#knowledge integration

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Further Education for Unsuccessful Grades 9 to 12 School Leavers in South Africa | Chapter 03 | Current Research in Education and Social Studies Vol. 3

Statistics released by the Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), (2002 to 2009) reveal that 60% of learners entering Grade 9 leave school without attaining Grade 12 certificates. These learners do not qualify for employment because employers prefer well-trained experienced employees. A limited number (12 500 annually) of learner ship and apprenticeship opportunities are also out of reach because they have to compete with better-qualified candidates. High unemployment rates (25.3%) and very high youth unemployment (48%) signifies their bleak prospects. The poor success rate of these learners, attempting further education at FET colleges, implies inappropriateness of the existing curricula at these colleges to address their educational needs. Their educational foundation, primarily based on language, mathematics and science proficiency, is insufficient for progress in mainstream further education at schools or Further Education and Training colleges. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the educational situation and propose a curriculum for a specific field, which can serve as an example for further research and establishment of appropriate curricula over the spectrum of learner aptitudes and interests. For this purpose, the field of engineering was selected to reduce the research to manageable size, uniform characteristics and a specific curriculum focus. Addressing their quest for skills and qualifications can be met with transdisciplinary practicum-based education obviating the linguistic-logic-mathematical predilection of mainstream education.

Author(s) Details

A. J. Klinck School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education, University of the Free State, South Africa.

G. P. Combrinck School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education, University of the Free State, South Africa.

View Volume: http://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/book/125

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Significance

Significance refers to the pedagogy that helps make learning meaningful and important to the learner. It draws clear connections with students’ prior knowledge and identifies (real world contexts) multiple ways of knowing or cultural perspectives (Quality teaching in NSW public schools, 2003). Basically, it is a pedagogy that develops and makes explicit to students the significance of their work.

 Providing the opportunity for students to see the significance of their work and what they are completing in class is a fundamental teaching skill. If students can’t see the relevance or importance of their work and how it relates to real world issues, why should they care and put effort into their learning? I strongly believe in the QTM third strand of Significance. Students need to see why, and understand that, their learning matters. The significance lies in the connections the students can make.

 ICT becomes part of the designs for learning that enables the vision and standards to be achieved. An example may include creating something to incorporate the cultural knowledge of diverse social groups and cultural backgrounds. Students could create a blog on information of choice or guided by the teacher. Don’t be afraid to negotiate learning activities with the students. It is important to let them flourish and think creatively instead of just setting a task for which they should complete the way the teacher wants. Talyse strongly says “Teachers of the world, guide your students learning, but don’t expect them to all learn the same way or follow a specific process to get the same final result” (Cameron, 2016). Let students be creative and think and learn. By creating this ICT blog narrative, it will enrich the students understanding. Also their connectedness to real life, relies on activities that rely on the application of school knowledge in real-life contexts or problems, and provide opportunities for students to share their work with audiences beyond the classroom and school. If you allow it and are not too afraid to use it in the classroom, ICT can become part of the designs for learning that enable the vision and standards that need to be achieved. By embedding 21st century skills to create innovative lessons, it will engage students in an active and challenging learning through ICT rich tasks.

References

http://www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/qt_EPSColor.pdf

http://seabrook.vic.edu.au/app/webroot/uploaded_files/media/researcharticle_harnessing_ict1.pdf

 https://sites.psu.edu/lindseyjordanldt505/2014/06/11/technology-meme/

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The final stretch

KI-X 2015 is in less than 24 hours! http://itsalmo.st/#ki-x2015 This means, in less than a day, you too, can come:

explore mental illness through the lens of everyday objects

help solve an unsolved murder and learn about forensics along the way

ask yourself: does having 600 friends in our pockets mean missing out on the ones right in front of us?

look at the cosmetics industry as a case study to examine how companies sell products, and

find out whether the villains we love to hate are really so evil after all

Also, feel free to say hi to the students who will be at the front desk throughout the three days that KI-X 2015 will be up on display! You could even ask all your burning questions about KI-X and hold your own exclusive interview with the students there!

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Introducing: Anti-Villains

Come find out whether the villains we love to hate are really so evil after all.

Who is really the villain and the hero in the stories we love? We will examine the moral ambiguity of villains in pop culture and the real world and question the good-evil dichotomy we are so familiar with. Walk through our exhibit and question your assumptions of the villains we all love to hate.

I had the chance to have an exclusiveinterview with the group of students behind the Anti-Villains exhibit. Check out their insightful responses below! What is your group’s code name?

Pretty Fly for Some Bad Gvyz Why is “Gvyz” spelled that way?

Why not?

What is the main message you want visitors to learn from your museum exhibit?

Melanie: I want visitors to learn that there is no right or wrong, just different levels of in between. Classifying people without knowing the whole story can cause a wide range of problems and that’s not fair in pop-culture or in real life.

Hayley: The main message we want people to learn from our exhibit is that the idea of good and evil and/or right and wrong is not as cut and dry as it’s often portrayed in pop culture. There is always more to the story. People are complex, whether fictional characters or real people, so labeling them as good or bad shouldn’t be so simple.

What has been your favourite part of the design process so far?

Mitchell: My favourite part of the design process as actually been install. Sure, it's extremely stressful and everyone is down to the wire, but finally seeing all the pieces come together shows what all our hard work over the past 6-7 months has been about.

Members of this group have specialized in many different areas including:

Psychology

Biology

Religious Studies

Computer Science

Collaborative Design

Philosophy

Wow!

