Learner centred pedagogy - an existence of virtual reality? : an investigation into grade three learners' experiences of pedagogy and schooling.

Abstract

The rationale and motivation for this study was based on my personal need to try and

understand the relationship between theory and practice (praxis) and the normative and

empirical variables (hermeneutics) evident in my research, so as to contribute to the body

of literature around learner centredness and learners' experiences of pedagogy and

schooling. Review of educational studies conducted in South Africa reveals that most

research is driven by 'common sense' understandings of learner centredness or what

constitutes 'good teaching practice'. These studies illustrate that well intentioned but

simplistic acceptance at the level of policy is hazardous and that we need to know more

about practices within the classroom. Similarly, within South African policy documents,

a paradox exists around the pedagogic discourse for learner centredness. The majority of

education policy documents implemented after 1994 advocates a learner centred

approach to teaching and learning, which is associated with weak framing over the

instructional and regulative discourse while the National Curriculum Statements calls for

a strongly framed pedagogic discourse. This paradox has significant implications for

policy implementation at the classroom level.

The objective of my study was to capture and analyse learners' experiences of Grade 3

teaching within one school context by focusing on control and regulation within the

pedagogic relationship. Consequently, the research focused on the 'how' of pedagogic

practice i.e. how do learners experience the transmission of knowledge through the

educator's pedagogic practices? The case study involved non - participant observation to

illustrate how different modalities of pedagogic practice provide for acquirers the

principles for the production of what counts as a legitimate text. Bernstein's concept of

framing was used to understand and analyse the locus and relative strength of control of

how knowledge was transmitted, how it was received and of what may or may not be

transmitted in the pedagogic relationship.

The methodology employed in the research was based on developing an external

language of description derived from Bernstein's internal language of description. The

internal language of description was drawn from Bernstein's theory of pedagogic

discourse. The external language of description provided textual pointers of specific

characteristics relating to the internal framing of educational knowledge. It provided the

means to identify specific pedagogic practices of educators and teaching strategies

employed in the transmission-acquisition process. The findings depicted a mixture of

pedagogic practices within one school context with one being based on a mixed

pedagogic mode and the other on a performance pedagogic mode.

The study revealed the possibility of extrapolating findings reliant on interaction with

relevant literature around the framing of pedagogic discourse and the data obtained in the

study. The conclusions reached in the study revealed strong framing over evaluation

criteria, selection and sequencing of educational knowledge. While research has shown

that weak framing over the pacing of knowledge is more likely to promote learning, the

study revealed differential pacing of knowledge ranging from weak to strong. However,

it was evident that learners had adapted themselves to the educators' modus operandi.

Both educators in the study attempted to cater for differential learning needs of learners

by the utilising different teaching strategies. The study revealed strong framing over

hierarchical rule in terms of learner-learner interactions and educator-learner interactions.

The research illustrated that giving learners control at the level of hierarchical rule posed

a significant challenge for both educators. Both educators would make use of school and

classroom rules as a means of maintaining social control.

The study contributes to a better understanding of pedagogy and schooling. It makes

clear that for learners to acquire the competencies and knowledge laid down in policy

documents, the educator would need to make a pedagogic assessment in terms of the

level of difficulty of the lesson, concepts and knowledge to be acquired and the

differential needs of learners. This is more likely to increase the success of learners so

that their enhancement, inclusion and participation in schooling does not become an

existence of virtual reality.