PrimTEd

The Primary Teacher Education (PrimTEd) project is a four year project of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) that forms a part of a suite of projects in the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme (TLDCIP) that covers areas of Primary teacher education, TVET and Community College lecturer education, Inclusive education and Early Childhood care and education. It is managed by the Chief-Directorate for Teaching and Learning Development in the DHET. The programme is supported by the European Union.

PrimTEd

About

PrimTEd’s origins lie in the concern that the country’s teacher training institutions – the universities – were not teaching prospective primary school teachers how to teach reading and writing and mathematics adequately. Further, new teachers were not proficient in teaching English as a First Additional Language (EFAL) – given that from Grade 4 onwards English was the predominant medium of instruction in schools.

Within the broader context of the general consensus that primary education is in a crisis in South Africa it is clear that primary teacher education for literacy and numeracy require radical self-reflection and transformation.

Starting with a series of workshops in 2015, a set of collaborative working groups of primary teacher education academics working in the areas of literacy education and mathematics education were established, with full participation of all universities offering Bachelor of Education programmes for the preparation of primary school teachers (Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase). The PrimTEd project was then formally established to run for a four year period for the financial years 2015/2016 to 2019/2020. It is now in a close out period.

The PrimTEd project is a component of the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme (TLDCIP), and as such is under the overall authority of the DHET’s Director-General. It is managed by the Chief-Directorate for Teaching and Learning Development, located in the University Education branch of the DHET. The project is supported financially by the European Union.

Committees

Working Groups

SIRP

Sesotho and IsiZulu Reading Project (SIRP)

The Sesotho and IsiZulu Reading Project (SIRP) was conceived by the Literacy Working Group of PrimTEd. It is funded by the Nedbank Foundation. A description of the objectives, institutional location, current work plan, and components of the SIRP project

The objectives of SIRP

SIRP's objectives are elaborations of the more general objectives of PrimTEd's Literacy Working Group, namely:

  • To describe primary school teachers' required content knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge and applied knowledge towards developing children's literacy levels in South African Languages.
  • To identify strategies for teaching reading in African languages. This will include identifying strategies that will inform how to teach learners to decode text, to read fast and fluently and accurately and with proper intonation (at a rate appropriate to their grade), with meaning and for pleasure.
  • Describe suitable methods of teaching reading for enjoyment and as a learning tool for the learners in their Home language and their First Additional language.
  • Describe suitable methods of teaching for teaching writing in learners’ Home language and their First Additional language
  • To describe what university lecturers need to know about literacy and its instruction in South Africa's languages in order to help educate teachers to assist learners in achieving the required literacy standards in all our languages.
  • Generally, through the activities of the Working Group within the PrimTEd project as a whole build a cohesive community of practice in the Higher Education Institutions involved around the training of language and literacy teachers.

Institutional location

SIRP is housed by the Centre for African Language Teaching (CALT@UJ) at the University of Johannesburg which was set as one of the Department of Higher Education and Training funded initiatives to support African language teaching in South Africa. The JET Education Services provides project management support to SIRP.

The SIRP work plan

The work plan includes nine major tasks:

  1. To prepare for empirical research to determine the present state of the teaching of reading at the twelve Higher Education Institutions training Sesotho and isiZulu teachers;
  2. Identify and liaise with other stakeholders in the field of early language literacy;
  3. Conduct empirical research to determine the present state of reading training at the twelve HEIs that train Sesotho and isiZulu teachers and draft a report;
  4. Develop, standardize and conventionalize terminology needed for the teaching of reading at Foundation and Intermediate Phase levels;
  5. Arrange a conference to introduce the project to stakeholder institutions and reach consensus on the six core study units (modules) to be developed to facilitate reading development;
  6. Review and align the SIRP work with the curriculum frameworks and knowledge and practice standards developed by PrimTEd Literacy Working Group;
  7. Develop the content of the agreed six study units essential for developing reading for both Sesotho and isiZulu;
  8. Train HEI lecturers to offer the study units developed;
  9. Offer institutional support for the curriculum review, obtaining approval and implementation of the newly developed study units on reading.

The work plan has three main components:

The first is to establish the state of teaching reading at those HEIs that train Sesotho and isiZulu Foundation Phase teachers in their Bachelor of Education programmes.

The second is to identify and develop key study units and learning materials focusing on teaching reading in Sesotho and isiZulu to be implemented in the BEd programmes of the participating HEIs.

The third component is the development and standardizing of Sesotho and isiZulu terminology needed for teaching at Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase levels of schooling.

The SIRP project will collaborate closely with the DHET and DBE, the HEIs that offer education to Sesotho and isiZulu student teachers and all other institutions and initiatives in the field of basic language literacy development.

The SIRP HEI Research Report

SIRP undertook a survey of the teaching of Sesotho and IsiZulu at a number of Higher Education Institutions.

Resources

Standards

Teacher knowledge and practice standards are statements that describe what a teacher needs to know and be able to do to carry out their core function professionally and effectively. The statements may be general or specific to a subject area and school phase or to a specific extended teacher role. Currently there are no such knowledge and practice standards for teachers in the Foundation Phase or any other Phase in South African schools. The Joint Standards Working Group is addressing this lack.

Curriculum frameworks

These are draft and finalised curriculum frameworks for initial teacher education. A curriculum framework is an organized plan or set of standards or learning outcomes that defines the content to be learned in terms of clear, definable standards of what the student should know and be able to do.

Contacts

Michelle Mathey

Michelle Mathey is the Director in the Department of Higher Education and Training for the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme (TLDCIP) of which PrimTEd is one project. All DHET related PrimTEd communications should be routed through her.

mathey.m@dhet.gov.za

Dr Nick Taylor

Dr Nick Taylor is a Senior research Fellow at JET Education Services and previously its Director from 1994 to 2000. He has general management oversight of the PrimTEd project.

ntaylor@jet.org.za

Pinky Magau

Pinky Magau is a Senior Programme Administrator at JET Education Services and assists in the management of the PrimTEd project.

pmagau@jet.org.za