Academic literature on the topic 'Personality assessment of youth - South Africa - Johannesburg'

<p>In a country where there is a consistent loud outcry about school achievement of youth<br />in the final school examination in Grade 12, attention has recently shifted to children in<br />the primary school. The very founding of this journal was motivated by a deep concern<br />about research in childhood education and children’s lives. Questions were being asked<br />about what happens in the first years of schooling, about the suitability of the national<br />curriculum for such a diverse population, about specialised research in the field of<br />learning in the early years, and about teaching with care and with insight, knowing<br />who the children of this nation are.<br />The journal took an early stand when, at its launch in 2010, the editor noted that the<br />notion of a national foundation phase curriculum assumes the existence of a ‘national’<br />Grade 1 learner. In South Africa there are children who come to school, well prepared<br />for the demands of school – and there are others who come with only their survival<br />records in homes of extreme poverty, of absent parents and of families broken by the<br />effects of the history of the nation and the effects of disease. Much as we would like<br />to see a standard of performance expected from the ‘national’ young learner, we need<br />to see the layers of diversity too. Can such a stratified population, socially fractured<br />in many ways, truly enact a differentiated curriculum for children who have so much<br />and for children who have so little at the same time and at the same pace? Can our<br />foundation phase classes be truly inclusive?<br />It remains a vexing question. Much research is needed to even try to give a robust<br />response. In recent years, in the research of the Centre for Education Practice Research<br />at my home institution, we have encountered more than 3000 children between five<br />and seven years old in an extensive interview test of mathematical cognition. In the<br />process we found children who had never encountered a print drawing and children<br />who did not know that a page can be turned. However, the very same children had<br />a perfectly normal idea of approximate number and size. We regard this as evidence<br />that they have the core knowledge of number that has to be developed by systematic<br />instruction and caring apprenticeship in classrooms. But for that they would need<br />teachers who know them as well as they know the latest curriculum and its suggested<br />tools of teaching.<br />This is but one example of how important teacher education is and how important<br />it is that we should investigate both learners and teachers, but also teacher education<br />and teacher educators. Teachers and their educators at universities have their own<br />view of children, of learning and of childhood. Much as we may all agree that the<br />core activity of schools is for the young to learn the three Rs and the subject areas of<br />the curriculum, there are researchers who are opposed to a developmental view of<br />learning. The journal’s stance is that, in the Vygotskian tradition (Kozulin, 1990), the<br />young learn and are initiated – and thus develop – in the work of school (and society).<br />SAJCE– December 2014<br />ii<br />In the SAJCE we welcome different views on child learning and celebrate South<br />Africa’s researchers who argue that “pedagogical ‘know-how’ and views of child and<br />childhood constitute the subject knowledge that is foundational in the foundation<br />phase curriculum” – as Murris and Verbeek do in this issue. Add to that knowledge<br />of how children the world over have core knowledge systems, as argued by cognitive<br />developmental psychologists and neuroscientists, and we have a composite picture<br />of what the object of teacher education is – to know 1) the learner and 2) the subject<br />content, but also 3) the self as teacher.<br />This ‘didactical triangle’, was already proposed as view of teaching in the 17th century<br />in Comenius’s major work, Didactica Magna (Comenius, 1632/1967). In the 20th century,<br />for some reason, the English- speaking world used the term ‘didactic’ to denote<br />teacher-centred learning, while Comenius proposed what can arguably nowadays be<br />termed pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Jari Lavonen, the chair of the teacher<br />education department at the University of Helsinki, recently noted that PCK is the<br />transformation of subject content knowledge by infusing it with knowledge of the<br />learner and of the self as teacher. In Finland they refer to PCK simply as Didactics, while<br />taking full cognisance of Shulman’s model (Shulman 1986).