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Marrying theory to practice

The buzz words at the HUB as the second semester starts are ‘Teaching prac. ’ or Work-Integrated Learning as it is called by academia. All students do a year-long STADIO module called Teaching Practice, which covers the theory of teaching, but in the second half of the year they spend a period of time in a carefully selected school to do a teaching prac.. This enables them to observe their mentor teacher at work and to teach lessons themselves, i.e. to marry theory to practice.

We spoke to Maatjie Wandrag and Don Allen about their role as tutors of Teaching Practice (the subject), and Patience Tom and Denay Theunissen, a first and second year student, about their teaching prac. (the period at a school).


MAATJIE WANDRAG – HEAD OF THE ECD PROGRAMME

HED Pre-Primary, HED Domestic Science          

Maatjie describes herself as being made up of three parts: she was a teacher, she was the wife of a minister, and the mother of four children. After being a Domestic Science teacher for 20 years, at the age of forty she was asked to apply for a post as principal of the SAVF Magnus Preschool in spite of not being qualified as a preschool teacher.        

Maatjie explains, “Immediately, in the first week, I recognised something.  I thought that because I am a teacher, I can do it, but it is not the same” and with that thought in mind, she enrolled and subsequently completed her HED Preprimary through UNISA.

But that was not all that Maatjie did in the 32 years she spent there as a teacher and principal. She describes herself as a community person and with the support of her husband - her “rock” - and members of the community she started a centre for old-aged people, a black preschool, and a safe house for molested women and children. These were “wonderful, wonderful years”.

Coming to Hermanus in 2008 did not signal retirement for Maatjie. She continued to work in the field of training and development in ECD, developing the Eyona (The Best) Learning Programme that she implemented in ECD centres over the entire Overstrand area. In 2021, Maatjie joined the Overstrand Learning Hub and students and tutors now enjoy the benefit of her vast experience. Maatjie heads up the ECD tutor programme, of which Teaching Practice is a subject of both the Higher Certificate in Pre-School Education and the B Ed programmes. 

Teaching Practice as a subject/module

Teaching Practice is practical in nature. The aim of this subject is to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills to develop and facilitate appropriate preschool activities for children 2-6 years of age.

Students have to familiarise themselves with the relevant documents from the Department of Basic Education in order to plan and present developmentally appropriate activities and lessons during their 3/6/10 weeks of practical teaching at a preschool or in a primary school Gr R class (the period of practical teaching is determined by their course and year of study).

During each semester the students have to submit a Portfolio of Evidence of the lessons they have prepared; practical resources they have created; as well as the observation done during their practical teaching at a school.

Introduction to actual teaching - Teaching prac.

The Early Childhood Development (ECD) tutors of The Overstrand Learning Hub spent a great deal of time at the beginning of the year presenting workshops, which included: classroom arrangement, making use of creative resources, storytelling; movement and music activities, and planning and presenting a variety of integrating maths activities. Resources were freely available to create objects they would need for their lessons.

The students were made aware of the milestones for different age groups; how to plan and present a daily and weekly programme; and the need to practice good handwriting skills (GR 1).

They were encouraged to work towards an awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses and to constantly reflect on what they had learnt.

Our aim as tutors was to make them aware of a number of important considerations: 

  • How to approach and present lessons to different age groups by focusing on differentiation of content, particularly in relation to the weekly theme that the preschool/Grade R programme is centred around
  • How to apply policy from the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) documents in order to plan and present integrated and inclusive activities
  • How to make use of the correct resources for specific age groups
  • How to focus on lesson consolidation: “Did I reach my goal/ learning outcome?”
  • How to be aware of and optimise the opportunities for emergent writing and reading by linking written words to objects and activities throughout the school day
  • How to develop skills to manage a whole group as well as small groups
  • How to use elements of a critique on the lesson from the mentoring teacher
  • How to develop positive interaction with staff members
  • How important it is to be committed to the aims of ECD and Foundation Phase teaching
  • How important is its to display professionalism at all times.

DONALD ALLEN - TUTOR PRACTICAL TEACHING

MA Biblical Counselling B Ed BA

Since arriving from Joburg in 2018, Don has immersed himself in many aspects of Hermanus, one of which has been as a tutor at the Hub. Although his latter years were spent working in the NGO sector, mainly with the Door of Hope Children’s Mission, his twenty years of experience as a teacher in the public school system means he has a great deal to offer our student teachers. Don did much of his studying via correspondence through UNISA and this has given him a great understanding of the challenges of distance learning which our students face. 

As a tutor, Don helps to prepare the students for their period of teaching practice.

“Teaching practice is an integral part of teacher training - it is the marriage between theory and practice. Development in any profession requires knowing the theory behind certain basic skills and actually practicing them consistently.”

The work of the tutors at The Overstrand Learning Hub is to guide students through the process. There are two components to the subject of Teaching Practice, namely the theoretical and the practical. For me the former is the easier of the two as it’s more technical, i.e, there are certain processes that must be adhered to; you need knowledge of your particular subject content and then you have to apply different theories of the learning process to the content.

