Views from the Botswana junior secondary classroom: Case study of a curriculum intervention

Prophet, R. B.

doi:10.1016/0738-0593(94)00024-j

Cited by 25 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Studies of Botswana classroom teaching in particular [2,3,48,49] and Reports of the National Commissions on Education [1,34] advocate the need for child-centred pedagogy that is oriented to social constructivist epistemology. Yet in this study, students reported that the lecture-method was more commonly used in most of the mathematics classes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ experiences with mathematics teaching and learning: listening to unheard voices

Mapolelo

2009

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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This study documents students' views about the nature of mathematics, the mathematics learning process and factors within the classroom that are perceived to impact upon the learning of mathematics. The participants were senior secondary school students. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to understand the students' views about their experiences with mathematics learning and mathematics classroom environment. Interviews of students and mathematics lesson observations were analysed to understand how students view their mathematics classes. A questionnaire was used to solicit students' views with regards to teaching approaches in mathematics classes. The results suggest that students consider learning and understanding mathematics to mean being successful in getting the correct answers. Students reported that in the majority of cases, the teaching of mathematics was lecture-oriented. Mathematics language was considered a barrier in learning some topics in mathematics. The use of informal language was also evident during mathematics class lessons.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ experiences with mathematics teaching and learning: listening to unheard voices

Mapolelo

2009

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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“…Meyer identifies factors contributing to the predominance of teacher-centred methodologies, namely lack of instructional materials, insufficiently trained teachers and traditional view of a teacher as embodiment of knowledge provider and learners as passive recipients. Teacher-dominated classrooms are not unique to Lesotho situation but also prevail in similar contexts such as in Botswana (Rowell and Prophet 1990;Fuller and Snyder 1991;Prophet 1995). Indeed Fuller and Snyder (1991) observe that routine pedagogical practices dominate Southern Africa classrooms.…”

Section: Teaching and Learning In Lesotho Classroomsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Entrepreneurship education in Lesotho secondary schools: pedagogical challenges

Nketekete

Motebang

2008

Education, Knowledge and Economy

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The paper explores the extent to which the entrepreneurship education component of the business education curriculum in Lesotho secondary education is being implemented. The study was undertaken in 18 schools during 1998, 1999 and 2000. Different research methods such as video recording, interviews and document analysis were used.Results indicate that teachers mainly employ didactic methods of teaching, leaving little room for entrepreneurship development. This is reinforced by the type of examination questions asked. The types of questions asked do not reflect core values and skills central to entrepreneurship education. The findings suggest recommendations geared towards supporting teachers in espousing appropriate pedagogical methodologies to entrepreneurship during in-service and pre-service development.

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“…For example, older students were trained so they could drill younger students in small groups. This transmission style of pedagogy continues to characterise teaching in Botswana to this day (Prophet 1995;Rowell and Prophet 1990;Tabulawa 1998). Tabulawa says that 'Even to this day authority of age is still widely respected .…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…While the Botswana government has been pushing for changes in education since the 1970s based on student-centred principles, research shows that contemporary teaching continues to value teacher-centred and technicist approaches (Prophet 1995;Rowell and Prophet 1990;Tabulawa 1998). For change to be effective and significant, the role of the teacher needs to be recognised (Prophet 1994;Wane 2000) and, as Tabulawa argues, change 'cannot come about if the [teachers] continue to play a passive and dependent role in practice ' (1998, 252).…”

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confidence: 98%

Teachers as agents in Botswana's music education: challenges and possibilities

Chadwick

2012

Music Education Research

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The research aimed broadly to understand how Botswana's written government curricula for music are interpreted by music teachers as well as teachers' ideals for music teaching, and to what extent they thought it was possible to achieve those ideals. Grundy's writing on curriculum based on Habermas' technical, practical and emancipatory interests has proven an important lens through which to analyse and interpret the observational and interview data generated. Two music teachers in Botswana's Junior Secondary schools participated in the study, one in an urban area and one in a village. Data were generated through observation of 3 months of teaching in both classrooms, complemented by in-depth semistructured interviews with both teachers. Additional data were generated through interviews with and observation of three other music teachers, interviews with music representatives for both Examination and Curriculum departments, and document analysis. My interpretation of the data is that most music teaching I observed would best be described as technical, meaning that it is concerned with factual information delivered through teacher-centred pedagogy and assessed by student reproduction of information through written testing. However, there were some examples of the practical paradigm when teaching focused on music making and the student's understandings. There was little evidence of the emancipatory view of knowledge, but the teachers did speak freely about their views on where music education should go and how it might get there. I concluded that dramatic changes to teacher education and music education in particular are necessary if music teaching is to become the rewarding, stimulating and enjoyable experience the teachers and students crave. This would involve re-conceiving education and teacher education by minimising the reproduction of factual knowledge and by emphasising the development of teacher judgement.

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Views from the Botswana junior secondary classroom: Case study of a curriculum intervention

Cited by 25 publications

References 16 publications

Students’ experiences with mathematics teaching and learning: listening to unheard voices

Students’ experiences with mathematics teaching and learning: listening to unheard voices

Entrepreneurship education in Lesotho secondary schools: pedagogical challenges

Teachers as agents in Botswana's music education: challenges and possibilities

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