Additional Reading 1

IIE Module Reader TEIP5119
TEACHING EXPERIENCE 1
MODULE READER 2020
BY DALE TAYLOR
(First Edition: 2012)
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© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 1 of 42

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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 1: What on Earth am I Teaching?.................................................................. 10
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 10
2 Lesson Plan Focus ............................................................................................... 11
3 Activity 1................................................................................................................ 12
4 Activity 2................................................................................................................ 12
5 Activity 3................................................................................................................ 12
6 Activity 4................................................................................................................ 13
7 Activity 5................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 2: How do I make the content understandable to learners? ......................... 14
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 14
3 What are Lesson Aims/ Outcomes/ Objectives?.................................................. 16
4 Activity 1................................................................................................................ 17
5 Activity 2................................................................................................................ 18
6 Activity 3................................................................................................................ 18
7 Activity 4................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter 3: What is the Best Way to Teach This Content to These Learners? .......... 20
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 20
2 The Knowledge that Teachers need to Teach ..................................................... 20
4 Activity 1................................................................................................................ 24
5 Activity 2................................................................................................................ 25
6 Activity 3................................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 4: How do I know that Learners have learned?............................................. 27
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 27
3 Activity 1................................................................................................................ 31
4 Activity 2................................................................................................................ 32
5 Activity 3................................................................................................................ 32
Chapter 5: How can I continue to grow as a Teacher? ............................................... 33
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 33
2 Reflection-on-practice........................................................................................... 33
3 Reflection-in-practice ............................................................................................ 35
5 Activity 1................................................................................................................ 36
6 Activity 2................................................................................................................ 37
Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 38
Intellectual Property ..................................................................................................... 39

Teaching Experience 1
Intermediate Phase Teaching
Mahommadpur Primary School (2016)
Module Reader
Written by Dale Taylor

Introduction
Welcome to your first year Teaching Experience module, TEIP5119 Module Reader!
The purpose of this Reader is to serve as a scaffold for your development of
pedagogical reasoning as a student teacher, which is central to the work of
professional teachers.
In South Africa, teaching is a degreed profession. A profession requires a knowledge

base to enable pedagogical reasoning in practice (Shulman, 1998). It is this
pedagogical reasoning that opens up possibilities for student teachers to make
professional judgements in situ. Shulman (1987a) claims that:
“[t]he goal of teacher education … [is] to educate teachers to reason

soundly about their teaching, as well as to perform skilfully. Sound
reasoning requires both a process of thinking about what they are
doing and an adequate base of facts, principles and experiences from
which to reason. Teachers must learn to use their knowledge base to
provide the grounds for choices and actions.” (p.234, emphasis
added)
In order to “have a sound subject knowledge”, “know how [their learners] learn”,
“communicate effectively [...] in order to mediate learning”, “be knowledgeable about
the school curriculum”, “identify learning or social problems”, “assess in reliable and
varied ways”, and “reflect critically, in theoretically informed ways” (MRTEQ, 2015,
p.62)1, beginning teachers need to draw on their knowledge base. They need to know
how to do these things and draw on that specialised teacher knowledge. Moreover,
they need to employ pedagogical reasoning and exercise professional judgement.
Morrow (1999) argues that “there is a conceptual connection between the content and
the outcomes of learning”, and that to reach these outcomes and display competences,
the teacher needs to make “professional choices and decisions” in order to “express a
conceptual understanding of what [they are] trying to enable the learners to learn”
(p.127).
The Conceptual Framework of this Reader
This Reader follows a very particular model, acting as its conceptual framework. This
model is known as Shulman’s Model of Pedagogical Action and Reasoning (1987a).
This model conceptualises teaching as a cyclical process in which the teacher is
continually developing in their practice. Shulman (1987a) says that teaching is made
up of six “processes”, each leading into one another, and necessary for meaningful
teaching.

These six processes are:
Comprehension
• New
Comprehension
Reflection Transformation
Evaluation Instruction
Shulman's Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action (1987a)
Each of these processes will be explored in a chapter of this Reader.
Lesson Plan Focus
Each chapter has a section titled “Lesson Plan Focus”, where it looks at a section of
the lesson plan that is relevant to that process of Shulman’s (1987a) Model. The
strength of this lesson planning template is that it systematically develops student
teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), which is a key knowledge base for
pedagogical reasoning (Shulman, 1987a). PCK is what makes teachers’ knowledge
different from any other profession’s knowledge. Teachers’ knowledge requires
reasoned amalgamation; it is not the simple application of their knowledge in the
context of teaching. Simply put, PCK is the “blending of content and pedagogy into an
understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, and
presented for instruction” (Shulman, 1987a, p. 228).
This blending requires teachers to use their knowledge base (theoretical or situational
knowledge) in order to reason about and legitimise their actions (practice), as well as
to think relationally about all aspects of the lesson and broader educational
environment in order to provide epistemological access to knowledge for all learners.
PCK, it can be argued, captures this reasoned ‘blending’ of knowledges to enable
learning. PCK “goes beyond knowledge of subject matter per se to the dimension of
subject matter knowledge for teaching” (ibid.).

While pedagogical reasoning is not the same as PCK, the latter is a useful and powerful
knowledge base that students and qualified teachers alike can use in order to engage
in meaningful pedagogical reasoning. When lesson planning is seen as a technical
endeavour (as it so often is), student teachers’ “development of professional
competence” is limited (Rusznyak & Walton, 2011, p. 271). What is needed in order to
scaffold the development of students teachers’ PCK is a model of professional lesson
planning that moves beyond lesson description. It requires a model of professional
lesson planning that encourages student teachers to reason soundly about their
pedagogical moves.
Why do teachers need to be able to reason?
One of the main reasons why student teachers need to reason about their pedagogical
choices is because of the powerful influence of their own learning experiences on their
teaching. Teaching is the only profession where students arrive at their pre-service
education courses with at least 12 years’ experience in the area of study, whilst
learners have (either consciously or unconsciously) observed their own teachers and
made conclusions about the practice of teaching based on these observations. These
‘apprenticeships of observation’ (Lortie, 1975) are often flawed, as learners are only
observing the ‘delivery’ of the lesson and not any of the thinking, planning and
evaluation thereof. Consequently, misconceptions about teaching such as ‘teaching is
easy’, ‘anyone can teach’ and ‘teaching is all about talking and telling children what to
do’ arise because learners are not aware of the so-called ‘behind-the-scenes’ work that
goes into teaching.
These ‘apprenticeships’ can have lasting and damaging effects on student teachers’
development as professionals. During their pre-service teacher education, the nature
and construction of the school-based practicum sessions can contribute to the
resistance of these initial conceptions of teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2006). If in the
classrooms in which they carry out their TE, student teachers “... [encounter] entirely
different ideas from which they had studied [at university]” (ibid., p.152), they are likely
to “[revert] largely to what they [know] best: the way they themselves had been taught”
(ibid., p.153).
The resilience of these conceptions of teaching has an impact on student teachers’

teaching, both in the context of teaching practicum and when student teachers make
the transition to their careers as beginning teachers (Shulman, 1987a). Shulman
claims that this “pedagogical immunity” acts as a buttress against the efforts of teacher
education, a sentiment that is captured when he laments that “…we who prepare
teachers can do some very powerful things if we can surface the underlying
preconceptions students have. But it would be so much easier if we didn’t have to
overcome some sort of pedagogical immunity first...” (Shulman, 1987b, p. 119).