Actual teaching practice is another story because it involves personality, character and teacher identity. These are the intangibles - it’s more about who you are than what you know. Confidence and enthusiasm are critical components. Children are quick to notice and take advantage of vulnerability. This is the sort of practical advice that is given to students before they go into teaching practice:

  • Reflect on teachers who influenced you either positively or negatively while you were a learner. What made the good teachers good, and the bad ones bad. Learn from them what to do and what not to do.
  • Each school is unique and has its own ethos. Find out as much as you can about the school that you will be working at. 
  • Always act professionally – observe punctuality; show respect for authority structure; be pro-active, develop a teachable spirit, and willingly get involved in school activities. Remember you are the teacher not the friend of the learners, and perform all administrative duties with diligence.
  • Go in with a plan for classroom management. That would entail getting some important logistical information beforehand. 
  • Apply Bloom’s taxonomy of learning which involves different levels of questioning. This will determine the difference between training (performing specific tasks with competence) and education (ability to solve complex problems through analysis and critical thinking). 
  • Reflective journalling - this is an important part of the process which can assist the prospective teacher to develop their own unique teacher identity.

PATIENCE TOM

HIGHER CERTIFICATE in Pre-School Education (3 week teaching practical)

Prior to enrolling for the Higher Certificate in Pre-School Education, Patience was a teacher assistant at a primary and high school. After doing her Teaching prac., Patience admitted that she had found it more challenging to teach four to five year-olds than the older learners. She said she was initially overwhelmed by them all talking and all wanting the teacher’s attention at the same time. 

When asked what her biggest challenge had been, she responded: 

“My biggest fear was classroom management. I feared that I was not going to be able to control a classroom; feared that I would not be able to prepare and plan ahead for the lesson; and feared being observed, as I kept asking myself “What if I make a mistake?” But at the same time, I kept telling myself to forget about ‘what if’, because it is going to happen and when it does, I should not sweat it, rather use it as a learning experience.

“Handling a class full of children is never an easy task. It can be exhausting because every child needs their own attention and giving each child attention while trying to keep the class under control can be challenging as it takes effort and patience.”

Teaching prac. gave her the opportunity to marry the theory from STADIO with the actual experience of standing in front of a class and teaching. Of all the modules that she had studied before doing her practical teaching, she found Early Childhood Development studies and tutorials the most useful in preparing her for the experience. Patience was greatly assisted by her mentor teacher Nasiphi Sivungu at Yomelelani ECD Centre in the practicalities of teaching in an ECD centre, for example how to get the children’s attention by clapping her hands three times as a signal to them to quieten down and listen.

As part of each lesson they presented, students had to reflect on whether or not they had achieved the intended outcome of the lesson. Patience was honest with herself in admitting that her storytelling lesson was less than successful, but upon reflection she felt it had still served a purpose as it has reinforced the importance of being well-prepared, as well as the need to accompany even storytelling with an activity related to the story. 

Her advice to new students would be to plan the lessons well in advance of presenting them and to collect physical resources and activities to illustrate the themes. She admits to being surprised at the amount of preparation that had to be done before a lesson and says that she is now working on building up a stash of resources that she will use in future.

Patience’s final word on Teaching prac.: 

I realised how important it is to have a relationship with the children. Teaching prac. gave me a chance to gain experience and confidence about teaching - to feel I would be able to give the children the skills they need to go out into the world and succeed in the future.”


DENAY THEUNISSEN

B ED 2 FOUNDATION PHASE TEACHING (6 weeks of teaching prac.)

Talk to Denay about teaching and she will tell you that she has always been a teacher. Denay started her teaching career as a Grade one child in the caravan in their backyard where she ran an ‘aftercare’ centre and taught maths to her niece and a few friends until her niece’s excellent progress started to threaten her own position in class, at which point Denay disbanded her ‘school’!

Denay has a particular interest in inclusive education, working with children with special needs. Although she is used to overseeing a small group of 11-12 year olds in her fulltime position at a private tutor centre, Denay had concerns about discipline and how to make the lessons interesting for the learners as she approached her teaching prac. at Hawston Primary, but fortunately this proved not to be an issue. 

“The most challenging aspect was the number of learners in a class. There are so many learners and only one teacher. The learners are so diverse and it’s hard to prepare lessons for 38 learners when many have a learning barrier. I tried to focus more on the learners that struggled with writing and reading.”

She said that the guidance she had from her mentor teacher Elizabeth Fischer, who incidentally was Denay’s Grade 2 teacher, was invaluable in helping her to improve on her lessons. She helped Denay to focus on the appropriate teaching methods for the Grade R learners, for instance by encouraging her not to read but to tell a story about the experiences of a tree as though she was that tree and Denay found the children immediately became more involved in the story than they had been in a previous lesson. 

When asked to comment on the highlight of her teaching prac., she said it had been on her final day when she received a note wishing her well from the student with whom she had struggled the most.

Denay had high praise for Lorraine Ruddy and the ECD tutors on the preparatory work that was done with them before teaching prac. She has the following advice to offer to the 2023 first year student teachers: ”Go prepared, take advice from the tutors beforehand. Make sure you have enough love, fun and excitement to spread across the school where you're at. Then, you will always be remembered. Enjoy Teaching prac. and put all the effort into the formal lessons.”

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