teachers give assistance to these teachers in their school during school time to ensure teachers are empowered to do their teaching job better equipped and more effectively.
2. MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS A collaborative effort is needed in growing the small pool of prospective engineering students. Studies in engineering at university level require a matric (also referred to as grade12 or senior certificate) with exemption with higher grade mathematics and science preferable with a C symbol or higher. The macro picture in South Africa matriculation figures shows that the number of matriculants has steadily declined from about 550 000 in 1998 to about 450 000 in 2002. The macro picture of the South African matric passing and failure figures is shown in Figure 1. SENIOR CERTIFICATE TOTAL PASSES AND FAILURES : 1998 - 2002 600 000
500 000
1998
400 000
1999
STUDENTS
2000 2001
300 000
2002 200 000
100 000
TOTAL PASSED
PASSED WITH EXEMPTION
PASSED WITHOUT EXEMPTION
FAILED
WROTE
0
Figure 1. South African national trends in matriculation figures.
The trend for standard grade mathematics was showing a steady, but marginal growth from about 12% to 16% from 1997 to 2000. Over the same period the higher grade mathematics showed no growth and was locked in at 4% of the total matric population. The same disturbing trends were observed for science matric results. Anecdotal evidence indicated that mathematics teachers tended to promote standard grade mathematics at the expense of higher grade mathematics as it benefited them on their performance evaluations (Muwanga-Zake, 2003). Research indicated that parents were also ignorant about the longer term implications for career choices, too (Ionesco, 2000 and Horak, 2002). Philp (2003) reported from a confidential report by Dr Micheal Kahn, head of the Human Research Council’s Knowledge Management Research Unit in South Africa, that 3335 out of the 20 000 total passes of higher grade mathematics in 2002 were black learners and that only a quarter of these had the required minimum C symbol to enroll for a science-based degree. A forecast of this trend does not bode well for good intentions regarding transformation and affirmative action for the engineering industry. A more in depth look is therefore needed to determine the root causes of the stagnation of the pool of school learners with higher grade mathematics and science as subjects. Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
3. INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKING South Africa (SA) participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for grade 8 learners in 1995 and also in the repeat study in 1998. (TIMSS-R) (Howie, 2002). These TIMSS and TIMMS-R benchmarking studies are used by a number of countries to gauge the quality of their future prospects in engineering and technology studies. The SA learners were the worst of all the international participants in both cases. This clearly indicates a problem of a systemic nature. Howie (2002) analysed the data base provided by these studies in depth. The factors were broadly grouped into issues linked to language of tuition, learner specific socio-economical situations and linked to the teachers attitude, level of qualification and competence. A more detailed breakdown of these factorsare mentioned here: Factors which relate to the focus of language of tuition were identified as: •
Learners who spoke either English or Afrikaans at home achieved higher scores than those who did not. (South Africa currently has 11 official languages while English and Afrikaans were the two official languages in the “old” South Africa up to 1994).
•
The average English tests score was very low and the English language proficiency was poor of the majority of learners.
•
Language of learning in the classroom was found to be a significant predictor of achievement of learners in South Africa.
•
Second language learners from other countries performed better than top performing South African learners.
The issues of language and culture are strongly echoed by other researchers in the South African mathematics and science environment (Muwanga-Zake, 2003) and confirm the influence of language proficiency on mathematics and science teaching and learning. Factors focussing on the socio-economic situations of learners were highlighted as follows: •
High rates of absenteeism and skipping class were found amongst South African learners compared to learners internationally.
•
South African learners with a positive self-concept regarding mathematics achieved higher scores in the mathematics test.
•
Perceptions of the learners of the importance of mathematics are significant predictors of mathematics achievement.
•
South African learners were on average one year older (average age was 15.5 years) than their international counterparts.
•
Socio-economic status has a significant effect on mathematics achievement.
•
In more than two-thirds of the homes of learners there were very few books.