This pedagogical immunity tends to make student teachers (and practicing teachers
alike) revert to the way in which they were taught as learners at school, disregarding
the theories, strategies or ideas with which they engaged during their tertiary teacher
education. By requiring student teachers to rationalise, in other words, give reasons
for their pedagogical choices, this tool enables them to move beyond the confines of
their own schooling experience, which, in a South African context, is often peppered
with sub-standard teaching (see, for example, Taylor, 2008; Taylor & Taylor, 2013).
The deliberate and careful scaffolding of student teachers’ pedagogical reasoning,
then, becomes something of a social justice issue: South Africa cannot afford for its
children to continue to receive sub-standard schooling.
As such, the activities in this module are carefully and purposefully designed to help
the student teacher to develop the faculties of pedagogical reasoning and to give them
new insights into the lesson planning process.
Wishing you all the best for this module and may your lessons always be powerful!

Chapter 1: What on Earth am I

Teaching?
1 Introduction
“To teach is first to understand” (Shulman, 1987a, p. 14).
You cannot teach something without understanding it yourself.

But, this does not mean that a teacher needs to know
everything that there is to know about the topics that he or she
is teaching: he or she needs to know how the different topics
relate to one another (breadth of knowledge) as well as know
a lot about each topic (depth of knowledge). This is a brief
explanation of what Shulman (1987) calls comprehension.
Shulman (1987a) has the following to say about

comprehending the topic that you are to teach:
We ask that the teacher comprehend critically a set of

ideas to be taught. We expect teachers to understand
what they teach and, when possible, to understand it
in several ways. They should understand how a given
idea relates to other ideas within the same subject area
and to ideas in other subjects as well (p.14).
For example, a teacher who is teaching Life Science needs to

know about photosynthesis. He or she needs to know that
green plants contain chlorophyll that gives the plant its green
colour. They need to know that the sunlight excites the
chlorophyll, which are found in the grana. This excitement is
used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is
released by the plant into the atmosphere… and so on. The
teacher also needs to know that photosynthesis has a role to
play in droughts: plants need sunlight, water and carbon
dioxide to photosynthesise. When one of these factors is
missing, the plant cannot be nourished. During a drought, there
is little water. Our crops, then, do not grow as well and there is
a shortage of food. This can have economic impacts and lead
to starvation and famine. In this way, the teacher understands
how photosynthesis is related to famine and economic
hardships.

Shulman (1987a) goes on to say that:
Saying that a teacher must first comprehend both

content and purposes, however, does not particularly
distinguish a teacher from non-teaching peers. We
expect a math major to understand mathematics or a
history specialist to comprehend history. But the key to
distinguishing the knowledge base of teaching lies at
the intersection of content and pedagogy, in the
capacity of a teacher to transform the content
knowledge he or she possesses into forms that are
pedagogically powerful and yet adaptive to the
variations in ability and background presented by the
[learners] (p.15).
So, what Shulman (1987a) is saying is that the type of

understanding of content that teachers need to have is not held
by everyone or even by subject matter experts. What sets
teachers aside is that they understand an idea as a subject
matter expert would, but they also understand how to make it
accessible to learners or, simply put, how to make it
understandable to learners.
2 Lesson Plan Focus

2.1 Summary of Content to be taught
This section of the lesson plan requires student teachers to
write a summary of the content that they intend to teach. In this
way, student teachers are actively engaging with the content
and concepts. In order to fill in this section, student teachers
may have to conduct additional research and clarify the
concepts in their own minds. This section of the lesson plan
develops student teachers’ content knowledge, which is one of
the components of their PCK.
Do you want to deepen your understanding of this chapter?

Work through these carefully designed activities!

3 Activity 1
Letter writing
You are a qualified teacher. Your friend, also a qualified

teacher, sends you the following WhatsApp:
Hi ☺ My principal is being so annoying 

She is saying that I have to go on a course
to deepen my knowledge of Geography! I
only teach Grade 5’s — and I passed
Grade 5 Geography ages ago! Do you
think that she’s out of line?
Write a response to your friend, explaining why your friend

should take this opportunity to increase her knowledge of
Geography. Remember, it is a WhatsApp, so your response
needs to be short and concise.
4 Activity 2
Group work
Pair up with someone in your class. Without using words,

Person A has to use gestures to describe ‘depth of knowledge’
and Person B has to use gestures to describe ‘breadth of
knowledge’.
As a class, vote for the person who best acts out ‘depth of
knowledge’ and ‘breadth of knowledge’.
5 Activity 3
Concept map
“Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and

representing knowledge. They include concepts,
usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and
relationships between concepts indicated by a
connecting line linking two concepts” (Cmap, 2014)
1) Choose three topics from different learning areas. Make

a note of them, because you will be using them for the
remainder of this module.

2) Create a concept map that shows the big concepts, sub- Note: It is highly
concepts and selected examples for each of your chosen recommended that
topics. you complete
3) Here is an example, using the topic of Historical sources. Activities 3 and 4
You may not use this example. before moving to the
next Chapter.
6 Activity 4
Writing activity
Using your concept maps, write a detailed summary of the

most important content for each topic. Each summary should
be a maximum of a page in length.
7 Activity 5
Pulling it together: Comprehension
As you are aware, Shulman (1987a) says that every stage of

teaching requires both action (doing) and reasoning (thinking).
Fill in the following table, distinguishing between what teachers

need to do when comprehending their content and what the
need to think about during this stage. An example has been
done for you.
Comprehension
Pedagogical action Pedagogical reasoning
Researching topics What other topics could this topic link to?

