Bachelor of Education in Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Education
Education, Training and Development - Schooling
Purpose and Rationale
Purpose
The primary purpose of the qualification is to provide a well-rounded education that equips graduates with the required subject content knowledge base, educational theory, and methodology that will enable them to demonstrate competence and responsibility as academically and professionally qualified beginner teachers. The qualification will equip learners with specialized teaching competence in at least three specialisations, one Senior Phase (SP) subject and two Further Education and Training (FET) subjects or one FET subject and two SP subjects. The qualification offers entry-level initial professional preparation for learners who wish to develop focused knowledge and skills as classroom teachers in the Senior and FET phase. It is an initial professional teacher education qualification for learners to be registered as fully qualified professional teachers in schooling. This qualification complies with the Revised Policy on the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) February 2015). The qualification will therefore provide learner teachers with five types of learning, namely:
- Disciplinary learning
- Pedagogical learning
- Practical learning
- Fundamental learning
- Situational learning
On completion of the qualification, qualifying teachers will be able to:
- Demonstrate integrated knowledge of the main fields and disciplines associated with their chosen electives.
- Teach Senior and FET Phase learners while adapting to changing legislation and policies in a meaningful and innovative way.
- Demonstrate the ability to coherently integrate with praxis educational theory, pedagogical content knowledge and subject discipline knowledge.
- Act ethically and professionally and justify their decisions and actions drawing on appropriate ethical values within the organizational and ethical contexts.
Rationale
The current challenges in education in South Africa are well documented, as is the poor performance of learners in critical learning areas. South Africa needs teachers who are responsible, accountable, and highly motivated to teach their subjects - teachers who are empowered to not only apply theory to and in practice, but to critically reflect on the suitability and appropriateness of specific approaches, strategies, and techniques within diverse learning contexts - teachers who can educate the 21st Century Learner. It is thus of paramount importance to ensure that future teachers are enabled with the requisite skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes to attend fully to the needs of learners, and the overall goals of education, including to help build a better, socially just society in which its citizens can live a decent life.
The qualification intends to prepare qualified and competent teachers for the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Phase as a contribution to the initial teacher education qualifications that focus on preparing well-rounded learner teachers who can apply theory to professional practice. This qualification will provide the learner teachers with a degree of specialization required to enter the teaching profession and an opportunity for entry into higher degrees in education. Furthermore, the qualification provides a structured high-quality professional learning pathway for current and aspirant learners who want to become experts and specialists in Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Phase teaching.
The qualification will not only equip learners with knowledge and skills to teach in these phases, but the combined Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Teaching makes it appropriate for teaching in secondary schools. The qualification also promotes the professional and academic development of graduates to enhance and promote quality education, developing high quality and innovative education and care for secondary school learners. The qualification aims to address the current shortage of qualified teachers appropriate for teaching in the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Phase in secondary schools, particularly in Mathematics and Sciences. Therefore, the qualification aims to contribute towards achieving the national educational objective of producing graduates with theoretical understanding and practical academic competencies at the secondary school level, with the ability to manage learners, themselves and others in the school and the wider school communities.
The qualification envisions a learner who has developed attributes such as the ability to understand and manage change, who has self-knowledge, who has respect for self and others, can resolve problems and has committed himself/herself to life-long learning. These attributes should enable them to contribute towards the development of learners' potential, as well as to develop a fair and democratic South African society. They need to be subject specialists with a sound knowledge base about their specialist school subjects and who can function in a diverse school context. The qualification's practical learning component includes work-integrated learning where learners are placed in actual schools to learn in and from practice how to teach.
The primary employer of teachers, the Department of Basic Education, emphasises in their publication, Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025 (Department of Basic Education, 2011), the need for new teachers to be nurtured at the university level, to enable well qualified young teachers to enter teaching in the school sector. As a result, the qualification will play an important role in realising this imperative. The qualification will contribute to the production and development of teachers who meet local, national, regional, and international needs in terms of both quality and quantity.
Outcomes
- Demonstrate sound subject knowledge required for teaching in the Senior and Further Education and Training.