All these indicator aspects are important and warrant an in depth discussion, but the real value of Howie’s (2002) work lies in the observations regarding the influence of mathematics and science teachers on the performance of the SA learners. These teacher related observations are as follows: •
Approximately one in four mathematics teachers were not formally qualified to teach mathematics and had not completed education beyond secondary school.
•
South African teachers spent considerably more time re-teaching topics that should have been covered in the lower grades than their international counterparts. Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
•
The more time that teachers spent preparing lessons after school, the better the South African learners score in mathematics
•
Teachers’ pedagogical beliefs about mathematics were a highly significant predictor of achievement amongst South African learners.
•
The time spent by teachers in total at school was highly significant in predicting South African learners’ achievement.
•
The poor performance by South African learners may be influenced by the low expectations of teachers.
These latter points appear to be pretty damning for teachers, but are unfortunately also confirmed by other researchers (Muwanga-Zake, 2003). The purpose is however not to accuse or condemn, but to confirm that there is a problem and the engineering profession must ask itself how it can use this information, defining the root cause of the problem, to help build capacity and promote Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) efficiently and effectively.
4. TEACHER PERCEPTIONS, AWARENES AND UNDERSTANDING An externally funded project of the University of Pretoria has done some exploratory work in reaching out to teachers for the past few years. The Teachers Outreach Workshops (TOWs) have been run during school holidays for mathematics, science, vocational guidance and biology teachers from disadvantaged areas. During the TOWs teachers are given talks on what engineers do, what the difference is between an engineer, a technologist, a technician and an artisan. They are told of all the engineering disciplines and what the requirements are for studies in these disciplines. Industry visits are made and black role models from these disciplines speak to them about their careers (Horak, 2002). A questionnaire was recently developed to get a feel for the level of awareness and understanding of teachers attending the TOWs. The teachers complete this questionnaire at the start of the TOW. Some of the key findings are presented and briefly discussed. Socio-economic environment, parent level of understanding and indicators of status of role-models were gleaned from the results from the questionnaires. The teachers estimated on average that less than 10% of the parents of their learners themselves have finished secondary schooling in these predominantly rural and disadvantaged areas. It is not a secret that the current adult generation has suffered the most from previous educational policies resulting in the low percentage of parents with matric. It tends to confirm the lack of awarenes and understanding of parents of potential prospective students in engineering (Ionesco, 2000). The teachers rated their own knowledge and awareness of engineering as a profession as well as their knowledge of technology in general. This was done prior to being exposed to the real facts and focused exposure to the engineering profession during the TOW. Their rating of their engineering knowledge and technology were as expected on the low side confirming other research showing low knowledge and awareness of the engineering profession (Ionesco, 2000). Public perceptions and awareness of the various disciplines of engineering are also low in other countries like Australia (Beder, 1998) as the general public have difficulty in discerning the difference between engineering disciplines. This lack of awareness was even more pronounced amongst the teachers attending the TOW even when the activities of each engineering discipline were described. Teachers could not always link all such descriptions with the various names of disciplines. The teachers were also asked to estimate the percentage of their learners who know about the profession of engineering. It is logical that they would rate this knowledge on the low side taking their own level of knowledge in this regard into consideration. The latter confirmed previous research that there was not only a lack of role models from these professions in their communities, but also a lack of information regarding engineering careers (Ionesco, 2000). Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
5. EFFECTIVENESS OF OUTREACH AND SUPPORT ACTIVITIES Even though national government and various forums of role-players, such as the National Science and Technology Foundation (NSTF), are addressing this issue of science and mathematics teaching at schools as a matter of national priority, the extent of the problem requires all stakeholders to contribute. The engineering profession clearly has too much at stake for it to reason that it is a problem that needs to be sorted out by the minister of education and departments of education (Silbernagel, 2003). Tertiary education institutions can also no longer afford to fold hands and wait for the problems in the school system to be sorted out. Various support initiatives are underway and have been in place for some time by various role-players and institutions. A recent survey by the South African Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE) have found that there is more than 50 known organizations and corporate activities involved in outreach, awareness and support for mathematics, science and technology. It has become clear that such activities aimed at learners often had limited success and sustainability. This included magnet schools or Saturday schools where good mathematics and science learners are brought to a particular school where intensive support is given to such learners. Corporate bodies often “adopt” such schools as part of their social responsibility. The real impact and sustainability are often doubtful and questions are increasingly being asked about real capacity