Department of Curriculum Studies

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Browsing Department of Curriculum Studies by Subject "Academic achievement -- South Africa"

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    Alignment between South African mathematics assessment standards and the TIMSS assessment frameworks
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2012-12) Ndlovu, Mdutshekelwa; Mji, Andile
    South Africa’s performance in international benchmark tests is a major cause for concern amongst educators and policymakers, raising questions about the effectiveness of the curriculum reform efforts of the democratic era. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to investigate the degree of alignment between the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 Mathematics assessment frameworks and the Revised National Curriculum Statements (RNCS) assessment standards for Grade 8 Mathematics, later revised to become the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). Such an investigation could help to partly shed light on why South African learners do not perform well and point out discrepancies that need to be attended to. The methodology of document analysis was adopted for the study, with the RNCS and the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 Mathematics frameworks forming the principal documents. Porter’s moderately complex index of alignment was adopted for its simplicity. The computed index of 0.751 for the alignment between the RNCS assessment standards and the TIMSS assessment objectives was found to be significantly statistically low, at the alpha level of 0.05, according to Fulmer’s critical values for 20 cells and 90 or 120 standard points. The study suggests that inadequate attention has been paid to the alignment of the South African mathematics curriculum to the successive TIMSS assessment frameworks in terms of the cognitive level descriptions. The study recommends that participation in TIMSS should rigorously and critically inform ongoing curriculum reform efforts.
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    The role of writing centre in enhancing the quality of students' academic writing at a university of technology
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Sefalane-Nkohla, Puleng Gladys; Fourie-Malherbe, M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The role of a writing centre in enhancing the quality of students’ academic writing at a university of technology is a research study that determined students’ perceptions about a writing centre, as one form of academic literacy support amongst a suite of academic development and support programmes designed to assist students to acquire epistemological access. The study was based at the Writing Centre of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Research participants were drawn from students registered in various faculties, and in varying levels of academic study i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and fourth-year (B-Tech) level study. They came from diverse linguistic, cultural, social and economic backgrounds. A significant qualification criterion for student participants was that they must have been exposed to, or experienced the services offered by the Writing Centre either through a oneon-one form of academic consultation, or through an academic literacy workshop. The empirical methods employed to gather data for this mixed methods study involved a survey in the form of a questionnaire that collected quantitative data, and a qualitative component which employed content analysis of 20 students’ academic essays chosen using the above criteria. Overall, the findings from the quantitative study revealed overwhelmingly positive perceptions of students about the services offered by the Writing Centre, including perceptions about their own academic writing capabilities. However, these findings were not consistent with the findings emanating from the qualitative content analysis of students’ academic essays. Content analysis revealed, among other things, lexico-grammatical errors pointing to a lack of conceptualisation by student participants of the academic task at hand; lack of presence in text; macro-structural issues (introductions, conclusions, paragraphing, etc.), and micro-structural issues (arrangement of sentences, language usage, grammatical errors and plagiarism, etc.). The findings also highlighted issues identified by student participants for improvement such as the need for the employment of additional consultants, and student participants’ desire for additional services such as editing and proofreading to be added to the services currently offered by the Writing Centre.