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Introducing: Logging On

Ask yourself: does having 600 friends in our pockets mean missing out on the ones right in front of us?

Where do you draw the line for your social media use? Is social media a form of engagement or a form of distraction? Logging On explores the relationship you have with your online friends as well as the ones right in front of you. Explore the reasons for the taboos placed on social media usage and examine the vast connections created through these online platforms. So let’s talk, tweet, message, and chat about our online and offline connections.

I had the chance to have an exclusiveinterview with the group of students behind the Logging On exhibit. Checkout their insightful responses below: What is your group’s code name?

PS3DT

What exactly does that stand for?

Petrian School of Three Dimensional Thought, or it’s sometimes called the Petrie School of 3-D Thinking. It’s named after our great founder, Samuel James Petrie.

Why did you choose your museum topic?

Sam: We chose our topic because we feel that social media is huge part of our lives that isn’t looked at hard enough these days.

What is the main message you want visitors to learn from your museum exhibit?

Evan: I want people to learn/think about how/when/why they use social media and what that means for connecting with others online and in person.

What has been your favourite part of the design process so far?

Clarice: My favourite part of the design process… hah! Good question. I’ve really enjoyed the idea generation phase. It’s been neat to look back on all the ideas our group had. We had A LOT. But ideas transform so much, especially when you can bounce them off each other. And to look back and review the whole evolution process of our ideas… It’s amazing to see how far they have come!

Sam: My favourite part of the design process has definitely been working with my hands and building things.

Monica: Getting to know my group members. I didn’t know most of them very well before this project, so it’s been a lot of fun to learn more about them while we’ve worked together.

Evan: Best part of the design process has just been creating such a large cohesive project.

Members of this group have specialized in many different areas including:

Biology

Anthropology

Chemistry

Spanish

Collaborative Design

Political Science

Social Development Studies

Global Experience

Wow!

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Introducing: Mind Your Mind

Explore mental illness through the lens of everyday objects

Mental illness is all around us; whether or not we see it or feel it, there are others that experience it. But, what does having a mental illness feel like? Mind Your Mind shares the stories of individuals who face this issue through analogies with everyday objects. Real People. Real Stories. Real Objects. I had the chance to have an exclusive interview with the group of students behind the Mind Your Mind exhibit. Check out their insightful responses below:

What is your group's code name?

the newlywebs

Any particular reason why?

Because we're married to the idea of making a museum exhibit that is focused on mental health!

Why did you choose your museum topic?

Krista: Wechose the topic of mental health and stigma because it's such a relevant and important topic. Getting the conversation started about mental health is half the battle in the fight against stigma.

What is the main message you want visitors to learn from your museum exhibit?

Sarah: The main message I want visitors to learn from our exhibit is that mental illness is more than just a clinical diagnosis, it’s an experience, and that these experiences are diverse, but still worth understanding. A lot of people aren't comfortable talking to their friends and family about mental health because of this “barrier” - it’s hard to know what something is like, and empathize, if you haven’t had the same experience. Hopefully, after going through our exhibit, you’ll see that mental illness experiences aren't actually that hard to understand, and there’ll be less of that barrier.

Sally: I've felt that, sometimes, mental illnesses are depicted so clinically that we forget that these mental illnesses affect people in different ways, to different extents, and at different levels. For me, I really want museum visitors to learn more about people's experience with mental illness, so that they may better understand and empathize with people who have mental illnesses. Ultimately, we want our visitors to feel comfortable using mental health resources to help themselves and/or help others who have mental illnesses!

What has been your favourite part of the design process so far?

Patrick: My favourite part of the design process is messing around in the woodshop building things.

Members of this group have specialized in many different areas including:

Psychology

Business

Sociology

Management Studies

French

Collaborative Design

Project Management

Applied Language Studies

Wow!

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For the next five days, I'll be revealing a bit more about this year's exhibitions, including exclusive interviews with the student members of each group. A new group will be featured daily!

Keep you eyes open for these ~~**EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS**~~!!!

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The journey continues!

Did you see our last post about the museum trip to Amsterdam? Well, the travels don't stop there! Ever wonder where people went after Amsterdam? So did Chloe!

Chloe created a map that shows all the countries KI students traveled to after their museum trip in Amsterdam! Of course, the photos continued as the students traveled onward!

After our museum trip, Jasmine met with her father in the Netherlands. They traveled around Europe afterwards visiting historic WWI and WWII sites. Jasmine has told us, "Seeing all of the old battlefields and cemeteries really put the wars in perspective for me and has given me a greater appreciation for them. [...] My great-uncle landed at Juno Beach, and survived, so there was a strong emotional connection there." To learn more about how these places had an impact on her family's history, click here!

Hayley and Chloe continued their travels to Spain and Portugal, where they got nice tans and didn't have to go to school in -20°C weather (-2°F for all you Fahrenheit folks). Above is a photo of these two soaking up the sun in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Too many beautiful sights were seen on our travels, including Melanie and Krista got dressed up to saunter off to the Cannes Film festival in France!

Samantha and Patrick also had their own fun-filled EuroTrip to Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, and Ireland; with special appearances from Avery, Sam, Georgia and B. Shane Morganstein! Above, Samantha is seen candidly showing her level of interest in a potential suitor while enjoying the wonders of travel!

Monica and Sally also ate pizza for breakfast as well as other culinary delights in the different places they traveled to, which include Scotland, England, France and Italy! Here, they're creating their own version of Abbey Road in Pompeii, Italy. Hopefully, these students journeys have inspired you to go out and discover the world around you, too!