building. Most of these projects mentioned only concentrate on those who already take and achieve in mathematics and science. There is therefore no attention given to broadening the base or building capacity. In some cases the outreach activity can even be described in cynical terms as just “creaming” the existing small pool with aggressive competitive intent for own bursars. The pool and therefore capacity of the total system should rather be built in a co-operative effort. The Engineering School of the University of Pretoria (UP) is involved in activities that range from national competitions for science, technology and engineering to outreach Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) awareness activities. Among the latter is the support and participation in a well established science centre; the Science Discovery Centre @ TUKS. (TUKS is the traditional pet name for the University of Pretoria). This hands-on, play-learn science centre has been expanded recently to act as basis for other outreach activities. Among these is the mobile science centre, Tsebo Koloing (meaning Technology in Motion in Northern Sotho). This mobile science centre enables reaching out to previously disadvantaged rural areas with a limited portfolio of exhibits to improve awareness of SET and to give basic career guidance (Horak et al, 2000). A computer aided laboratory system and technology laboratory, TRAC, was established with support of the National Department of Transport and National Roads Agency at the Science Discovery Centre @ Tuks. The TRAC laboratory and equipment is designed to help learners and teachers with mathematics and science experiments. The TRAC laboratory and equipment is primarily aimed at giving support to disadvantaged communities. The Teachers Outreach Workshops (TOWs), which have been described before, focuse on exposing teachers to the engineering profession via black role players and industry visits. Considerable success has been achieved in creating broader awareness of SET by means of this project. Questions are increasingly being asked by sponsors and funding organizations about the effectiveness of such outreach and intervention activities. The impact and effectiveness of these outreach activities have become a topic of research in collaboration with the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria (Horak, 2003). Own lessons learnt from these outreach activities and those of other role-players were evaluated. It had to be admitted that in a large number of cases good intentions were not founded on a clear understanding of the complexity of the problem and not enough time was spent to define the problem properly. The result was that in some cases projects were implemented with limited success and with limited sustainability. In other cases only anecdotal Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
evidence of success existed (Horak, 2003). The 80/ 20 rule of the Pareto principle was applied to the factors identified and described before and this confirmed the previously implied focus on the teachers in the new outreach activities.
6. TEACHERS MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME (TMP) The awareness that greater effectiveness and efficiency in promoting mathematics and science can be achieved by concentrating on support to the teachers led to the development of the Teachers Mentorship Programme (TMP). The TMP involves mentoring of mathematics and science teachers of disadvantaged schools, in school time, by experienced mentor teachers. Research and experience have shown that short courses and workshops away from their own work environment proliferate, but have limited lasting effect as it often ignores the reality of the teachers’ working conditions and problems they face. This on site involvement is therefore to ensure teachers are empowered, can implement with real support and be “capacitated” to do their work properly. Such intervention is designed to take place once a week for at least a 3 year period to ensure sustainability. The TMP concept was conceived late in 2002 and external funding from corporate sponsors was sought from early 2003. The intention from the start was to first run a pilot project in at least 4 disadvantaged schools in the Greater Pretoria (Tshwane) area. The rationale was that, if successful, it can be packaged like a franchise, and rolled out elsewhere with relative ease at a later stage. General experience with similar project implementations showed that it is the soft issues and even politics which bedevil the success of such projects. Detail of the interventions and management processes were therefore work shopped and discussed with educationalists, the Department of Education, the Faculty of Education at UP and other experts with experience in this field. Schools in advantaged areas, like Pretoria Boys and Girls High, were keen to become support schools to the TMP. The criteria and selection process of disadvantaged schools for involvement in the pilot TMP were developed with the intention to ensure buy-in and commitment on all levels. In all cases the concept received strong support and even early commitment from enthusiastic teachers and headmasters. The TMP was deliberately packaged in a way which may enable various levels of support and involvement from role players. Schools in the disadvantaged areas of Tshwane were informed of the planned TMP and the issues workshopped with them. They were requested to apply to become a pilot school and motivate why they want to participate in TMP in writing. Once they were selected a formal contract was signed by the University of Pretoria (UP) and the Department of Education on their behalf to ensure they are contractually bound and committed to support TMP implementation fully. Early funding and support enabled the implementation of a pre- pilot study in the second semester of 2003. Full implementation was programmed for 2004 with the pilot programme planning a minimum of 4 schools in the Tshwane area. This pre-pilot implementation was very useful to develop the real TMP implementation and sort out procedures and hitches. In the section to follow the early lessons and observations are reported as gained from the pre-pilot implementation.