Chapter 2: How do I make the content

understandable to learners?
1 Introduction
“Comprehended ideas must be transformed in some manner if
they are to be taught.” (Shulman, 1987a, p. 16)
The knowledge that you have gained is not necessarily

understandable to primary school children. Children’s ability to
understand is affected by both their physical development
(‘nature’) and the learning that takes place in their environment
(‘nurture’). Your job as a teacher is to make that content that you
comprehended accessible and understandable to the learners
that you are going to teach. After all, if the children cannot
understand it, why bother teaching it?
Shulman (1987a) says that:
To reason one’s way through an act of teaching is to

think one’s way from the subject matter as understood
by the teacher into the minds and motivations of
learners. Transformations, therefore, require some
combination or ordering of the following processes,
each of which employs a kind of repertoire:
1) “Preparation (of the given … materials) including
the process of critical interpretation”, which
includes
a. Detecting and correcting errors of
omission and commission in the text; and
b. The crucial processes of structuring and
segmenting the material into forms better
adapted to the teacher’s understanding
and, in prospect more suitable for
teaching.
2) Representation of the ideas in the form of new
analogies, metaphors, and so forth.
3) Instructional selections from among an array of
teaching methods and models; and
4) Adaptation of these representations to the
general characteristics of children to be taught;
as well as
5) Tailoring the adaptations to the specific
youngsters in the classroom.” (p.16)

What this means is that you need to give special consideration

to how you will represent the knowledge. This refers to the form
that the content will take. Some examples of how teachers
typically represent content in the Intermediate Phase include:
• Tables;
• Paragraphs (text);
• Diagrams;
• Pictures;
• Case studies;
• Videos.
You will have, by now, realised that teaching is much more

complex than you may have originally thought. One of the
reasons why teaching is so complex is because teachers need
to make decisions by taking a number of factors into account.
When they are transforming content knowledge for teaching,
they need to consider what representation/ form will represent
the content best, while being understandable/ accessible to the
learners that I am teaching. It is this kind of relational thinking
that makes teaching such a specialised practice.
To continue our example from Chapter 1, our Life Science

teacher would choose to represent the processes of
photosynthesis to her learners in a cyclical diagram. She chose
to do this because the processes of photosynthesis feed back
into one another to begin the process again. A pie chart would
not be a suitable representation of the processes of
photosynthesis, which are not discrete data that can be
quantitatively compared.
2 Lesson Plan Focus

2.1 Considerations to be made about the
Learners in Relation to this Content
In this section, student teachers need to think about Note: You do not need
characteristics of the learners that are relevant to the content to to write every little
be taught. This does not mean that the student teacher needs characteristic of every
to write a mini report on every learner in the class. It means that single learner in every
they need to consider the learning needs of the learners that lesson plan! You only
are relevant to the content. So, the fact that a learner is allergic reflect on the ones that
to eggs is of no consequence when planning a reading lesson. may affect your choices
If the learner has dyslexia, it will be an important consideration. of representation
and/or teaching
strategy.

That being said, the student teacher needs to consider the

interests and learning needs of the class as a whole, as well as
individual interests and needs. An example may be that many
children are interested in a certain television show. A teacher
could use that television show to pique the learners’ interest (if it
is suitable for the content of course!).
Furthermore, the student teacher needs to reflect on how they

will manage any relevant barriers to learning in the lesson in this
section. So, for example, if a learner is colour-blind and the
lesson requires learners to identify the colours of shapes, the
teacher needs to write about how to ensure that that learner is
included and can still learn conceptually in the lesson. This
section of the lesson plan develops student teachers’ knowledge
of the learners and learning context, which is another of the
components of their PCK.
3 What are Lesson Aims/ Outcomes/

Objectives?
3.1 Beginning with the End in M ind
Note: it is highly
Every lesson needs to have an aim. If a lesson does not have recommended that you
an aim, how will you, as the teacher, know if the lesson was check out these websites
successful or not? Many student teachers struggle to construct for more information on
an aim/ objective/ outcome. It requires them to consider what constructing learning
learners need to learn and what evidence of that learning will outcomes/ aims/
look like. In other words, a good formula to follow in constructing objectives:
a lesson aim is…
• [Online]. Available at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/
By the end of the lesson/ unit, learners should be able
media/media_10530
to [verb] [insert content/ skill] by [insert observable 7_en.pdf [Accessed
evidence of competence].
23 January 2017];
• [Online]. Available at:
Examples of the verbs that you may use include:
https://www.clinton.e
Explain Evaluate
du/curriculumcommit
Describe Apply
tee/listofmeasurablev
Compare Analyse
erbs.cxml [Accessed
Define Classify
23 January 2017].
Recall Demonstrate

For example, our Natural Sciences teacher could construct a

learning outcome as follows:
By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to

describe the process of photosynthesis by drawing a
cyclical diagram of the process of photosynthesis.
Can you see that the teacher has clearly indicated what content
the learners need to learn (“the process of photosynthesis”),
what level of cognitive ability content should be engaged with at
(describe), as well as what evidence learners should produce if
they have successfully met the learning outcomes (“by drawing
a cyclical diagram of the process of photosynthesis”)?

4 Activity 1
Affordances and limitations of representations
Different representations show and hide different things.

Complete the following table so that you are more critical when
selecting an appropriate representation of the content. The first
three have been done for you. Do you know the
difference between
Representation Affordances Limitations discrete and
continuous data?
Table • Shows • Lack of detail;
comparisons; • Only two
• Useful for variables
discrete or possible.
continuous
data.
Picture • Shows detail. • Many
interpretations.
Concept map • Shows which • Lack detail;
ideas • Needs lots of
organise space.
others.
Pie chart
Fiction Story
Case studies

Representation Affordances Limitations

Videos/ plays
Graphs
PowerPoint
Slideshow
5 Activity 2
Learning about learners
In order to help you to select appropriate representations, you Can you think of
need to know certain learner-related factors that will affect your any more learner-
pedagogical choices. Some of these factors include (to a lesser related factors that
or larger extent): may affect your
• Age; teaching choices?
• Gender;
• Religion;
• Culture;
• Socio-economic status;
• Family setup;
• Interests;
• Competences;
• Language;
• Disabilities/ challenges;
• Prior knowledge.
Divide the above list of factors up amongst the class, and, in

pairs, discuss the following:
a) How the factor could affect learners’ learning.
b) Which learning areas/ topics could be affected by these
factors?
c) If/ how these learner characteristics would affect your
choice of representation.
6 Activity 3
Selecting appropriate representations
For this activity, you are going to use the three topics that you
chose for Activity 3 and 4 in Chapter 1.
1) Write a 150-word paragraph for each topic, stating which
representations you would select to teach it. Give reasons
for your choices (you may want to base your choices on
the table that you did in Activity 1 of this Chapter).

2) Here is an example, using the topic of Historical sources.

