Experiences of secondary school management teams in the implementation of continuous assessment

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dc.contributor.advisor Perumal, Juliet en
dc.contributor.postgraduate Fanseka, Gezani Samuel en
dc.date.accessioned 2013-09-07T14:00:05Z
dc.date.available 2013-02-18 en
dc.date.available 2013-09-07T14:00:05Z
dc.date.created 2012-09-05 en
dc.date.issued 2012 en
dc.date.submitted 2013-02-13 en
dc.description Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. en
dc.description.abstract The 1994 democratic elections marked a great turning point in the history the of the South African education system. A call from many politicians and academics for dismantling apartheid education which was racially biased was subsequently made. This was supported by theorists and educational reformers such as Darling-Hammond (1996) and Sizer (1984) who suggested that an educational transformation that would provide South African learners with the necessary knowledge and skills to think critically was required. Following this call, in 1997, a National Curriculum Statement (NCS), with its accompanying assessment policy in a form of continuous assessment (CASS), was introduced in South African schools. This study focuses on the experiences of secondary schools management teams (SMT) in the implementation of continuous assessment. This study is informed by the findings of Chisholm (2001) and Jansen&Christie (1995) who contend that the hasty implementation of CASS was extremely problematic for school managers. The objective was to explore the role of principals, deputy principals, and heads of departments (as managers of schools) in the implementation of the continuous assessment policy. Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate the kind of support the Limpopo Department of Education provides to the SMT for the successful implementation of CASS. The study was conducted in six secondary schools in the Malamulele East Circuit, Vhembe District in Limpopo Province in the following schools: Deliwe, Dlayani, Falaza Gembani, Ndhengeza, and Yollisa and it employed a qualitative research approach. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to collect data from principals, deputy principals and heads of departments. In addition, semi-structured focus-group interviews were conducted with heads of departments in order to get in-depth understanding with regard to their experiences when implementing a continuous assessment policy. This study found that members of the SMT in many secondary schools in the Malamulele East Circuit did not receive training for the implementation of continuous assessment and as a result, they lack clarity in many critical aspects of this assess1nent policy. It has further been found that the majority of the members of the SMT lack a conceptual understanding of what CASS is and also the role they are supposed to play in its implementation. Consequently, educators are still relying much on tests to judge the performance of the learners. In the light of this, it is therefore recommended that principals, deputy principals and heads of departments be provided with extensive training which would generate a deeper conceptual understanding of this assessment policy. Copyright en
dc.description.availability unrestricted en
dc.description.department Education Management and Policy Studies en
dc.identifier.citation Fanseka, GS 2012, Experiences of secondary school management teams in the implementation of continuous assessment, MEd dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28650 > en
dc.identifier.other E12/9/153/gm en
dc.identifier.upetdurl http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132013-170046/ en
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28650
dc.language.iso en
dc.publisher University of Pretoria en_ZA
dc.rights © 2012, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria en
dc.subject National curriculum statement en
dc.subject Educators en
dc.subject Principal en
dc.subject Learners en
dc.subject Learner performance en
dc.subject Implementation. assessment en
dc.subject Learning outcomes en
dc.subject Continuous assessment en
dc.subject School management teams en
dc.subject UCTD en_US
dc.title Experiences of secondary school management teams in the implementation of continuous assessment en
dc.type Dissertation en


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