UWCScholar :: Browsing by Author "Desai, Zubeida"

Browsing by Author "Desai, Zubeida"

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An activity -based approach towards developing critical thinking in the Geography classroom
(University of the Western Cape, 1990) Pym, June; van den Berg, Owen; Desai, Zubeida
This thesis deals with an attempt to employ the research methodology of action research to focus on classroom strategies involving a range of resources, including indigenously generated ones, as a way of enhancing critical understanding and thinking. This necessarily also involves an examination of what critical thinking might be. Each of these areas of concern arose from an initial concern about the need for the creation and effective use of indigenous resources to maximise Senior Secondary students ability to relate to Geography curriculum content and to interrogate it for its own assumptions. By using a systematic action research methodology of planning, action, observation and reflection, I realised that I needed to be more focused and thorough regarding my understanding of critical thinking, and that I needed to extend my understanding of resources that can enhance accessibility and the problematizing of material. My readings and reflection in critical thinking made me realise not only the complex and contested nature of critical thinking, but also that in order to move toward critical thinking my emphasis would need to be on adopting a critical pedagogy. The type of process, rather than a particular paradigm, needed to be the emphasis. The focus needed to be on how knowledge is produced, internalised, and disorganised. I thus attempted to highlight aspects that need to be included in an activity-based approach that may facilitate a critical pedagogy. with this shift of emphasis my second project acknowledged that indigenous materials are only one way of enhancing accessibility to the students worLd and the South African socio-political context. I then explored more fully styles and strategies of problematizing the course work to contribute toward an eventual changing of student consciousness. Out of the many elements that had emerged in the second project, I chose to examine the strategy of conflict as a resource, to engage students in the underlying issues rather than to accept the syllabus content at face value. A deeper and far more nuanced understanding of the different dimensions of conflict arose and therefore the potential use of conflict in a transformative educational context. Finally, the thesis highlights and reflects upon the value of action research approach towards deepening ones understanding classroom processes and the issues that arise.
Assessing the impact of an English for academic purposes course on the academic writing skills of English second language learners attending economically disadvantaged high schools : an interventionist case study
(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Schermbrucker, Ben Mathew; Desai, Zubeida
Academic writing skills are vitally important for South African learners in both high school and tertiary contexts. The importance of such writing skills is even more pronounced for English Second Language (ESL) speakers, as such learners often attend low-performing schools (that inculcate poor levels of academic literacy), and also face the challenge of writing in a non-native language. This study is an attempt to understand how a specially designed English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course can improve the academic writing of bilingual, economically disadvantaged high-school South African learners. The study analysed the effects of the EAP course on Grade 11 learners from two 'nofees' high schools located in Khayeltisha and Delft. Over a seven-week period Grade 11 learners from these schools attended the EAP course twice a week (after school hours on their school premises) and submitted a total of fourteen written assignments (seven rough drafts, and seven final drafts). These assignments required the learners to formulate essay-like responses to literary and philosophical texts. The learners shaped their responses by making reference to structured classroom discussions (led by the EAP course instructor), as well as standardised notes and assignment instructions. The conceptual frameworks that guided this study were mapped using a variety of sources and materials. Whilst Hyland's (2005, 2006) influential writings on EAP helped the researcher situate the study's academic writing skill's course within an EAP paradigm, recent theoretical and empirical advancements in cognitive science (in particular by Tooby & Cosmides 1992; Gallistel 2000; Wagner &Wagner 2003) helped to justify the specifically 'modular' approach to academic writing skills that the course favoured. Finally, testimonies about the function of creative fiction (see Pessoa 2010; Kafka 2013; Barnes 2012; Pinker 2011) played an important part in shaping the EAP course's approach to text-orientated academic writing skills. Importantly, this study also aimed to describe and analyse various factors that threatened the implementation of the academic writing skills course. In relation to attrition – a phenomenon which clearly presented the single greatest threat to the intervention – Bandura's theoretical writings on the structure of agency (2006, 2005, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1997, 1994) provided a rich source of justification for many of the conclusions that the study derived about the underlying factors that drove the high dropout rate. Another key aim of this study was to transmit writing skills that would boost levels of learner preparedness for matric and first-year university. To establish a link between the course and the writing requirements of certain matric and university subjects, the researcher compared the contents of the writing skills course to the contents of these subjects. This comparative analysis relied heavily on matric and first-year university source material (i.e. exam papers, memorandums, marking rubrics, departmental handouts, etc.). In terms of its findings, the study discovered many striking parallels between the Grade 11 learners at Khayelitsha and Delft. Firstly, in both experimental groups, a preintervention writing task revealed that – prior to the EAP course's inception – the overwhelming majority of the learners were not in firm possession of virtually any of the writings skills the EAP course aimed to transmit. Secondly, in both groups, it was found that the EAP course significantly improved the learners' academic writing skills. Although this improvement was not especially visible in the learners' grade-based results for the EAP course (due, mainly, to absenteeism and resulting missed assignments), a thorough qualitative analysis of the learners' preintervention, early and late EAP assignments demonstrated that – by the end of the course – most of the learners had gained fairly high degrees of proficiency in a range of critically important academic writing skills. Thirdly, qualitative data – derived from observations and interviews – established that the high rates of attrition and absenteeism that plagued both experimental groups was chiefly due to a single cause: weak levels of agency. On the basis of this study's findings, a number of recommendations can be put forward. Firstly, the many parallels between the two experimental groups suggest that the EAP course designed by this study could achieve comparable results in other South African township schools. Secondly, due to the difficulties that this study encountered in relation to high absenteeism and attrition rates, it is recommended that future implementations of the EAP course adopt a number of measures to improve learners' perceptions of their self-efficacy. Finally, it is recommended that future versions of the EAP course could include a 'matric study skills module'.