You may not use this example.
The following issues/ interests/ characteristics about the

learners are important in relation to this lesson:
These learners are in Grade 4. That means that they are

at the Concrete Operational stage of development
(Piaget). I will need to use concrete resources to teach
my lesson on historical sources. I will bring the artefacts
(e.g. photographs and newspaper articles) to class.
I must also bear in mind that Sam’s albinism means that

he struggles to read small text. I must increase the
magnification on the newspaper article and ask him to
bring his magnifying lens to class.
In addition, I will use a concept map to summarise the

differences between the types of sources because my
learners are very visual learners and concept maps
organise information graphically.
7 Activity 4
Creating resources
For each of your three selected topics, design one resource. You
do not need to create this resource, but you need to write a 3 topics x 1 resource
paragraph justifying your choice of representation. per topic = 3 resources

Chapter 3: What is the Best Way to

Teach This Content to These Learners?
1 Introduction
“This activity involves the observable performance of
the variety of teaching acts. It includes many of the
most crucial aspects of pedagogy: organizing and
managing the classroom; presenting clear
explanations and vivid descriptions; assigning and
checking work; and interacting effectively with
[learners] through questions and probes, answers and
reactions, and praise and criticism.”
(Shulman, 1987a, p. 17)
This is the part of teaching that you should be most familiar

with, because the actual performance part of teaching (what
Shulman [1987] calls ‘instruction’) is oftentimes the only part of
the teaching process that learners witness. As a result, often
teaching appears to be easier than it is, because, as a learner,
you are only seeing the ‘finished product’ (Hammerness,
Darling-Hammond, Bransford, Berliner, Cochran-Smith,
McDonald & Zeichner, 2005).
It is like going to watch a play: you do not get to see the

hours of rehearsals, learning lines, costume decisions, and
debates and creation of stage props. All you see is the
performance. However, like a stage production, teaching is
much more than just performing! Your ‘performance’ in the
classroom needs to be conceptually informed and
thoroughly planned for, which you will have done in your
lesson plan. The thought that you put into your lesson will
inform how you teach that lesson.
2 The Knowledge that Teachers need

to Teach
Teaching requires more than a ‘hunch’ or a certain personality.
It requires real knowledge and skills. However, in the past, the
people who have made the policies to assess teacher and
learner performances have seen teaching as something of a
process — do this, do that, do this and then you will have a good
lesson. If you miss a step, you are a bad teacher.

Shulman, however, argues that teaching is complex and should

not be oversimplified. He says that good teaching takes into
account all things — the seen and the unseen — when he
criticises policymakers for ignoring “... the subject matter being
taught, the classroom context, the physical and psychological
characteristics of the [learners]...” (Shulman, 1987, p.6). He
says that teaching actually draws on a much more “... elaborate
knowledge base...” (Shulman, 1987, p.7) and that policies which
reduce good teaching to following prescribed steps leave no
room for the teacher to exercise their own judgment.
In order to plan and teach a lesson, teachers need to acquire

and draw on certain kinds of knowledge. Shulman (1987) says
that there are seven categories of teacher knowledge, which
are:
1) Content knowledge;
2) General pedagogical knowledge;
3) Curriculum knowledge;
4) Pedagogical content knowledge;
5) Knowledge of learners and their characteristics;
6) Knowledge of educational contexts;
7) Knowledge of educational ends (p.8).
Perhaps it will become clearer to the reader if each of these

categories of teacher knowledge is explained with the use of a
question:
What am I teaching?
1) Content
What are the big ideas?
knowledge
What are the skills?
How will I teach it?
2) General What resources will be appropriate?
pedagogical How will I represent the knowledge?
knowledge What teaching strategies will be
best?
3) Curriculum Where does this topic fit into the
knowledge curriculum?
4) Pedagogical How will I teach this content to
content these learners?
knowledge
What barriers to learning this topic
5) Knowledge of do my learners have?
learners and What interests my learners?
their What important aspects about my
characteristics learners do I need to consider when
teaching this lesson?

6) Knowledge of What contextual challenges do I

educational face when teaching this lesson?
contexts
7) Knowledge of Why do we teach?
educational What does it mean to learn?
ends What is education?
By drawing on this knowledge, teachers are able to make

decisions and implement those decisions when teaching. A
particularly important category of teacher knowledge is
pedagogical content knowledge (often shortened to PCK). PCK
is generally understood as “the knowledge used to transform
subject matter content into forms more comprehensible to
[learners]” (Park & Oliver, 2008, p. 262). In other words, it is
the central knowledge that allows teachers to do what they
need to do in order to teach: after all, if a teacher cannot make
information understandable to their learners, are they really
teaching?
Shulman (1987) says that PCK is “... uniquely the province of

teachers...” (Shulman, 1987, p.227). What he means by this is
that PCK sets teachers apart from any other profession that
works with knowledge (e.g. a scientist). So what is PCK?
Shulman says that PCK:
“... represents the blending of content and pedagogy

into an understanding of how particular topics,
problems, or issues are organized, represented, and
adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of
learners, and presented for instruction.”
(Shulman, 1987, p.8)
What does this mean? Let us unpack what Shulman is saying:

What he is saying is that PCK is knowledge of the content and
how to teach, as well as knowledge of your learners. This is
complex — you need to know your topic in order to understand
the problems, organise the content and ideas, and so on, and
you must do this while seriously considering the needs of the
diverse learners in your classroom (both as a whole [e.g. grade,
gender, etc.] and as individuals [individual strengths and
weaknesses]). It is the ability to consider all three of these
aspects of teaching in relation to one another that makes our
work as teachers specialised.

A scientist does not have to worry about how to make his/ her
content knowledge accessible to learners. He/ she does not
have to worry about who is going to read his/ her work. He or
she cares about the accuracy and impact of his/ her scientific
study. A teacher is different: he/ she needs to know about many
topics and how they relate to one another (breadth of
knowledge) as well as know a lot about each topic (depth of
knowledge). The scientist just needs to know his/ her topic of
inquiry in depth (depth of knowledge). A teacher, however,
needs not only depth and breadth of knowledge, but he/ she
also needs that special knowledge of how to teach that content,
to these learners, in this classroom.
To continue our example from Chapter 1, our Life Science

teacher would have to think about how she will teach the
lesson:
• Will she teach/ explain it inductively (from examples of
photosynthesis to the conceptual knowledge of the
processes involved with photosynthesis) or deductively
(by beginning with the conceptual knowledge of
photosynthesis and moving towards specific examples of
photosynthesis)? Why?
• What questions will she use to probe learners’
understanding and challenge them to reason critically?
• How will she organise the classroom? Will she engage in
whole-class teaching, get learners to discuss in pairs,
small groups or work individually? Why?
• What teaching strategies will she employ? Discussion,
think-pair-share, whole-class teaching, investigation,
community of enquiry, case study, experiment…? Why?
You will notice that the teacher always needs to give reasons
why he or she has chosen a particular strategy. He or she
needs to make these decisions with the demands of the
content and the needs of the learners in mind.
3 Lesson Plan Focus

3.1 The most Appropriate Teaching
Strategy/ Strategies
Now that you have thought critically about the content and the
needs of the learners in relation to that content, they are in a
position to consider the most appropriate teaching strategy to
enable the particular learners in question to learn the particular
content in question.

