Browsing by Author "Hart, Michael Travers."

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An ethnographic investigation into the teaching of writing in an African secondary school in the Pietermaritzburg area.
(2000) Hart, Michael Travers.; Harley, Keneth Lee.; Clarence-Fincham, Jennifer Anne.
This study is an ethnographic investigation into the teaching of writing in an African secondary school in the Pietermaritzburg area. It arose out of my awareness that schooling distributes literacy unequally and negatively affects learners' abilities to participate effectively in society. This inequality of access is prevalent in South African schools in the aftermath of apartheid education policy. The purpose of the research is to explore these issues of access and to gain an understanding of the factors that shape learners' knowledge, skills and attitudes around writing. The need to gain a rich understanding of these factors indicated that a long-term, indepth ethnographic study was appropriate. Accordingly I taught grade eleven classes at a school for two and a half years to understand the context in which teachers and learners operated. The core of the data came from Literate Life Histories that I collected by means of interviews with six learners. This was triangulated with data from interviews with teachers, classroom observation, analysis ofsyllabuses, teacher guides and examinations, participant observation of matriculation examinations, and analysis of student work. The data shows that inappropriate teaching, assessment and texts deprives learners ofaccess to effective literacy. Systemic constraints of syllabuses, teacher guides and large classes shape teachers' practices. As a result, learners experience a narrow range of genres, no explicit teaching or assessment around genre conventions, and inaccessible texts. Learners thus view writing as a grammar exercise, have little confidence in their ability to communicate via writing, do not see writing as a process of refinement, and have little knowledge of how genre, tenor, field and mode shape written texts . These findings point to the need for the rehabilitation of writing in the schools and teacher training. This will require attention to syllabuses, assessment practices and the adequate supply of appropriate textbooks.
A genre-based assessment of the approaches used by selected teachers in the teaching of the literary essay in the high school.
(1995) Naidoo, Patmanathan Gopaul.; Hart, Michael Travers.
This study investigates issues around the teaching of the literary essay in the high school. The purpose of the study is to explore the instructional approaches used by selected high school teachers in respect of the literary essay, and to gain an insight into teacher and student perceptions of the essay and its place in the English syllabus. This study also examines the effect of the genre-based process on student argumentative writing at the senior certificate level. A review and theoretical consideration of principles and approaches to teaching the essay is included. The sample comprised two groups. The first was made up of six teachers from schools in the Northdale/Raisethorpe area, Pietermaritzburg, and the second of a class of eighteen standard ten students at a high school in the same area. Data drawn from a survey of the teachers, a content analysis of the students' essays and a Pre-process questionnaire was synthesized with information from relevant literature to formulate the genre-based writing process to which the students were subsequently exposed. The fmdings revealed that current methodologies and perceptions of the essay are product centred with minimal focus on the writing process itself and on specific genre requirements. They indicate that there is a need for teachers and students to develop an awareness of writing as a process of refinement which involves their collaborative effort. It was concluded that the genre-based process is an appropriate methodology for instruction in literary essay writing.
The impact of using the scaffolded literacy strategies as developed by Dr. David Rose in a South African special needs context.
(2006) Rowlands, Trudi.; Hart, Michael Travers.
This dissertation studies the impact of using the Scaffolded Literacy Strategies as developed by Dr. David Rose, in a South African Special Needs school. The central aim of the study was to establish the efficacy of this approach and whether it would have any effect on the levels of literacy and comprehension of the learners at the