7. PRE-PILOT IMPLEMENTATION LESSONS 7.1 General Funding from the Tshwane Municipality in 2003 made it possible to implement the basic TMP concept in Bokgoni Technical Secondary School in Atteridgeville in Tshwane in the second half of 2003. Originally Tshwane pursued the idea of an “adopt a school” project as part of their social contract and development of technical human potential for own needs with higher education institutions in Tshwane, but they became convinced that the TMP was a more cost Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
effective and measurable outreach activity. Bokgoni was identified for support for other political reasons before by Tshwane and it was jointly decided to convert their previous involvement into a pre-pilot TMP project. Bokgoni Technical Secondary School is a school with a good track record: In 2002 the matriculation pass rate was 88%, and all 1307 learners study mathematics and science to matric. The principal is popular and well-respected, and has a great vision for the school as becoming one of the best in South Africa. He focuses on Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), and encourages all learners to enter these fields after they leave school, whether as artisans, technicians, or professionals. He has lifted the school from being a small school for learners who are considered academic failures to the school everyone wants to attend because it is perceived to offer a good academic education. However, the 2002 pass rate for mathematics was 36% and for science was 28%. No grade 12 learners took either subject on the higher grade. Clearly the overall pass rate of 88%, although high, did not indicate quality passes. These facts indicated that the science and mathematics departments were not functioning efficiently and effectively, and justified intervention and support.
7.2 Mentor Activities and Observations A science mentor and a mathematics mentor attended the school twice a week between mid July and the end of November. Due to the fact that the implementation of TMP at Bokgoni came about very suddenly in the middle of the year, it was not possible to change the educators’ timetables to make provision for individual meetings with the mentors. Instead the mentors chose their attendance days to see as many teachers as possible when they were free. In addition to meeting with them, they sometimes sat in the teachers classes, and also went through their learners’ books to try to assess any needs. The mentors made the following observations: •
Mathematics teacher qualifications are generally fine, but they need assistance in teaching techniques, motivation to prepare for lessons, support with outcomes based education (OBE) methodology and general encouragement as many are disillusioned.
•
Mathematics assessment standards are fair, in general, but the learners only touch fleetingly on many sections, and some are not completed.
•
Some science teachers are not qualified to teach at that level, e.g. the 2003 matric science teacher has matric science as his highest qualification; most science teachers need help first with content then with methodology.
•
The head of mathematics and science (the matric mathematics teacher) is very involved with the administration and running of the school, and very seldom manages to teach his matric classes. This same teacher takes his learners very superficially through new concepts and gives them work to do that they cannot even begin to do; hence his teaching technique is also poor. He initially showed little interest in TMP and did not attend workshops arranged; however his attitude has changed as he has recognised that the TMP is intended to be supportive of his needs, not to judge him.
•
Many teachers do not know their needs until these are exposed by the mentor, e.g. by looking through the teacher files or student workbooks, or until the teachers slowly open up to the mentors. Great care is exercised to build trust between educators and mentors in this interaction. For that reason even mentor selection during subsequent interviews for the 2004 pilot implementation focused on this interpersonal skill as a pre-requisite.
Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
•
Many teachers are not identifying where the learners have a poor foundation, and are teaching without addressing the basics; they are frustrated at the quality of the learners they have to deal with. They say the following: - Learners have a poor background in Mathematics at entry to school in grade 8, and they (Bokgoni) are not allowed to give entry tests. - Poor teaching at primary school. - Few learners pass at each grade, the rest are promoted with poor marks. (The educators are bitter about this, and do not help them when they get to their classes later on.) - When there are arranged extra-lessons, few learners attend. - The teachers are not prepared to take control of this situation and instead just teach right on, assuming prior knowledge that is not there. - Some of the teachers are very unhappy that they have to teach underachievers, and become demotivated with their teaching; - Many teachers are not assessing pre-knowledge in class.
•
Some teachers have a poor teaching style; some periods are spent by the teachers writing copious notes on the board while the learners copy them down, and no real teaching is done; this is often due to a lack of textbooks, and sometimes because the teacher does not want to expose his own lack of knowledge in that section of work.
•
Many teachers have a haphazard approach, with little or no preparation and planning; they say there is no work programme, (but the principal told us that he has supplied one to them individually).
•
Teachers need practical solutions to help them; they find it difficult to take theoretical suggestions and make them useful to them.
•
There is a system of monthly tests that goes some way to ensuring that each teacher gets sections of work done in time.
•
There are no subject department meetings to facilitate colleague support, promote cooperation between teachers, and ensure efficient department functioning.
7.3 Mentor Recommendations and Implementation 7.3.1 Capacity-building of educators The objectives of capacity building were defined as follows: •
Change educators’ mindset: assist them to see mathematics and science as not difficult, just different.
•
Help educators to understand and apply the techniques of teaching and learning.
•
Assist each educator to develop a portfolio of evidence of professionalism.
•
Motivate educators and restore their confidence and self-esteem as a result of being better informed.
•
Restore educators’ belief in teaching and learning.
Although there has been no formal impact assessment done to measure changes in teacher attitudes or abilities for this pre-pilot, there is anecdotal evidence to confirm that the implementation of TMP for four months at Bokgoni has gone some way to achieving the objectives as stated above.
Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
Educators were required to complete reports on two occasions, in which they in general gave positive comment about the assistance received from the mentors, but acknowledged that there were still many needs that had to be addressed. These reports, in conjunction with the timekeeping sheets documented by the mentors, will form part of the educators’ portfolio of professional development (PDP) files. 7.3.2 Subject department meetings The objectives of these meetings were set as: •
To give ownership of the running of the departments to the staff; the Principal was very autocratic to date and has not allowed the teachers to take responsibility for the success, or lack of, of their department. It was felt that joint ownership will encourage a greater sense of working as a team and increased cooperation between teachers.
•
To assist educators to understand the need for these meetings, to recognize their value, and to begin a process of implementation of such meetings. The meeting agenda would be to address teaching content (colleagues could assist each other with understanding sections of work), teaching technique (colleagues share ideas on how to teach certain sections of work) and planning, organisation and structure (this would go some way to eliminating the haphazard approach, and to fostering a greater sense of team effort.)
•
To encourage the educators to take ownership of the meetings, to ensure sustainability. Each teacher would be assigned areas of responsibility to allow them to feel they are contributing to the team effort. It is essential, if there is to be further improvement in the mathematics and science departments and for that to be sustainable, that the educators learn to work with each other, and assist each other. (In initial discussions of this with the principal, he said: "Black people" (his quote) do not share material, ideas etc easily and do not show an openness to give / receive help to / from their colleagues.)
A workshop was held at Pretoria High School for Girls in October 2003, which was attended by the principal of Bokgoni, most of the Bokgoni mathematics and science staff, and the heads of mathematics and science for Pretoria High School for Girls (PHSG) and Pretoria Boys’ High School (PBHS). The purpose was to discuss and compare general approaches to the running of departments, and the need for subject department meetings. In general, the ideas put forward were well received by Bokgoni staff. Subsequent to this meeting, the mentors chaired a joint subject meeting at Bokgoni. The purpose of this meeting was to improve teaching and learning effectiveness within the two departments by implementing the use of specifically developed grade work programmes according to the school’s year planner. Each teacher was allocated an area of responsibility and a task to complete for the subsequent meeting. This will result in organised teaching and assessment plans that will make educators’ work up-to-date and avoid emergency crisis mode of operation and its effects on educators and learners. In addition to this, committees were set up for the future running of department meetings. 7.3.3 Remedial lessons The objectives of this intervention were defined as to: •
Address the issue of poor learner basics/foundations in mathematics and science.