<br />But, views on teaching become more complicated when teachers are faced<br />with children who enter Grade 1, but who are not ready to embrace the way of life<br />at school. Bruwer and her co-authors report in this issue on teachers’ views on the<br />predicament they face when children need to cross the liminality boundary – when<br />they are still ‘betwixt and between’ life as an informal learner and life in school, where<br />they have to be inducted into life as a formal learner in a national curriculum. In the<br />same vein, Condy and Blease argue that a “one-size-fits-all curriculum cannot address<br />the issues that rural multigrade teachers and learners face”. Seldom do educational<br />researchers contemplate this very real issue. I was in the same class in Grade 1 as my<br />brother, who was then in Grade 8, in a little farm school. I recall vividly how we young<br />ones spent much time making clay oxen while they were doing indecipherable maths<br />on the writing board.<br />When more than one language is used, or required to be used, in a single classroom<br />communication set-up, a teacher is faced with yet another dimension. Ankiah-Gangadeen<br />and Samuel write about a narrative inquiry that was conducted in Mauritius, noting<br />that the “narrative inquiry methodology offered rich possibilities to foray into these<br />[teachers’] experiences, including the manifestations of negotiating their classroom<br />pedagogy in relation to their own personal historical biographies of language teaching<br />and learning”.<br />Added to the multilayered types of knowledge around which a teacher needs to<br />negotiate her way in a foundation phase classroom, are knowledge and understanding<br />of children’s transition from one grade to the next. Nieuwenhuizen and co-authors<br />found that the move from Grade 2 to Grade 3 is notably more difficult for children than<br />earlier grade transitions. I wish to add that it is also a grade transition that requires<br />much more of the learning child in volume and in pace of learning; the transition<br />Editorial<br />requires a ‘mature’ young learner who has worked through the curriculum of the<br />earlier grades effectively.<br />Kanjee and Moloi not only present information about ANA results, but show how<br />teachers utilise these in their teaching. To that, the editorial team adds: what is the<br />national testing ritual really doing for teachers? Are there many unforeseen and even<br />unintended effects? Many teachers may say that it alerts them to gaps in their own<br />knowledge and pedagogy and, especially, we would think, the way in which they<br />assess children’s learning effectively. While Kanjee and Moloi invoke local national<br />tests, Fritz and her co-authors from Germany, Switzerland and South Africa show<br />how a mathematics competence and diagnostic test for school beginners found<br />its way from Europe to South Africa. They point to the challenges of translating an<br />interview-based test and of validating it in a local context in four languages. With the<br />promise that the test will be normed in this country, the foundation phase education<br />as well as the educational psychology community may stand to benefit from such a<br />test, which is theoretically grounded in children’s conceptual development.<br />The matter of teaching with formative assessment as pedagogical tool comes to<br />mind whenever one discusses assessment. In an article by Long and Dunne, one reads<br />about their investigation into teaching of mathematics with a very specific angle – how<br />to “map and manage the omissions implicit in the current unfolding of the Curriculum<br />and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for mathematics”. In a very dense and fast<br />paced curriculum it is not possible to fill all the gaps. Who knows what the effect may<br />be for future learning of children who move through a curriculum quite rapidly?<br />Staying in the early grade classroom, Sibanda explores the readability of two<br />textbooks for natural science learning for Grade 4 learners. She touches on one of<br />the sensitive nerves of South African school education, namely the English language.<br />In her analysis of two textbooks, using a range of methods of text analysis, she<br />comes to the conclusion that the books are simply too difficult to read. She argues<br />that the authors have not taken into account that both vocabulary and syntax have<br />to be taught systematically in order for Grade 4 children to be able to read texts in a<br />language they do not know well, for one, and in a discourse of science writing that is<br />new for them as well.<br />Ragpot narrates the story of how an instructional film, #Taximaths: how children<br />make their world mathematical, was conceptualised, scripted and produced with<br />senior undergraduate students at UJ. This artefact serves not only as higher education<br />material in teacher education, but is also used as material for teacher development.1<br />This issue of the journal is rounded off by an important contribution about the<br />ethics of research on children. Pillay explains how experts in ethics have advised him<br />in the work they do in the National Research Foundation South African Research<br />Chair he holds in ‘Education and Care in Childhood’ at the University of Johannesburg.