Browsing by Author "Koopman, Oscar"

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    The body as blind spot: Towards lived experience and a body-specific philosophy in education
    (UNISA Press, 2018) Koopman, Oscar; Koopman, Karen Joy
    What do the philosophies of phenomenological scholars such as Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty tell us about education in South Africa? How can we use the philosophies of these scholars to develop the minds of our learners and students holistically? Drawing from Husserl’s “lifeworld theory,” Heidegger’s notion of Dasein and Merleau-Ponty’s “lived body theory,” this paper argues for a shift towards a philosophy of “lived experience” in the classroom that views the “body,” which is often dismissed in an educational setting, as an authentic, intelligible and privileged metaphysical object for learning. We argue that teaching should not promote a domain-specific epistemological ethos to open up new pathways to knowing and understanding the natural world, but instead should adopt a body-specific ethos that leads to a process of understanding our “true self,” “true nature” or “true humanity.” This means that education structured around preparing the masses for the corporate world should therefore not be our aim, but rather nurturing “body knowledge” that is already there.
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    A curriculum of inclusivity: Towards a “lived-body” and “lived-experience” curriculum in South Africa
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019) Koopman, Oscar; Koopman, Karen
    Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s “lived body” theory, we argue for a shift towards a lived-experience and body-specific curriculum in South Africa. Such a curriculum would view learning as a lived, embodied, social and culturally contextualised field. Its central aim would be to draw the learner into a plane of consciousness conducive to being awakened to the act of learning through an attitude of full attention. We specifically use the term “body-specific” to imply, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all curriculum model, one in which lived experience and the “body” form the conceptual basis on which the curriculum is built. Consequently, we reject the orthodox cognitive conception of the curriculum which views learning as a mental exercise oriented towards the acquisition of pre-designed knowledge that is “outer fixed” and “inner constructed”. In contrast, we propose that learning should be outwardly constructed through lived experience and inwardly fixed (embodied) as knowledge develops against the pre-noetic background of the lived world. Underpinning this is the essentially Merleau- Pontian notion that the knowledge we hold originates from (i) our relationships with this world that are embodied in experience, and (ii) our engagements within society and culture. The “inner” and “outer” shift in learning infers a switch from pure, disciplinary, homogeneous, expert-led, supplydriven, hierarchical, peer-reviewed and almost exclusively university-based learning to experiencebased, applied, problem-centred, trans-disciplinary, heterogeneous, hybrid, demand-driven learning. In such a curriculum, the role of the teacher would be to focus on how the world arranges itself around the learner and to guide learners to see how the world reveals itself to them through their personal lived experience.
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    The effect of vee diagramming on grade seven learners' understanding of force
    (University of the Western Cape, 2004) Koopman, Oscar; Ogunniyi, Meshach B
    This study sought to determine grade seven science learners' conceptual understanding of force. A related aim was to determine the effectiveness of Vee diagramming in ameliorating the incorrect conceptions about force held by the learners. The study was conducted in a working class area dominated by high drop-out rate, high illiteracy rate, poorly trained teachers and under-resourced schools. Three comparable groups of grade seven learners from two primary schools were selected for the research. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. The instruments used for gathering the data included a General Ability Test on force, a Concept of Force Test (COFT), interviews and a student questionnaire. However, before the instruments were administered to the learners eight experts evaluated them by ranking the questions from 1 to 5. A ranking of 1 stood for a poor item while 5 stood for an item of high quality. The correlation of their ratings was determined using the Spearman's Rank Difference formula. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design modified after Solomon-3 Control Group Design. The experimental group (E, n = 25)) and the second control group (C2, n = 25)) were exposed to Vee diagramming while the true control group (C 1, n = 25)) was taught through an expository lecture approach. Further, six learners were interviewed from both the experimental and C2-group to gain a deeper insight into whether or not Vee diagramming enhanced their understanding of the concept of force. The data were analyzed and discussed against five different levels of understanding rangmg from "no response", "no understanding", "misconceptions", "partial understanding" to "sound understanding". The null hypothesis suggesting that no significant difference in achievement existed between the learners exposed to Vee diagramming and those not so exposed could not be rejected (t-calc < t-crit), although the post-test results of the learners exposed to Vee diagramming were slightly better than the pre-test results. Also, the null hypothesis suggesting that no significant difference in achievement existed between groups based on language and gender could not be rejected. In conclusion, the major findings and implications for curriculum development and instruction are highlighted. Also, the need for teachers to keep abreast of recent developments of exemplary instructional practices is recommended.
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    A narration of a physical science teacher's experience of implementing a new curriculum
    (UNISA Press, 2016) Koopman, Oscar; Le Grange, Lesley; de Mink, Karen Joy
    This article narrates the lived experiences of a Physical Science teacher named Thobani (pseudonym) in implementing a new curriculum in South Africa. Drawing on the work of Husserl and Heidegger, the article describes the objects of direct experience in Thobani's consciousness about his life as a learner and teacher as revealed during an in-depth semi-structured interview conducted from two perspectives. The genealogical part of the interview chronicled how his knowledge of Physical Science had unfolded in his life as a learner and subsequently as a teacher; the portraiture perspective recounted the often traumatic events of his personal life and the circumstances that had informed his decision to become a teacher. Theoretically, the findings reveal how an incompetent Physical Science teacher had hampered his understanding of the fundamentals of the subject, and how the lack of support from the Department of Education and his head of department had retarded the implementation process. The insights gleaned from this phenomenological investigation into the thought processes of a teacher introduced to a new curriculum could have potentially transformative effects for policy-makers, curriculum planners and teacher educators at a time when South African teachers are yet again faced with the implementation of a new curriculum.
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    The Rise of the University without Classrooms after COVID-19
    (CSSALL, 2020) Koopman, Oscar; Koopman, Karen, J
    In this chapter we argue that university face-to-face teaching will gradually be replaced in the future with online teaching. In particular, we argue, this will happen in the light of the Fallist movement that has affected the university sector for the last five years and the current impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, we begin by providing a succinct overview of the history of the South African university sector and the changes implemented in post-apartheid South Africa. We specifically outline the neoliberal agenda, which became the main force driving the university. Secondly, we discuss how South Africa’s new vision for higher education with its neoliberal policy agenda is nudging the university in the direction of online tuition. Thirdly, we examine the infrastructural readiness of universities for online teaching. We conclude by arguing that the financial constraints and global pressures imposed on the tertiary education sector have forced the university to implement cost-cutting measures by looking for cheaper modes of programme delivery to survive in an already financially challenging space.
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    Science Teachers’ Views and Applications of Technology-Based Teaching
    (Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal, 2020) Koopman, Oscar; Van Wyk, Micheal, M; Koopman, Karen, J
    This paper investigates the following research questions: i) What are South African Further Education and Training physical science teachers’ views about the use of WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube in the classroom? and ii) How do they use these Web 2.0 applications in the delivery of their lessons? Phenomenology was used as a research paradigm, and one-on-one, semi-structured interviews were the main sources of data collection to elicit rich descriptions of the teachers’ views and experiences with Web 2.0 applications. Ten purposively selected teachers from two different provinces in South Africa participated in the study. All the teachers had more than fifteen years of teaching experience and taught in science-focused schools or technical high schools in the FET band. The findings show that, despite a lack of training and support from the local district offices, 7 of the 10 respondents had a positive disposition and epistemic openness toward WhatsApp, 1 of 10 responded positively to the use of Facebook, and all participants found YouTube to be an effective tool for lesson preparation. The findings have implications for teacher educators, and professional development programs are required to prepare and assist in-service and pre-service teachers with the dissemination of content in a technological, pedagogical space.