In essence, this section of the lesson plan asks student Note: You do not
teachers to ask themselves: how will I teach this content to need to write every
these learners? Student teachers, thus, need to draw on their little characteristic
knowledge of teaching strategies to fill in this section. Student of every single
teachers should consider the most appropriate grouping learner in every
strategies, whether teacher-centred or learner-centred lesson plan! You
instruction would be more appropriate and so on. only reflect on the
ones that may
An example follows: affect your choices
The most appropriate teaching strategy would be for learners of representation
to explore magnetism by doing experiments involving magnets. and/ or teaching
The learners should work in small groups, because the strategy.
learners who have had more experience with magnets can
assist those who have less experience to navigate the
experiments and understand the phenomena being
demonstrated. Also, in small groups, the learners will be able
to each get a turn to interact with the magnets and metals,
which would be more difficult in a whole-class setting.
In this example, we see how the teacher considers the prior

knowledge of the learners (some have more knowledge than
others), as well as the demands of the content (magnetism is
complex and needs to be seen and experienced in real life to
be understood) in order to select the most suitable teaching
strategy.

4 Activity 1
Different approaches to pedagogy: a comparative table
Using Killen (2015), construct a table of the major teaching

strategies that they look at in Chapters 6 to 14. Use the
template below. The first one has been done for you as an
example:
Approach Brief description When it could be useful

Direct Whole-class, teacher-centred • Introducing a new,
instruction teaching where the teacher complex topic;
gives learners information that • Classes are excessively
they need to know large.
Discussion
Small group-
work

Approach Brief description When it could be useful

Co-operative
learning
Problem
solving
Inquiry
Case study
Role play
Writing
5 Activity 2
Thinking about learners in relation to teaching strategies
In order to help you to select appropriate teaching strategies, Note: This

you need to know certain learner-related factors that will affect activity extends
your pedagogical choices. Some of these factors include (to a on Activity 2 of
lesser or larger extent): Chapter 2.
• Age;
• Gender;
• Religion;
• Culture;
• Socio-economic status;
• Family setup;
• Interests;
• Competences;
• Language;
• Disabilities/ challenges;
• Prior knowledge.
Divide the above list of factors up amongst the class and, in

pairs, discuss if/ how these learner characteristics would affect
your choice of teaching strategy.
6 Activity 3
Selecting appropriate representations
For this activity, you are going to use the three topics that you
have been using throughout this module.
1) Write a 150-word paragraph for each topic, stating which

teaching strategy/ strategies you would use to teach it.
Give reasons for your choices (you may want to base
your choices on the table that you did in Activity 1 of this
Chapter).

2) Here is an example, using the topic of Historical sources.

You may not use this example.
In light of the demands of the content knowledge and

skills to be taught, and considering the learning needs of
the learners, the best teaching strategy/ strategies is
small group-work, because the diversity of the learners
in my class means that the learners can share different
their experiences with the different types of sources.
While some learners may know about documentaries,
others may not. Those who love reading can share about
evidence from books and novels.
Also, I will utilise a direct instruction approach to

formalise the difference between primary and secondary
sources after the learners have investigated the
differences in their small groups.

Chapter 4: How do I know that Learners

have learned?
1 Introduction
“[The process of evaluation] includes the … checking
for understanding and misunderstanding that a
teacher must employ while teaching interactively, as
well as the more formal testing and evaluation that
teachers do to provide feedback and grades.”
(Shulman, 1987a, pp. 18 - 19)
Evaluation serves numerous purposes. Its primary function is to Have a class

“support and enhance learning” (Shepard, 2000, p. 4) and not to discussion about
judge children (although this seems to run contrary to popular what ‘learner-
belief). Lorrie Shepard (2000) speaks about how we tend to centred’ means in
embrace a more learner-centred view of teaching, but still see the context of a
evaluation and assessment as rigid testing which does not classroom. You
promote the learning of the learner. may want to
contrast it with
Perhaps a useful way of seeing assessment is as an exchange ‘teacher-centred’.
of information: when you assess a learner’s work, you are
actually asking ‘what does this learner’s work tell me about their
understanding?’ The learner’s work or answers communicate to
you what they do and do not understand. Assessment, then, is
not about ranking — ‘who is better than whom?’ — bests and
worsts, judging and marks. It is about finding out where learners
understand and where they do not understand, and our
assessments need to be very carefully constructed in order to
ensure that we are able to glean the required information about
what learners do and do not understand from our assessments
of them.
1.1 When do we assess?

Teachers can assess or evaluate learners at a number of
different times. They may assess learners before teaching,
which is called a baseline assessment; they may assess
learners during teaching, through questioning and they may
assess learners after teaching, through an activity or test. The
teacher would choose to assess learners at different times for
different reasons. But assessments need to be planned: you
cannot rely on being able to ask the learners questions out of
your head as you teach!

1.2 Assessing for Different Purposes

We use different approaches to assessment for different ends.
Watch the video called
The two major categories of assessment are generally referred
“The Formative
to as ‘formative’ and ‘summative’ assessment. Examples of each
Classroom” by
include:
Measured Progress:
[Online]. Available at:
Formative Summative
https://www.youtube.c
Classroom activities Tests
om/watch?v=rL54bfm
Teacher questions Examinations
ZPzY [Accessed
Observations Projects
23 January 2017].
Assignments
Be attentive to how
But this distinction can be misleading. The terms ‘formative’ and
the teachers talk
‘summative’ in the context of assessment actually refer to the
about ‘using the data’
use of the assessment. An assessment is thus used formatively
(data refers to the
or summatively, also referred to as assessment for learning (AfL)
information that the
and assessment of learning (AoL) respectively. For the purposes
teachers get from the
of this explanation, we will not refer to ‘formative assessment’
learners’ answers) to
and ‘summative assessment’, but rather ‘AfL’ and using
inform their future
assessment formatively, and ‘AoL’ and using assessment
teaching.
summatively respectively.
When a teacher uses an assessment formatively, “assessment

evidence is interpreted and used by teachers and learners to
decide where the learners are in their learning, where to go next
and how best to get there” (Du Toit & Louw, 2016, p. 124). That
means that a teacher could actually use the learners’ answers in
an examination formatively, by considering what their responses
mean for his or her teaching going forward.
When a teacher uses an assessment summatively, they are

trying to find out “how much [learners] have learned, whether
standards are being met, and whether [teachers] have done the
job they were hired to do” (Stiggins, 2002, as cited in Du Toit &
Louw, 2016, pp.123—124). It thus, by itself does not inform
future teaching and so happens at the end of teaching.

The following figure may prove helpful for you to understand

using assessment formatively:
Figure 1: The relationship between learner’s performance and

future teaching when assessment is used formatively.
An example of an assessment that is used summatively that you

may be familiar with is the Matric Examinations (‘finals’): this is
an example of AoL. The Matric ‘prelims’ or ‘trials’ are examples
of assessments that are used formatively: this is an example of
AfL.
1.3 How do we make ‘good’ assessments?