•
All schools are experiencing a problem of learners being promoted up a grade, but in that next grade not having the basic skills necessary to master the work. While the principal does give extra Mathematics classes at the school, and one or two other teachers give a few, the mathematics and science problem will not be eliminated by a few classes. To make the improvement significant, it will be necessary to set up regular, structured extra lessons for a few years, until the teachers themselves are empowered and thus able to address these issues in their regular classes.
Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
The staff at PHSG is investigating the establishment of remedial maths classes in the afternoons to teach the basics/foundation maths, encourage learners to learn their tables, etc. This will not be a repeat of the classwork. The staff at Bokgoni was encouraged to realize that the problem is not unique to their situation, and the Principal is presently looking at a structure for remedial classes. 7.3.4 Resources Most of the learners at Bokgoni have no textbooks or any other form of written notes from which to learn. When this is combined with poor teaching, the learners have little chance of achieving passing grades. The principal observed that the budget allocated to the school by the DoE is insufficient for it to purchase textbooks for the learners, science laboratory apparatus, etc. A large amount of the budget is taken up by the requirements of imposed DoE workshops, where costs are enormous. The TMP objective was to supply text material to every learner in the school, so that lack of written material does not become a factor that limits the potential of the Teacher Mentorship Programme (TMP) The objective was also to supply all teachers with teacher support material. In addition to the lack of learner resources, many of the teachers do not keep resource files, and are unsure of what is available. Mathematics and science workbooks have already been ordered for distribution to every learner in the school for the next three years of the programme. With regard to teacher resource files, with the support of the mentors in the next three years a resource library will be established and systems set in place for the control and use of this. 7.3.5 Evaluation of learners The objectives of this intervention were to: •
Ensure that evaluation and assessment standards are good.
•
Encourage teachers to ensure that learners who are capable of studying on the higher grade (HG) are entered on this level. All grade 12 learners were studying science and mathematics on the standard grade by the end of 2003. There were several reasons for this, but amongst them were two reasons based on learner perceptions: firstly, they were unaware that they need to study on the HG in order to qualify to go to university. Secondly, in 2002 the school’s top learner received many public accolades and it was not pointed out that she had studied all subjects on SG and therefore was limited in her career choices. Other learners have now seen this and feel there is no need to “do it the hard way” when they can achieve and get recognition the easy way. The objective was therefore to make both learners and educators aware of the need for learners to study mathematics and science on the HG, where capable of doing so, since their career choices will be very limited if they only have the subject on the SG.
In every address given to the learners and educators, particularly when the topic was about careers, the speakers made the need for study on HG very clear. While this was demoralizing to those learners who now wish to study further in engineering, but cannot as yet do so, the approach was always to be positive and inform learners of the alternative routes that they may follow, to achieve their goal soonest. Educators are now aware of their important role in encouraging future groups of learners to strive for higher grade passes. This objective has very definitely been achieved. Thus the thrust must therefore be (and has been) two-fold: address the learners’ (and educators’) awareness of careers requiring the higher grade, and secondly assist the teachers in their evaluation techniques so that they can correctly identify those capable of being entered for matric on HG.
Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
8. THE WAY FORWARD WITH TMP The lessons learnt from the pre-pilot implementation at Bokgoni were invaluable. Funding was secured from a variety of external funders to implement the TMP in 6 disadvantaged schools in Tshwane in 2004. Bokgoni was one of these schools due to continued support from Tshwane Municipality. These schools were selected based on the workshops and application motivation described before. It was clear from the process that this process identified the schools which will show commitment and ownership and which understand the difficult task they will face in implementing such a programme. The Bokgoni experience helped to identify areas that needed attention to make the pilot project a success. The approach described and the lessons learnt clearly give an indication of activities and steps needed to take make TMP a success. As mentioned before the TMP was envisaged as a franchise concept whereby lessons learnt could be packaged like a recipe to be implemented with a high degree of certainty to work and have positive effect on learner mathematics and science education. It will offer opportunity to other areas and stakeholders to implement this recipe in the near future. It is important that when industry wants to lend support to outreach programmes of public awareness of science, engineering and technology that it should be possible to do it in a cost effective, measurable and sustained manner. As indicated before the impact of TMP will be measured on a number of levels. This is important to the various stakeholders, including the DoE and other sponsors, to ensure that funds are in fact used fruitfully and with measurable results. In this respect close co-operation with the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria is pursued. A PhD and a masters student will be assigned to this project. It is envisaged that very useful information will be provided by this research. The value of enrichment of the TMP by involvement of other outreach activities of the University of Pretoria was also underlined by the Bokgoni experience. Teachers outreach workshops, learner outreach workshops, engineering weeks, TRAC laboratory activities, bridge building activities, UP with Science, Mobile science centre outreach (Tsebo Koloing) and the normal activities of the Discovery Science Centre @ Tuks have proven to be very beneficial to the learners in creating awareness of SET. Anecdotal evidence clearly indicated that learners discovered the wonderful world of science and technology. After one bridge building exercise at least 5 black grade 11 and 12 girls indicated their enthusiasm to study civil engineering. Such numbers against the background of the demographics of students in engineering is highly significant. This synergy enhancement of other ongoing outreach and awareness creation projects with TMP will be continued in future due to the obvious beneficial effects.
9. REFERENCES American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). 1999 Civil and Environmental Engineering Enrollment Data. 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191, United States of America. Beder, S., 1998. The new engineer: Management and professional responsibility in a changing world. Macmillan Press, Sydney, Australia,. Howie, S. 2002. English proficiency and contextual factors influencing mathematics achievement of secondary school pupils in South Africa. PhD Thesis University of Twente, Netherland, 2002. Horak E, Van Eldik P, Pudikabekwa M and Steyn J. 2000. Cooperation and integration of a mobile science center and teachers outreach workshop activities in Public Understanding of Science, Engineering and Technology. Paper presented at the SAASTEC conference held at University of Pretoria, Pretoria, November 2000. Horak, E. 2002. Where is the next generation? Published in the SABITA Digest, March 2002, Cape Town, South Africa. Paper 028
8th CONFERENCE ON ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA
Horak E (2003) Developing the small school pool for engineering in South Africa. Proceedings of the 7th Baltic Region Seminar on Engineering Education, UICEE series with the support UNESCO support, St Petersburg, Russia, 4-6 September 2003. Ionescu, D. 2000. Toward a Strategy for Engineering Education in Under-priviledged Communities. Proceedings of the Second Southern African Conference on Engineering Education. 28 and 29 September 2000, Vaal Technikon, Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, South Africa. Muwanga-Zake, J.W.F. 2003. Is Science Education in a crisis? Some of the problems in South Africa. Science In Africa. On-line Science Magazine, Issue 2, June 11, www.scienceinafrica.co.za, Science Education. Onsongo, W. 1998. A Study of Civil Engineering Graduate Figures. Published in the South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) periodical, May 1998, Johannesburg, South Africa. Philip, R. 2003. Limpopo has the future figured out. Sunday Times 22 June 2003, Johannesburg, South Africa. Porter, M. 1990. The competitive advantage of nations. Macmillan press, 1990, New York, United Sates Of America. Silbernagl, P. 2003. Demographics in civil engineering: What Future? Paper presented at the South African Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE) Centenary Congress, April 2003, Cape Town, South Africa. UK Built Environment. 2002. Rethinking Construction Innovation and Research: A Review of Government R&D Policies and Practices. London, 2002, UK.
Paper 028
