Government Gazette

Vol. 415, No. 20844, 4 February 2000

GOVERNMENT NOTICE

Notice 82 of 2000

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY ACT, 1996

NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR EDUCATORS

The Minister of Education has, in terms of section 3(4)(f) and (l) of the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (Act No. 27 of 1996), determined Norms and Standards for Educators as National Policy, and which policy is, in terms of section 7 of the said Act hereby published.

Professor Kader Asmal, MP
Minister of Education

NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR EDUCATORS

LIST OFACRONYMS

GLOSSARY

Applied competence means the ability to put into practice in the relevant context the learning outcomes acquired in obtaining a qualification.

Credit means that value assigned to a given number of notional hours of learning.

Critical Outcomes or Critical Cross-field Education and Training Outcomes means those generic outcomes which inform all teaching and learning, and are as defined in these regulations.

Education and Training Quality Assurance body (ETQA) means a body established in terms of section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Act, responsible for monitoring and auditing achievements in terms of national standards and qualifications, and to which specific functions relating to the monitoring and auditing of national standards and qualifications have been assigned in term of section 5(1)(b)(1) or the Act.

Elective learning or Elective means a selection of additional credits at the level of the NQF specified, from which a choice may be made to ensure that the purpose(s) of the qualification is achieved.

Field means a particular area of learning used as an organising mechanism for the National Qualifications Framework.

Fundamental Learning or fundamental means that learning which forms the grounding or basis needed to undertake the education, training or further learning required in the obtaining of a qualification.

Integrated Assessment means that form of assessment which permits the learner to demonstrate applied competence and which uses a range of formative and summative assessment methods.

Level Descriptor means that statement describing a particular level of the eight levels of the National Qualifications Framework.

National Standards Body (NSB) means a body registered in terms of section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Act, responsible for establishing education and training standards or qualifications, and to which specific functions relating to the registration of national standards and qualifications have been assigned in terms of section 5(1)(b)(i) of the Act.

Notional Hours of Learning means the learning time that it is conceived it would take an average learner to meet the outcomes defined, and includes concepts such as contact time, time spent in structured learning in the workplace and individual learning.

Outcomes means the contextually demonstrated end products of the learning process.

Provider means a body which delivers learning programmes which Nominate in specified National Qualifications Framework standards and or qualifications and manages the assessment thereof.

Primary Focus means that activity or objective within the sector or sub-system upon which an organisation or body concentrates its efforts.

Qualification means a planned combination of learning outcomes which has a defined purpose or purposes, and which is intended to provide qualifying learners with applied competence and a basis for further reaming; and it means the formal recognition of the achievement of the required number and type of credits and such other requirements at specific levels of the National Qualifications Framework as maybe determined by the relevant bodies registered for such purpose by the South African Qualifications Authority.

Quality Assurance means the process of ensuring that the degree of excellence specified is achieved.

Recognition of Prior Learning means the comparison of the previous learning and experience of a learner howsoever obtained against the learning outcomes required for a specified qualifications, and the acceptance for purposes of qualifications of that which meets the requirements.

Specific Outcomes means contextually demonstrated knowledge, skills and values which support one or more critical outcomes.

Specialised learning or Specialisation means that specialised theoretical knowledge which underpins application in the area of specialisation.

Standard means registered statements of desired education and training out comes and their associated assessment criteria.

Unit Standard means registered statements of desired education and training outcomes and their association assessment criteria together with administrative and other information as specified in these regulations.

1. SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY STATEMENT

The term educator in this policy statement applies to all those persons who teach or educate other persons or who provide professional educational services at any public school, further education and training institution or departmental office. The term includes educators in the classroom, heads of departments, deputy-principals, principals, education development officers, district and regional managers and systems managers.

As soon as other processes of generating standards and qualifications have been finalised by the relevant stakeholder bodies, the policy will be augmented to encompass the entire range of educators as defined in the Employment of Educators Act (Act no 76 of 1998), including those persons who teach, educate or train other persons in adult basic education centres or in early childhood development centres and those who provide professional therapy and educational psychological services.

The term educator development used in this policy refers to ongoing education and training of educators as a continuum, including both pre-service and in-service education and training.