When a teacher plans his or her assessments or evaluation, he
Your assessment
or she needs to keep the learning outcomes/ aims/ objectives at
needs to assess
the forefront of their thinking. A well-constructed lesson outcome
what you want to
will give some indication of how the teacher will know that the
assess!
learner has met the outcome (in other words, whether the lesson
was successful or not). This match between the learning
outcome and the assessment is what is called validity. If the
assessment truly assesses what it is meant to assess, it is
considered valid.

For example, you want to find out how much a person weighs
(their mass). If you use a tape measure to find out their weight,
will your findings be a true reflection of what you set out to
measure? No. The correct tool to measure mass is a scale. In
the same way, you would not use a multiple-choice assessment
to assess a learner’s ability to reason. A better tool would be to
get them to write a paragraph, because a paragraph allows
learners to explain themselves, whereas the limited number of
predetermined responses of a multiple-choice question does
not.
Assessments also need to be reliable. This means that the

assessment results should not vary widely because the
assessment is biased. The assessment tasks should be
consistent. If external factors affect the results of an assessment
too much, it is not reliable. It is not a reliable assessment of a
learner’s understanding of the language used to ask the
questions is too complex for second-language speakers to
understand. The resulting poor score on the assessment is thus
not an accurate reflection of the learners’ understanding.
Consequently, reliability is closely related to validity: a lack of
reliability makes an assessment invalid.
Finally, assessments should be fair. This refers to the extent to

which assessments are “reasonable, unbiased and non-
discriminatory” (Du Toit & Louw, 2016, p. 130). An assessment
that requires learners to have prior knowledge of a topic that has
not been taught is not fair. This is particularly an issue when it
comes to diverse classrooms: not all learners have had the same
experiences and so do not all have the same prior knowledge
derived from everyday life. Other important considerations when
it comes to the construction of assessments include objectivity,
practicability, transparency, authenticity, discrimination,
meaningfulness, balance, cognitive complexity, generalisability
and transferability and accountability (Du Toit & Louw, 2016).
2 Lesson Plan Focus

2.1 Assessment
It is important that you to plan your assessments in line with your
lesson outcomes. You thus need to plan to assess. Your
assessments need to be learner-appropriate and content-
appropriate. If your assessment meets these two criteria, it
should be accessible for the learners.

If not, your assessment results could be affected by external

factors, which we will explore in the activities that follow. You
need to write down exactly how you will assess learners and why
you have chosen that assessment. If you are choosing to ask
learners questions during the lesson, write down exactly what
you will ask them, with some possible answers that they may
give you. You need to make provision for the time that you will
give learners to think about your questions (called ‘wait time’).
Also, factor in a realistic amount of time for learners to complete
activities.

3 Activity 1
Reflecting on perceptions of assessment
It is most probably safe to assume that most learners despised,

dreaded and altogether hated assessments. Even the word
‘exam’ or ‘test’ is oftentimes met with groans.
a) Write a journal entry-type response focusing on your

thoughts on assessments, tests, examinations, projects,
assignments and so forth. Try to explain why you have this
reaction to assessments.
b) Using your journal entry, fill in the BINGO card below using
adjectives (describing words) that you have used to
describe your feelings towards assessment. Your lecturer
will call out adjectives. Tick them off if your lecturer calls
out an adjective that you have on your card. Once you
have ticked at least one adjective in each column, yell out
BINGO!
B I N G O
This activity is meant to give you and your lecturer a sense of

how the class feels about assessment. You will learn in your
other modules that assessment is really not meant to be a
negative activity. It is meant to support learning.

4 Activity 2
a) Discuss with the person next to you why ‘prelims’ are
considered to be AfL and ‘finals’ are considered to be AoL.
b) Using your prescribed textbook (Du Toit & Louw, 2016),
write a description of not more than 50 words of each of
the following terms:
• Diagnostic assessment;
• Formative assessment;
• Summative assessment;
• Formative assessment;
• Authentic assessment;
• Performance assessment;
• Assessment of learning;
• Assessment for learning.
5 Activity 3
Write a letter to your grandmother, explaining the concepts of
validity, reliability and fairness in assessment. Remember to use
interesting examples to help her to understand!

Chapter 5: How can I continue to grow

as a Teacher?
1 Introduction
“[Reflection] is what the teacher does when he or she Read through the
looks back at the teaching and learning that has descriptions of
occurred, and reconstructs, re-enacts, and/or these types of
recaptures the events, the emotions, and the reflection on
accomplishments. It is the set of processes through pages 119 and
which a professional learns from experience.” 120 of Killen
(Shulman, 1987a, p. 19) (2015).
Your learning about teaching does not end when you get your
Bachelor of Education. In addition to continual courses and
workshops that your school will require you to attend, you need
to reflect critically on the teaching that you do every day of your
professional life.
Some educational theorists claim that much of our knowledge as

teachers actually emerges from our own reflections about
teaching (for example, Schön [1983]). This means that many of
our ideas about teaching and learning emerge from our
experiences with and in the context of the classroom. The only
way to unlock these ideas so that we learn from our time in the
classroom is through reflection. Schön (1983) talks about two
types of reflection: reflection-in-practice and reflection-on-
practice (in Killen, 2015). As the names indicate, these two types
of reflection happen at different times.
2 Reflection-on-practice
Good teachers take the time after teaching, perhaps at the end
of the school day, week, term or during a free period, to think
back on the lesson(s) that they have taught and consider what
worked well and what needs more thought and planning. Even
teachers who have taught for many years should reflect on their
lessons and critique their teaching.
Reflection-on-practice is when teachers think about their

teaching after the fact. Some teachers keep a reflective journal
to record their thoughts about their teaching. It is often
suggested that new teachers keep a reflective journal in which
to record their reflections on their own practice.

Here is an example of a young student teacher’s reflections on

her practice:
Today I taught the Grade 5’s about the A brief

different kinds of historical sources. I introduction to
decided to teach them by using a rotation the lesson — for
method. I had ‘stations’ with different kinds future reference
of historical sources, grouped according to when looking
source type (primary photographic; back at
secondary written; secondary stories, etc.). reflections.
I chose to let learners move from station to
station in small groups, because they could
then discuss with each other what the Rationale for her
sources were and what they offered the choices.
reader/ viewer in terms of historical
information. I had prepared everything in
advance, but the lesson did not go as
planned.
Firstly, the learners were conflating Description of

primary/ secondary sources with what happened.
photographic/ written and did not
understand that photographic/ written were
sub-types of primary/ secondary. I think Possible
that this is because by putting the sources explanation for
on tables already classified according to events.
the two organisational levels, learners
were unable to distinguish between them. I
could have scaffolded learners’ learning How it could be
more effectively by first introducing the resolved in the
organisational level of primary/ secondary future.
and then letting them explore sub-types of
each.
Secondly, with such large classes, the

small group rotation strategy is really
difficult to manage with just one teacher in
the classroom! It was made worse by the
fact that the learners did not understand
the categorisation of historical sources, so
I was running around like crazy attending
to the learners’ questions! Next time, I think
that I would ask my supervising teacher for
some assistance!