<br />The reader is reminded that care of vulnerable children and the protection of their<br />rights should be high on the list of educational practice and its research.<br />iii<br />SAJCE– December 2014<br />The next issue of SAJCE is a special one. It is edited by Nadine Petersen and Sarah<br />Gravett and it celebrates a programme of research and development of the South<br />African Department of Higher Education and Training, with funding support from the<br />EU. The Strengthening Foundation Phase Teacher Education Programme started in<br />2011 and included most of the universities in the country. The issue promises to be a<br />milestone publication on teacher education for the primary school.<br />Editorial greetings<br />Elizabeth Henning</p>

05–225Acevedo Butcher, Carmen (Sogang U, Korea), The case against the ‘native speaker’. English Today (Cambridge, UK) 21.2 (2005), 13–24.05–226Barcroft, Joe & Mitchell S. Sommers (Washington U in St. Louis, USA; barcroft@wustl.edu), Effects of acoustic variability on second language vocabulary learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge, UK) 27.3 (2005), 387–414.05–227Barr, David, Jonathan Leakey & Alexandre Ranchoux (U of Ulster, UK), Told like it is! An evaluation of an integrated oral development pilot project. Language Learning & Technology (U of Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.3 (2005), 55–78.05–228Belz, Julie A. (Pennsylvania State U, USA), Intercultural questioning, discovery and tension in Internet-mediated language learning partnerships. Language and Intercultural Communication (Clevedon, UK) 5.1 (2005), 3–39.05–229Berry, Roger (Lingan U, Hong Kong, China), Who do they think ‘we’ is? Learners' awareness of personality in pedagogic grammars. Language Awareness (Clevedon, UK) 14.2/3 (2005), 84–97.05–230Braun, Sabine (U of Tübingen, Germany; sabine.braun@uni-tuebingen.de), From pedagogically relevant corpora to authentic language learning contents. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK) 17.1 (2005), 47–64.05–231Chambers, Angela (U of Limerick, Ireland; Angela.Chambers@ul.ie), Integrating corpus consultation in language studies. Language Learning & Technology (Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.2 (2005), 111–125.05–232Cortés, Ileana, Jesús Ramirez, María Rivera, Marta Viada & Joan Fayer (U of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico), Dame un hamburger plain con ketchup y papitas. English Today (Cambridge, UK) 21.2 (2005), 35–42.05–233Dewaele, Jean-Marc (U of London, UK), Sociodemographic, psychological and politicocultural correlates in Flemish students' attitudes towards French and English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Clevedon, UK) 26.2 (2005), 118–137.05–234Elkhafaifi, Hussein (Washington U, USA; hme3@u.washington.edu), Listening comprehension and anxiety in the Arabic language classroom. The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA) 89.2 (2005), 206–220.05–235Flowerdew, Lynne (Hong Kong U of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China; lclynne@ust.hk), Integrating traditional and critical approaches to syllabus design: the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why?’. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.2 (2005), 135–147.05–236Fortune, Alan (King's College London, UK), Learners' use of metalanguage in collaborative form-focused L2 output tasks. Language Awareness (Clevedon, UK) 14.1 (2005), 21–39.05–237Garner, Mark & Erik Borg (Northumbria U, UK; mark.garner@unn.ac.uk), An ecological perspective on content-based instruction. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.2 (2005), 119–134.05–238Gourlay, Lesley (Napier U, UK; l.gourlay@napier.ac.uk), Directions and indirect action: learner adaptation of a classroom task. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK) 59.3 (2005), 209–216.05–239Granville, Stella & Laura Dison (U of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; granvils@iweb.co.za), Thinking about thinking: integrating self-reflection into an academic literacy course. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.2 (2005), 99–118.05–240Greidanus, Tine, Bianca Beks (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands; t.greidanus@worldonline.nl) & Richard Wakely, Testing the development of French word knowledge by advanced Dutch- and English-speaking learners and native speakers. The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA) 89.2 (2005), 221–233.05–241Gumock Jeon-Ellis, Robert Debski & Gillian Wigglesworth (U of Melbourne, Australia), Oral interaction around computers in the project oriented CALL classroom. Language Learning & Technology (U of Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.3 (2005), 121–145.05–242Haig, Yvonne, Oliver Rhonda & Judith Rochecouste (Edith Cowan U, Australia), Adolescent speech networks and communicative competence. English in Australia (Norwood, Australia) 141 (2004), 49–57.05–243Harwood, Nigel (U of Essex, UK; nharwood@essex.ac.uk), What do we want EAP teaching materials for?Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.2 (2005), 149–161.05–244Heift, Trude (Simon Fraser U, Canada; heift@sfu.ca.), Inspectable learner reports for web-based language learning. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK) 17.1 (2005), 32–46.05–245Ibrahim, Nizar (Lebanese U, Lebanon; pronizar@yahoo.com) & Susan Penfield, Dynamic diversity: new dimensions in mixed composition classes. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK) 59.3 (2005), 217–225.05–246Jepson, Kevin (Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA), Conversations – and negotiated interaction – in text and voice chat rooms. Language Learning & Technology (U of Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.3 (2005), 79–98.05–247Juffs, Alan (U of Pittsburgh, USA; juffs@pitt.edu), The influence of first language on the processing ofwh-movement in English as a second language. Second Language Research (London, UK) 21.2 (2005), 121–151.05–248Knight, Paul (The Open U, UK; P. T. Knight@open.ac.uk), Learner interaction using email: the effects of task modification. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK), 17.1 (2005), 101–121.05–249Kondo, Takako (U of Essex, UK), Overpassivization in second language acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) (Berlin, Germany) 43.2. (2005), 129–161.05–250Lewin, Beverly A. (Tel Aviv U, Israel; lewinb@post.tau.ac.il), Hedging: an exploratory study of authors and readers identification of ‘toning down’ in scientific texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.2 (2005), 163–178.05–251Malmqvist, Anita (Umeå U, Sweden), How does group discussion in reconstruction tasks affect written language output. Language Awareness (Clevedon, UK) 14.2/3 (2005), 128–142.05–252Menard-Warwick, Julia (U of California, USA; jemwarwick@ucdavis.edu), Intergenerational trajectories and sociopolitical context: Latina immigrants in adult ESL. TESOL Quarterly (Alexandria, VA, USA) 39.2, 165–186.05–253Mirzaiean, Vahid & Alan Ramsay (Tehran, Iran), Content-based support for Persian learners of English. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK) 17.1 (2005), 139–154.05–254Morrison, Bruce (The Hong Kong Polytechnic U, Hong Kong, China), Evaluating learning gain in a self-access language learning centre. Language Teaching Research (London, UK) 9.3 (2005), 267–293.05–255Murphy, Linda (The Open U, UK), Attending to form and meaning: the experience of adult distance learners of French, German and Spanish. Language Teaching Research (London, UK) 9.3 (2005), 295–317.05–256Oliver, Rhonda, Yvonne Haig (Edith Cowan U, Australia; rhonda.oliver@ecu.edu.au) & Judith Rochecouste, Communicative competence in oral language assessment. Language and Education (Clevedon, UK) 19.3 (2005), 212–222.05–257Papadopoulou, Despina (Aristotle U of Thessaloniki, Greece), Reading-time studies of second language ambiguity resolution. Second Language Research (London, UK) 21.2 (2005), 98–120.05–258Payne, Scott J. & Brenda M. Ross (Pennsylvania State U, USA), Synchronous CMC, working memory, and L2 oral proficiency development. Language Learning & Technology (U of Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.3 (2005), 35–54.05–259Rogerson-Revell, Pamela (U of Leicester, UK; pmrr1@le.ac.uk), A hybrid approach to developing CALL materials: authoring with Macromedia's Dreamweaver/Coursebuilder. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK) 17.1 (2005), 122–138.05–260Smith, Ross (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Spain), Global English: gift or curse?English Today (Cambridge, UK) 21.2 (2005), 56–62.05–261St-Hilaire, Aonghas (Washington, DC, USA), Louisiana French immersion education: cultural identity and grassroots community development. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Clevedon, UK) 26.2 (2005), 158–172.05–262Todd, Richard W. (King Mogkut's U of Technology, Thailand; irictodd@kmutt.ac.th), ‘In an aeroplane, yes, in an aeroplane’: within-unit repetitions in classroom discourse. RELC Journal (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) 36.2 (2005), 189–209.05–263Uschi, Felix (Monash U, Australia; uschi.felix@arts.monash.edu.au), E-learning pedagogy in the third millennium: the need for combining social and cognitive constructivist approaches. ReCALL (Cambridge, UK) 17.1 (2005), 85–100.05–264Volle, Lisa M. (Central Texas College, USA), Analyzing oral skills in voice and e-mail and online interviews. Language Learning & Technology (U of Hawaii, Manoa, USA) 9.3 (2005), 145–163.05–265Williams, John N. (Cambridge U, UK; jnw12@cam.ac.uk), Learning without awareness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge, UK) 27.2 (2005), 269–304.05–266Yongqi Gu, Peter, Guangwei Hu & Lawrence Jun Zhang (Nanyang Technological U, Singapore; yqpgu@nie.edu.sg), Investigating language learner strategies among lower primary school pupils in Singapore. Language and Education (Clevedon, UK) 19.4 (2005), 281–303.