Cloze tests and reading strategies in English language teaching in China
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Lu, Guangling; Desai, Zubeida; Faculty of Education
Cloze procedure involves the skills of thinking, understanding , reading and writing based on the learners underlying knowledge of reading comprehension and writing subskills such as grammar and sentence construction. It is regarded as a very efficient test for measuring students integrative competence in English, and has been used in most of the important English tests in China. It is also used as a teaching instrument to help students to improve their reading competence. However, a majority of students perform poorly in cloze tests and they regard it as the most difficult and most unpopular part of the English test. The aim of this study was to find out the problem that Chinese students have with cloze tests and to determine whether they are associated with the inefficient use of reading strategies.
COMPARE Forum: The idea of North-South and South-South collaboration
(Taylor & Francis, 2013) Holmarsdottir, Halla B.; Desai, Zubeida; Botha, Louis Royce; Breidlid, Anders; Bastien, Sheri; Mukoma, Wanjiru; Ezekiel, Mangi J.; Helleve, Arnfinn; Farag, Alawia I.; Nomlomo, Vuyokazi
The idea of having a Compare Forum focusing on the above title was first discussed with one of the Editors of Compare during a PhD defence in Oslo in 2011. The PhD dissertation itself was linked to a larger project in which researchers from the North (Norway) and the South (South Africa) had been collaborating in educational research for over 10 years. Despite the fact that North-South collaboration is not a new issue on the agenda (King 1985) it is still a timely topic to explore, particularly given the recent growth and moves towards North-South-South collaboration or even South-South Cooperation in Education and Development (Chisholm and Steiner-Khamsi 2009). Thus, any discussion of research collaboration, whether North-South or South-South, is seen as an ideal topic for comparative education, particularly when exploring why there should be collaboration at all and if so what are some of the challenges. While it may be argued that the difference between North-South and South-South collaboration may simply be a question of geography, King (1985) reminds us that collaboration is not necessarily between equals and that collaboration at times ‘appears to be a process initiated in the North, and in which the South participates, as a counterpart’ (184). Ultimately, the differences go beyond simple geographic location to issues of funding and power, something that each of the contributions will touch upon in their own way. While cooperation may mean working with someone, it does suggest that one partner provides information or resources to the other, while collaboration suggests a more equal partnership in which researchers work alongside each other. For the majority of our contributors, we use collaboration as opposed to cooperation, although the literature is not always so clear on this distinction.