Reflections do not need to only happen when something goes

wrong! Certainly, a teacher can reflect on a successful lesson:
he or she can think critically about what made that lesson go so
well and think carefully about how they could pull that successful
strategy into other lessons.
Also, remember not to only reflect on the ‘logistical’ issues (e.g.

the children were noisy, they did not have their books, they were
well-behaved), but also (and more importantly) on the actual
teaching and learning. In the example above, the student
teacher reflected on where the lesson could be improved from a
conceptual perspective when she spoke about the conflation of
the categorisation systems for historical sources, which is clearly
a teaching and learning issue. She also reflected on how she
could manage the classroom better in a rotation-kind of lesson
in the future.
3 Reflection-in-practice
As Shulman’s Model of Pedagogical Action and Reasoning
clearly states, the teacher does not stop thinking when he or she
starts teaching. In fact, some studies claim that teachers make
more decisions per minute than brain surgeons do! How
teachers come to these decisions is through reflection during the
moment of teaching.
Schön (1983) calls this reflection-in-practice, which refers to the

ongoing thinking about what you are doing when teaching and
acting upon your conclusions. If, for example, you are teaching
a class and you find that the learners do not understand what
you are trying to teach them, you consider how to change your
teaching strategy to enable learner understanding on the spot.
This is an example of reflection-in-action. Of course, reflection-
in-action cannot be formally recorded like reflection-on-action
can: you cannot very well stop your lesson to quickly write a
reflection!
As a future teacher, you should be engaging in both reflection-

in- and reflection-on-action.

4 Lesson Plan Focus

4.1 Reflection Questions
In the lesson plan template, there are a set of specially-
constructed questions that you need to answer about every
lesson. Even if a lesson does not go too well, you can still learn
much about teaching from it. When you reflect on your lesson,
whether using these questions as a guide not, you need to
remember to be honest with and critical about yourself. Even if
the learners enjoyed the lesson, did they learn something
powerful?
Reflecting requires critical examination of the learning outcomes

of the lesson and you need to ask yourself whether the learners
truly met these lesson outcomes. You also need to consider
what the learners’ reactions (whether physical, verbal or written)
to the lesson means for your development as a teacher.
Sometimes, if you are teaching the same lesson to more than
one class, it is interesting to compare the experiences and see
where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

5 Activity 1
Practicing reflection
5.1 Unfortunately, you have not yet taught a lesson at this

Use this video for your
point. In order to allow you to practice reflecting, you are
reflection: [Online].
going to watch a video of a lesson and answer the adapted
Available at:
standard reflection questions from the lesson planning
https://www.youtube.co
template below. Once you have watched the video, write
m/watch?v=I7n7yX5fm
detailed responses to these questions, based on what you
Rc [Accessed 23
have seen.
January 2017].
• Describe aspects of this lesson that you think worked
Please note that even
really well.
though this is a
• Which areas of this lesson did not go according to
Foundation Phase
plan? Explain why you think this may have
lesson, it has great
happened.
value for reflection
• This is what I learnt about the learners in this class
purposes even for
today. Intermediate Phase
student teachers!

5.2 Do you think that the reflection that you have just engaged
in is reflection-on-practice or reflection-in-practice? Why?
6 Activity 2
Reflecting while you are teaching
When you are teaching, your brain does not switch off. You
continue to think and reflect, continually making decisions as you
move through your lesson. In pairs, discuss what events or
factors could make you decide to change something in your
lesson while you are teaching.

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Darling-Hammond, L. 2006. Why teacher education is important — and difficult. In:

Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, pp.19—42.
Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015. Minimum Requirements of

Teacher Education Qualifications. Pretoria: Government Printing Works.
Du Toit, E. R. and Louw, L. P. 2016. Help! I'm a Student Teacher! Skills Development
for Teaching Practice. 2nd ed. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Killen, R. 2015. Teaching Strategies for Quality Teaching and Learning. 2nd ed.
Cape Town: Juta.
Lortie, D. C. 1975. The limits of socialization. In: School-Teacher: A Sociological

Study. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, pp.55—82.
Mahommadpur Primary School. 2016. Teaching Experience in Mahommadpur

Primary School. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.assignmentpoint.com/business/management/teaching-experience-in-
mohammadpur-preparatory-school.html [Accessed 23 January 2017].
Morrow, W. 1999. Scripture and practices. In: Learning to Teach in South Africa.
Cape Town: HSRC Press, pp.109—135.
Park, S. and Oliver, J. S. 2008. Revisiting the conceptualisation of Pedagogical

Content Knowledge (PCK): PCK as a conceptual tool to understand teachers as
professionals. Research in Science Education, Volume 38, pp.261—284.
Rusznyak, L. and Walton, E., 2011. Lesson planning guidelines for student teachers:
A scaffold for the development of pedagogical content knowledge. Education as
Change, pp 271—285.
Shepard, L. A. 2000. The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational

Researcher, 29(7), pp.4—14.
Shulman, L. S. 1987a. Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform.

Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), pp.1—22.
Shulman, L. S. 1987b. Learning to teach. In: L. S. Shulman and P. Hutchings, eds.

Teaching as Community Property: Essays on Higher Education. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, pp.5—9.

Intellectual Property
Plagiarism occurs in a variety of forms. Ultimately though, it refers to the use of the
words, ideas or images of another person without acknowledging the source using the
required conventions. The IIE publishes a Quick Reference Guide that provides more
detailed guidance, but a brief description of plagiarism and referencing is included
below for your reference. It is vital that you are familiar with this information and the
Intellectual Integrity Policy before attempting any assignments.
Introduction to Referencing and Plagiarism

What is ‘Plagiarism’?
‘Plagiarism’ is the act of taking someone’s words or ideas and presenting them as your
own.
What is ‘Referencing’?
‘Referencing’ is the act of citing or giving credit to the authors of any work that you
have referred to or consulted. A ‘reference’ then refers to a citation (a credit) or the
actual information from a publication that is referred to.
Referencing is the acknowledgment of any work that is not your own, but is used by
you in an academic document. It is simply a way of giving credit to and acknowledging
the ideas and words of others.
When writing assignments, students are required to acknowledge the work, words or
ideas of others through the technique of referencing. Referencing occurs in the text at
the place where the work of others is being cited, and at the end of the document, in
the bibliography.
The bibliography is a list of all the work (published and unpublished) that a writer has
read in the course of preparing a piece of writing. This includes items that are not
directly cited in the work.
A reference is required when you:

• Quote directly: when you use the exact words as they appear in the source;
• Copy directly: when you copy data, figures, tables, images, music, videos or
frameworks;
• Summarise: when you write a short account of what is in the source;
• Paraphrase: when you state the work, words and ideas of someone else in your
own words.