M.A.
The Myers Briggs Type® Indicator is a personality assessment instrument, which is based on the ideas of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, and was developed by a mother-daughter team. Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Briggs dedicated their lives to type watching and perfecting their instrument. The notion of type became a focal point in the lives of these two women but especially Isabel Briggs Myers whose wish was that people recognise and understand their own, as well as others' uniqueness. By appreciating each other's "gifts", it was her deepest desire that people would be happy and effective in what they did. The MBTI® is used extensively throughout the world in many fields such as education, career guidance, family therapy, conflict resolutions in the business world, team-building etc. In South Africa the MBTI® is relatively new but has secured a very strong position amongst therapists, counselors, educationalists and business. With the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, opportunities were open to all race groups. The South African society is both complex and diverse, bringing with it difficulties in adaptation, making sound career choices and developing mature career identities. The loss of opportunity and exposure during the apartheid era has created contradictions and uncertainty for many young black adolescents who must make career choices. In completing the MBTI® and the SDS questionnaires it is hoped that the young adolescent will have a better understanding of him or herself and that he or she would be guided in making sound career choices that will lead to a fuller and satisfying life. The purpose of this study is to validate the MBTI® in the context of career guidance against the Self-Directed Search; an instrument developed by John Holland as a means of operationalising his theory of Careers. There were 125 subjects in this research sample who were chosen from a group of predominantly black school children who came from a disadvantaged background and who were recognised as having the potential for tertiary education, specifically at university level. The study discusses the findings of the MBTI® types and SDS. The results are elaborated in terms of the influence of other possible variables.

M.Ed.
The aim of this study was to develop guidelines for principals and teachers when they identify leaders in secondary schools. That enables pupils with potential to function successfully as leaders in a school environment. Leadership in the secondary school has for too long been misinterpreted, misunderstood and grossly underscored in far too many ways. There is mistrust towards the identifying process. Present day demands require a specific form of education and training in leadership at school level to enable our youth to cope with these requirements. Educational authorities - especially school authorities are therefore compelled to address the matter of training and identification in a new light. Most of the existing research about identification of school leaders at secondary school level is of a quantitative nature and consisted of the completion of questionnaires. This brought about the testing and retesting of stereotyped proposals. In this study a qualitative research program was followed. By means of focus group interviews the views of a principal, teachers and secondary school pupils where collected. The research question in this study developed was the following: In what way does the personality of the pupil influences the teachers' choice of leaders at school level? The aim that followed was: To find out if there are personality traits that is necessary for a school leader at secondary school level to be successful. An explanatory, descriptive research design was used as part of qualitative research method during phase 1 of the research. The aim of phase 2 was to compare the results of the focus group interviews with a literature review. During phase 3 guidelines were developed for the identification of leaders in secondary schools. The conclusions of the research showed that the focus groups reflected reality, namely that the teachers lacked knowledge about leadership and that the pupils meaning reflects the findings of the literature study. Further it became apparent that although personality is relevant in leadership identification, it shouldn't be the main focus. Pupils should be helped to develop leadership skills which could be learned and to develop their personality or capabilities and in order to enable them to develop their full potential and to apply the leadership skills in their lives.