The policy describes the roles, their associated set of applied competences (norms) and qualifications (standards) for the development of educators. It also establishes key strategic objectives for the development of learning programmes, qualifications and standards for educators. These norms and standards provide a basis for providers to develop programmes and qualifications that will be recognised by the Department of Education for purposes of employment. This policy on Norms and Standards for Educators needs to be informed by continued research, and provides a focus for that research.

The roles, their associated set of applied competences and the qualifications described here will be used by the Department of Education for purposes of recognition and evaluation of qualifications for employment as an educator.

2. BACKGROUND TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS POLICY

This policy statement derives from the final report produced by the Technical Committee on the Revision of Norms and Standards for Educators, Department of Education, September 1998. The Technical Committee engaged in a variety of activities over a period of nine months culminating in the final report. Besides literature and policy review, the Committee consulted intensively with a range of stakeholders and drew heavily on the work of others, including:

• The regulations and discussion documents of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA);
• The reports of the Education, Training and Development Practices Project;
• The report of the President's Education Initiative (Getting Learning Right, 1999);
• The Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education (Criteria for Quality Distance Education);
• Adult Basic Education and Training standards generating task team;
• Early Childhood Development Interim Accreditation Committee;
• The Green Paper on 'Quality Education for All Learners: The Challenge of Addressing Barriers to Learning and Development'.

This policy statement should be read together with The Final Report of the Technical Committee on the Revision of the Norms and Standards for Educators (Department of Education, September 1998) and with collective agreements of the Education Labour Relations Council, including those on Development Appraisal, the Duties and Responsibilities of Educators and Educator Workloads, as well as the South African Council for Educators' Code of Conduct.

3. ROLES AND COMPETENCES

The cornerstone of this Norms and Standards policy is the notion of applies competence and it's associated assessment criteria.

Applied competence is the overarching term for three interconnected kinds of competence:

• Practical competence is the demonstrated ability, in an authentic context, to consider a range of possibilities for action, make considered decisions about which possibility to follow, and to perform the chosen action.
• It is grounded in foundational competence where the reamer demonstrates an understanding of the knowledge and thinking that underpins the action taken; and
• integrated through reflexive competence in which the learner demonstrates ability to integrate or connect performances and decision-making with understanding and with an ability to adapt to change and unforeseen circumstances and to explain the reasons behind these adaptations.

Applied competence also refers to the ability to integrate the discrete competences which constitute each of the seven educator roles. This is important so that competence in a role is assessed, rather than simply the ability to perform a discrete competence. In turn, the seven roles should also be assessed in an integrated and applied manner.

In addition, this applied competence must be demonstrated within the subject or phase specialist role that defines the purpose of the qualification. While all qualifications must develop applied competence, the level at which this competence is demonstrated will differ according to the purpose and nature of the qualification.

All the competences must be developed in all initial educator qualifications. They should not, however, be seen as static. They may be developed in different ways, with different emphases and at different depths. Providers have the responsibility to decide how this should be achieved, and before designing a learning programme it will be necessary to establish the particular nature of the clients and which qualification the reamers are to be prepared for.

A number of factors will impact on this decision, including:

• the type of reamers in the programme, especially their levels of maturity and experience;
• the context - rural, urban-or peri-urban;
• the phase(s) to be catered for;
• language experience;
• whether the courses are to be offered through contact or distance education.

Different qualifications may demand different NQF levels for the achievement of similar competences. For example, an initial teaching qualification on level 6 for the senior phase in the general education and training band will develop and assess the competence of an educator to be a leader, administrator and manager at a lower level and in a more restricted range, focused on the classroom, than an advanced qualification at level 7, aimed at school principals, district managers and education development officers. Some qualifications might require the same level of practical competence, but could differ with regard to their degree of rigour in terms of reflexive and foundational competences. Hence the 'mix' of competences can be manipulated in order to attain the required breadth (range) and depth of the qualification.

Some competences may be seen to be more suitable for experienced rather than beginning educators, e.g. designing original reaming programmes, accessing and working in partnership with professional services and other resources in order to provide support for learners. They are nevertheless included in the initial educator programme since the competences will develop as the educator becomes more experienced.

Although teaching practice is recognised as an essential feature that should be included in all educator programmes, no competences are specifically associated with it and there is no prescribed period of time. This is a programme element to be determined by the provider concerned and the relevant quality assurance body.