Learning English for academic purposes in higher education in Rwanda : a case study of a College of Business and Economics
(University of the Western Cape, 2015-03) Ndimurugero, Speciose Ngirabakunzi; Desai, Zubeida; Sivasubramaniam, Sivakumar
Findings also indicate other drawbacks such as some teachers' transmission of errors due to their low proficiency in the English language, their lack of common and well-designed EAP curricula, their lack of cooperation with non-language teachers, their delayed starting of classes and allowing a kind of laissez-faire and laissez-aller approach in classrooms, their lack of promotion of students' learning autonomy and problem-solving skills, their lack of language support to students, to cite but a few. Findings also indicate that teachers over-used pre-established materials that they had been recommended to use, using a teaching methodology known as PPP (Present Practise Produce) according to which teachers present an item or a skill and students are required to practise it before they become conversant with it. Furthermore, findings indicate a severe shortage of teaching and learning facilities. Findings concerning the language of instruction (English) indicate that it challenged students with an educational background in French. However, the students' French background and the widespread use of Kinyarwanda were also seen as an impediment to the implementation of EAP courses, but findings show that the shift from English to Kinyarwanda would help students understand the difficult concepts used in their academic subjects and safeguard Rwandan culture. Findings with regard to students' needs and expectations indicate that no opportunities were created for classroom interaction to enable students to think critically and comprehend the world and the word. Furthermore, teachers would fail to adjust the teaching and learning materials to suit students' needs. These materials were neither discipline-nor culture-related. To address the above-mentioned shortcomings, findings indicate that teaching and learning materials which incorporate discipline-related terminologies, Rwandan cultural artifacts, and world Englishes bear meaningful input and can raise students' motivation. They also indicate that students communicate better in Kinyarwanda and that the use of code switching helps students acquire both Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language proficiency (CALP). Concerning the above findings, therefore, recommendations are made to help the CBE and other institutions of higher learning in Rwanda and tertiary education settings in non-native English-speaking countries around the world to use EAP courses as a solution to students' language- related problems. Such recommendations are, to cite a few, teachers' shift from a banking to a problem-solving model of education, their switch to modes of communication other than the language of instruction to facilitate the teaching and learning process, teacher and student autonomy, accommodating students' voice in the teaching and learning process, the revision of criteria relied on to select language teachers, and in-service training for novice teachers. Other recommendations are CBE's partnership with other institutions of higher learning nationwide and worldwide, provision of learning and teaching materials, the government's mass consultation before the promulgation and implementation of any language policy, and the consideration of student errors as part of the learning process.
Local languages: good for the informal marketplace but not for the formal classroom?
(Taylor & Francis, 2013) Desai, Zubeida
The maxim that ‘Languages develop through use, particularly in high domains such as education and the courts’ was propagated by Neville Alexander. He was committed to ‘intellectualising African languages’. In the spirit of his legacy, this article makes a case for using local languages, also referred to as mother tongues, as mediums of instruction. In making this case, two interrelated perspectives on the role of African languages in the broader society, are critiqued. The first perspective argues that languages evolve on their own, and calls for a multilingualism from below. The second perspective is critical of the term ‘mother tongue’, and by implication mother-tongue education. The article also critically examines language in education developments in South Africa, in particular the 1997 Language in Education Policy. It argues that one of the reasons for poor learner performance is current language practices, where the language of instruction shifts abruptly to English at the beginning of Grade 4. Examples of learner performance are given from a study the author conducted in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. The term ‘mother tongue’ is defined in relation to these critiques. The article concludes by stating that current practices in South Africa continue to privilege English- and Afrikaans-speaking pupils. Drawing on the work of Alexander and others, it argues that linguistic practices from below, regardless of how innovative they are, cannot change power dynamics in unequal societies such as South Africa. It is only when languages are used in high domains such as education that they develop fully.
Response to multilingualism: Language support in a Western Cape primary school
(University of the Western Cape, 1996) Pluddemann, Peter R.; Desai, Zubeida; Faculty of Education
Multilingualism has always been a feature of South African Education. It is only in recent years that a particular form of linguistic diversity has become unmanageable for schools implementing the official English Afrikaans bilingual model associated with the previous regime. The subject of this study is a remedial language enrichment or support programme instituted as a response to multilingualism in the junior primary section in a parallel medium primary school in the Western Cape.
Searching for research results to inform the design of an initial professional teacher education programme for the foundation phase: A systematic review
(AOSIS, 2016) du Plooy, Lucinda; Zilindile, Mphumzi; Desai, Zubeida; de Wet, Benita; Holtman, Lorna; Julie, Cyril; Moolla, Nadine; Nomlomo, Vuyokazi
This article reports on a systematic review conducted to inform the development of a professional teacher education programme for the foundation phase of schooling. The research question was: What do quality research studies identify as the components and/or characteristics of quality teacher education for the foundation phase programmes that allow new teachers to begin to teach for epistemological access. A search for systematic reviews on educational programmes related to foundation phase for initial teacher education was conducted for the period between 1980 and 2011. The researchers added Stage 0 as a fifth step to the traditional four-step systematic review process. Stage 0 or quasi-tertiary review allowed us to present substantive findings of the identified systematic reviews and to explore their methodological quality. From the initial 2876 hits (mostly health and medical studies), only 19 studies were related to the educational field. Only three of the 19 studies were finally accepted as eligible at Stage 0. None of the reviews directly addressed programme design but contained elements that were considered as useful when designing programmes. The present study makes it clear that there is a dearth of research on entire programmes related to initial teacher education for foundation phase teachers.
Teaching in English and Isixhosa: code-switching in grade 11 Biology classes at a school in Khayelitsha
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Nangu, Bongiwe B.; Desai, Zubeida; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Education
This study explored the use of code-switching in Biology classes at high school level, how it is used in the teaching and learning situation and its effect on the learners' performance in the subject. Grade 11 was chosen as it precedes the last year at high school.

Browsing by Author "Desai, Zubeida"

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