Thus, in this study, a strong issue that emerged from the data is that teachers
would like to be able to facilitate more active learning. They expressed a desire
to be innovative in their pedagogical practice and to incorporate the teaching
and learning of non-cognitive skills. The challenge, they said, is the pressure to
complete the prescribed content coverage, and the added responsibilities of
the new internal assessment model. The latter, internal assessment through
class-based assessment tasks, is proving to be problematic for teachers,
causing substantial stress and taking up a lot of teacher-time both in and out
of school hours.
Teachers’ perceptions of policy and practice
The teachers participating in this study were well versed with the NCF. This
awareness can be attributed to Ministry of Education training programmes,
which have taken place since 2006. The teachers were aware of the pedagogical
directives in the NCF and were of the view that it is their responsibility to
ensure that the directives are followed. The study found that some MOE
education officers (EO) believe that pedagogy is adequately covered in the
NCF, but a large proportion (67 per cent) notes that pedagogy has received
limited treatment. Responses from the EOs indicate that some feel there are
gaps in the national policy, and a third (33 per cent) argue that pedagogy
ought to emphasize social learning, curiosity and creativity.
Teacher educators (TE) appear to be the least knowledgeable about the
contents of the NCF, with more than half (57 per cent) selecting the ‘not sure’
option when asked about specifics. Those teacher educators who were aware
of the NCF (43 per cent) believed that there was a broad range of pedagogical
coverage provided for, with specific emphasis on collaborative learning,
problem solving, integration of technology, student-centred approaches,
social learning, curiosity and creativity, constructivism, inclusive and special
needs, cultural and multicultural approaches and critical and creative thinking.
Although the teachers were able to describe a variety of ways in which they
learned about pedagogy and developed pedagogical skills, the researchers
found that half of the teachers felt that teacher training may not adequately
cover the subject of pedagogy (PT: 50 per cent, ST: 50 per cent). This view
was also shared by half of the Ministry of Education officials (50 per cent) and
almost three-quarters of teacher educators (71 per cent). At the same time,
however, three in four secondary teachers (75 per cent) were of the view
that their teacher training had prepared them for the pedagogical realities of