It is standard practice in the academic world to recognise and respect the ownership
of ideas, known as intellectual property, through good referencing techniques.
However, there are other reasons why referencing is useful.
Good Reasons for Referencing
It is good academic practice to reference because:

• It enhances the quality of your writing;
• It demonstrates the scope, depth and breadth of your research;
• It gives structure and strength to the aims of your article or paper;
• It endorses your arguments;
• It allows readers to access source documents relating to your work, quickly and
easily.
Sources
The following would count as ‘sources’:

• Books,
• Chapters from books,
• Encyclopaedia,
• Articles,
• Journals,
• Magazines,
• Periodicals,
• Newspaper articles,
• Items from the Internet (images, videos, etc.),
• Pictures,
• Unpublished notes, articles, papers, books, manuscripts, dissertations, theses,
etc.,
• Diagrams,
• Videos,
• Films,
• Music,
• Works of fiction (novels, short stories or poetry).
What You Need to Document from the Hard Copy Source You
are Using
(Not every detail will be applicable in every case. However, the following lists provide
a guide to what information is needed.)

You need to acknowledge:

• The words or work of the author(s),
• The author(s)’s or editor(s)’s full names,
• If your source is a group/ organisation/ body, you need all the details,
• Name of the journal, periodical, magazine, book, etc.,
• Edition,
• Publisher’s name,
• Place of publication (i.e. the city of publication),
• Year of publication,
• Volume number,
• Issue number,
• Page numbers.
What You Need to Document if you are Citing Electronic

Sources
• Author(s)’s/ editor(s)’s name,

• Title of the page,
• Title of the site,
• Copyright date, or the date that the page was last updated,
• Full Internet address of page(s),
• Date you accessed/ viewed the source,
• Any other relevant information pertaining to the web page or website.
Referencing Systems
There are a number of referencing systems in use and each has its own consistent
rules. While these may differ from system-to-system, the referencing system followed
needs to be used consistently, throughout the text. Different referencing systems
cannot be mixed in the same piece of work!
A detailed guide to referencing, entitled Referencing and Plagiarism Guide is available

from your library. Please refer to it if you require further assistance.
When is Referencing Not Necessary?
This is a difficult question to answer – usually when something is ‘common knowledge’.

However, it is not always clear what ‘common knowledge’ is.
Examples of ‘common knowledge’ are:

• Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990;
• The world’s largest diamond was found in South Africa;
• South Africa is divided into nine (9) provinces;
• The lion is also known as ‘The King of the Jungle’.
• 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐 2
• The sky is blue.

Usually, all of the above examples would not be referenced. The equation 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐 2
is Einstein’s famous equation for calculations of total energy and has become so
familiar that it is not referenced to Einstein.
Sometimes what we think is ‘common knowledge’, is not. For example, the above
statement about the sky being blue is only partly true. The light from the sun looks
white, but it is actually made up of all the colours of the rainbow. Sunlight reaches the
Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in
the air. The smallest particles are by coincidence the same length as the wavelength
of blue light. Blue is scattered more than the other colours because it travels as shorter,
smaller waves. It is not entirely accurate then to claim that the sky is blue. It is thus
generally safer to always check your facts and try to find a reputable source for your
claim.
Important Plagiarism Reminders

The IIE respects the intellectual property of other people and requires its students to
be familiar with the necessary referencing conventions. Please ensure that you seek
assistance in this regard before submitting work if you are uncertain.
If you fail to acknowledge the work or ideas of others or do so inadequately this will be
handled in terms of the Intellectual Integrity Policy (available in the library) and/ or the
Student Code of Conduct – depending on whether or not plagiarism and/ or cheating
(passing off the work of other people as your own by copying the work of other students
or copying off the Internet or from another source) is suspected.
Your campus offers individual and group training on referencing conventions – please
speak to your librarian or ADC/ Campus Co-Navigator in this regard.
Reiteration of the Declaration you have signed:

1. I have been informed about the seriousness of acts of plagiarism.
2. I understand what plagiarism is.
3. I am aware that The Independent Institute of Education (IIE) has a policy
regarding plagiarism and that it does not accept acts of plagiarism.
4. I am aware that the Intellectual Integrity Policy and the Student Code of Conduct
prescribe the consequences of plagiarism.
5. I am aware that referencing guides are available in my student handbook or
equivalent and in the library and that following them is a requirement for
successful completion of my programme.
6. I am aware that should I require support or assistance in using referencing guides
to avoid plagiarism I may speak to the lecturers, the librarian or the campus ADC/
Campus Co-Navigator.
7. I am aware of the consequences of plagiarism.
Please ask for assistance prior to submitting work if you are at all unsure.

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IIE Module Reader TEIP5119

The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd is registered

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 1 of 42

DID YOU KNOW?

M odule Guides or M odule M anuals

M odule Discussion Forum

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 2 of 42

IIE Library Online Databases

EBSCO eBook Collection

This database will provide you with books available in other

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 3 of 42

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 4 of 42

Mahommadpur Primary School (2016)

Written by Dale Taylor

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 5 of 42

In South Africa, teaching is a degreed profession. A profession requires a knowledge

“[t]he goal of teacher education … [is] to educate teachers to reason

The Conceptual Framework of this Reader

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 6 of 42

These six processes are:

Shulman's Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action (1987a)

Each of these processes will be explored in a chapter of this Reader.

Lesson Plan Focus

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 7 of 42

Why do teachers need to be able to reason?

The resilience of these conceptions of teaching has an impact on student teachers’

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 8 of 42

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 9 of 42

Chapter 1: What on Earth am I

You cannot teach something without understanding it yourself.

Shulman (1987a) has the following to say about

We ask that the teacher comprehend critically a set of

For example, a teacher who is teaching Life Science needs to

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 10 of 42

Shulman (1987a) goes on to say that:

Saying that a teacher must first comprehend both

So, what Shulman (1987a) is saying is that the type of

2 Lesson Plan Focus

Do you want to deepen your understanding of this chapter?

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 11 of 42

You are a qualified teacher. Your friend, also a qualified

Hi ☺ My principal is being so annoying 

Write a response to your friend, explaining why your friend

Pair up with someone in your class. Without using words,

“Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and

1) Choose three topics from different learning areas. Make

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 12 of 42

Using your concept maps, write a detailed summary of the

As you are aware, Shulman (1987a) says that every stage of

Fill in the following table, distinguishing between what teachers

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 13 of 42

Chapter 2: How do I make the content

The knowledge that you have gained is not necessarily

Shulman (1987a) says that:

To reason one’s way through an act of teaching is to

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 14 of 42

What this means is that you need to give special consideration

You will have, by now, realised that teaching is much more

To continue our example from Chapter 1, our Life Science

2 Lesson Plan Focus

© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2020 Page 15 of 42

That being said, the student teacher needs to consider the

Furthermore, the student teacher needs to reflect on how they

3 What are Lesson Aims/ Outcomes/