Browsing by Author "Coosner, Carroll Diane"

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    The design and evaluation of a cognitive skills assessment checklist for educators
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Coosner, Carroll Diane; Cilliers, C. D.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a shift to process-centred, outcomesbased (OBE) education. Within this paradigm much has been written and recommended as regards assessment, specifically authentic assessment, which needs to be continuous. Within this transformatory model of teaching and assessment, it is vital for the educator to understand how the learner learns in order to assess him/her authentically. Because cognition has to do with how learners acquire, store and utilize information, the best way to assess cognitive ability is to assess those thought processes that are involved in arriving at the products of cognition directly. Being process-based and judging the learners' responsiveness to instruction, it becomes important for the educator to examine how a learner learns, before educators can hope to categorise and analyse the learners' ability to learn. The paucity of the data base search revealed that the design of such a cognitive checklist was imperative. The checklist had to be easily understood, practical and easily impiementabie. The researcher based the checklist on Feuerstein's (1980) model, which is underpinned by the concepts of structural cognitive modifiability (SCM) and the mediated learning experience (MLE). SCM is based on the assumption that human beings have the capacity to modify their cognitive functions and adapt to life's changing demands. They are thus open systems which are amenable to cognitive changes. Structural changes are pervasive and determine cognitive function in a broad series of mental activities. Feuerstein has suggested a list of deficient cognitive functions at the input, elaboration and output phases of the mental act. These serve as guidelines for observational and mediational efforts. The identification of the deficient cognitive function, the level of modifiability and the mediation required to change them are considered to be of vital importance to predicting future learning. This basic assumption shifts the responsibility for a person's modifiability from that individual to the mediator or educator. The basic parameters of the cognitive process are subsumed into the cognitive map. These include: content; operation; modality; phase (input, elaboration, output); level of complexity; level of abstraction and level of efficiency. The present researcher reframed all the basic components of the learning phases into easily accessible English and provided examples of sub-skills (150) necessary for the successful acquisition of learning at that phase of the learning process. The literature study was followed by a pilot-study. This was carried out in order to refine the checklist and make sure that it was, indeed, user-friendly, easily understood, impiementabie without training and that it yielded information which the educators found to be professionally beneficial and enriching. The results of the pilot-study were incorporated into The Checklist To Assess Cognitive Skills' (Chapter 4). The result of the research was unanimous as regards the above-mentioned goals. The educators all realised the necessity of linking assessment to instruction and understood how crucial it is that educators understand and appreciate how a learner learns and hence, develops.
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    Dynamic assessment : a practical strategy for school educators
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1999-12) Coosner, Carroll Diane; Cilliers, C. D.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a shift to process-centred, outcomesbased (OBE) education. Inherent in this shift and in the democratisation of the education system, has been a move to holistic, learner-centred and inclusive education. The successful implementation of a 'new' education system will require a major paradigm shift in educators' methodology, especially with regard to how educators assess learners within this processcentred, OBE approach. The concept of dynamic assessment is especially relevant in the shift to OBE. The dynamic assessment strategy proposed by this researcher is based on Feuerstein's theoretical design. Implicit in the theory are the concepts of ., structured cognitive modifiability (SCM) and the mediated learning experience (MLE). SCM is based on the assumption that human beings have the capacity to modify their cognitive functions and adapt to life's changing demands. They are thus open systems which are amenable to cognitive changes. Structural changes are pervasive and determine cognitive function in a broad series of mental activities. Feuerstein has suggested a list of deficient cognitive functions at the input, elaboration and output phases of the mental act. These serve as guidelines for observational and mediational efforts. The identification of the deficient cognitive function, the level of modifiability and the mediation required to change them are considered to be of vital importance to predicting future learning. This basic assumption shifts the responsibility for a person's modifiability from that individual to the mediator or examiner. For this reason, cognitive modifiability is best explained by the MLE theory. MLE refers to an interactional process in which adults interpose themselves between the leamer/child and his or her world and help him or her to make meaning of that world. For the purposes of this study project it was vital that the educators be trained to use the MLE criteria in their interactions. The literature study was followed by a pilot study, which was carried out in order to refine and contextualise the theoretical framework underpinning the strategy. The results of this pilot study led to further refinements of the proposed strategy which developed into the practical dynamic assessment strategy. (See Chapter 4.) The prototype of the dynamic assessment strategy contains training in both the needs and relevance of the strategy within the South African context, the theoretical foundations which underpin it, and strategies for its successful implementation. It requires approximately four hours of intensive training. The results of the research reflected that an overwhelming majority of the educators became more learner-centred and self-reflective, and had internalised and integrated the criteria of MLE. They found the strategy to be practical and implementable. It is preCisely strategies like this which are now needed in South Africa's educational transition. Without the necessary pre- and in-service training, the vision and principles of aBE could remain an idealistic dream, as opposed to an implemented and working reality.