- Mediate learning in the teaching of the selected three subjects/methodologies in diverse contexts at the Senior and FET level.
- Interpret and design teaching and learning strategies as well as materials for the selected three subjects/methodologies.
- Demonstrate fundamental knowledge of theories and principles that inform teaching and learning in the subjects/methodologies.
- Plan lessons for teaching incorporating the use of teaching and learning technologies to facilitate effective learning.
- Demonstrate the skills in the teaching of the specialization subjects taking cognizance of the teaching context, educational infrastructure, and school resources across the diverse schooling contexts in South African communities.
- Demonstrate an understanding of teaching as a profession through demonstrating professional ethics and responsible and professional individual conduct in the school and the community.
Assessment Criteria
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1:
- Apply subject knowledge with a wide and deep understanding of fields of knowledge, skills, values, principles, methods, and procedures that are relevant subjects and grades.
- Identify, understand and apply teaching and learning approaches that are suitable for learners in their diverse contexts.
- Use appropriate language, terminology, and concepts of their subjects.
- Illustrate a deep understanding of the relevant content for implementing subject knowledge and methodology for a particular grade.
- Identify, select, and justify the use of assessment materials, content and tools in the subjects that are relevant at different grades.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2:
- Select and apply diverse knowledge of learning styles and mediate with appropriate teaching strategies to match individual learning needs, barriers, and challenges.
- Construct learning environments that are appropriate and sensitive to diverse learners' backgrounds and contexts.
- Communicate and facilitate learning effectively using appropriate teaching and learning strategies as well as the language of communication for learning in their subject specialisations.
- Recognise and accommodate the differences that learners have and implement teaching sensitivity and inclusivity.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3:
- Critically engage with the school curriculum and interpret it for different diverse South African school contexts using their subject specialisations.
- Analyse, unpack and interpret the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) documents in the context of their subject specialisations.
- Design and apply learning qualifications and plan learning experiences in the subjects that are relevant for grades in the Senior and FET phases.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the diverse context in which teaching, and learning takes place within the South African school system.
- Understand relevant curriculum theory, learning theories teaching theories and pedagogies and identify their implications for teaching practice.
- Use key theoretical constructs of curriculum, teaching and learning to explain the current school education system and practices.
- Explain the main current research into learning and teaching in the context of the South African school education system.
- Reflect on own teaching practices from a theoretical perspective.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 5:
- Demonstrate knowledge on how to teach their subject specialisations within the Senior and Further Education and Training (FET) Phases of the secondary school system.
- Develop skills in planning for and teaching in their chosen specialisations/methodologies.
- Demonstrate reflexive competence to inform teaching and learning practices, taking into consideration the diversity of the learners.
- Reflect on planning and teaching to improve teaching professional practices within diverse contexts.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 6:
- Develop appropriate lesson plans that take into consideration the content to be taught, the diversity of learners and the availability of resources in a school.
- Understand teaching, learning and assessment strategies in the teaching of Senior and FET phases.
- Understand the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in their subject specialisations at the Senior and FET phase of the school curriculum and integrate that knowledge to facilitate effective learning.
- Use a range of specific teaching methods that inform the teaching of subject specialisations within the CAPS curriculum.
- Appraise the learning situation and select appropriate teaching and learning resources and classroom technologies/media to facilitate effective teaching and learning.
- Develop appropriate assessment tools for assessing learning in their subject specialisations.
- Identify, justify, and compile records for teaching and learning that need to be kept by professional teachers.
Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 7:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of a professional teacher.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the schooling system in South Africa.
- Understand the policies that inform teaching and learning in the South African school education system.
- Uphold the teacher code of conduct and the professional ethics expected of teachers within school and community.
- Employ the teacher's roles within and outside of school that benefit the community, the nation and region at large.
Qualification Details
- Type
- National First Degree
- NQF Level
- 07
- Min. Credits
- 480
- SAQA Source
- More Information
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This page includes information from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) . Builtneat Pty Ltd trading as Study Start, has modified all or some of this information. SAQA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.