Teaching practice is seen as a mode of delivery through which all the different roles of educators should be developed and assessed. Time spent in the workplace is considered to be very important and should provide the authentic context within which student educators experience and demonstrate the integration of the competences developed in the entire curriculum.

Educators will need some proficiency in more than one official language. The levels of proficiency required are described in a number of the competences. For employment purposes providers are requested to indicate the language proficiency attained by a graduate in terms of any appropriate language endorsement.

NOTES ON THE ROLES AND THEIR ASSOCIATED COMPETENCES

1. The seven roles and associated competences for educators for schooling provide the exit level outcomes. They are in effect the norms for educator development and therefore the central feature of all initial educator qualifications and reaming programmes. The critical cross-field outcomes are integrated into the roles and their applied competence. Providers have the freedom and the responsibility to design their reaming programmes in any way that leads reamers to the successful achievement of the outcomes as represented in their associated assessment criteria.

2. .While providers should develop these roles and competences in all qualifications offered, they will combine and weight the roles differently in accordance with the specific purpose of the qualification. A more advanced qualification may pay less attention to a number of the roles and be focused primarily on one or two roles.

3. The seventh role, that of a reaming area/subject/discipline/phase specialist, is the over-arching role into which the other roles are integrated, and in which competence is ultimately assessed. The specialisation can take a variety of forms. It can be linked to phase (for example, foundation phase), or to a subject/reaming area (for example, mathematics or human and social sciences), or a combination thereof. Qualifications must be designed around the specialist role as this encapsulates the 'purpose' of the qualification and 'shapes' the way the other six roles and their applied competences are integrated into the qualification.

4. A specialisation for teaching will always include both a subject/learning area specialisation and a phase specialisation. In the case of foundation phase educators, the specialisation will be the three reaming areas of the foundation phase as well as an understanding of reamers and reaming in the first years of formal schooling.

5. The role of reaming area/subject/discipline/phase specialist is described above as it relates to the central role of reaming mediation. However, other specialisations, based on the other roles, are possible in 'post-basic' qualifications. For example, educators could specialise in Educational Management that goes beyond the classroom into the management of an institution or department; or in Curriculum Studies that builds on the role of researcher as well as the role of learning materials designer; or Materials Development in which the emphasis on materials and programmes for the classroom and school shifts to materials development for the public domain.

6. The list of roles and their associated competences below is meant to serve as a description of what it means to be a competent educator. It is not meant to be a checklist against which one assesses whether a person is competent or not. The roles and competences must be integrated in the learning programme and should inform the exit level outcomes of a qualification and their associated assessment criteria. Ultimately, the qualification should reflect an applied and integrated competence. This demonstrated ability to integrate theory and practice in teaching must be assessed within all educator qualifications.

7. In the descriptions below the seven roles are described in a manner appropriate for an initial teaching qualification.

The roles are broken down into:

• Practical Competence
• Foundational Competence, and
• Reflexive Competence.

LEARNING MEDIATOR

INTERPRETER AND DESIGNER OF LEARNING PROGRAMMES AND MATERIALS

LEADER, ADMINISTRATOR AND MANAGER

COMMUNITY, CITIZENSHIP AND PASTORAL ROLE

SCHOLAR, RESEARCHER AND LIFELONG LEARNER

ASSESSOR

LEARNING AREA/SUB]ECT/D1SCIPLINE/PHASE SPEClALIST

4.  QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK

According to SAQA a qualification is:

a planned combination of learning outcomes which has a defined purpose or purposes, and which is intended to provide qualifying learners with applied competence and a basis further learning

Also,

a qualification may be achieved in whole or in part through the recognition of prior learning& which concept includes but is not limited to learning outcomes achieved through formal, informal and non formula learning and work experience.

The following framework of qualifications, together with the seven roles and their associated applied competences allows providers, through the Standards Generating Body for Educators in Schooling, to develop qualifications and programmes that are designed for specific purposes and contexts, but within an overall regulatory framework promoting national standards. It will also be used by the Department of Education to recognise and evaluate qualifications for employment in education.

Qualifications for educators for schooling will be qualifications based on exit level outcomes and associated assessment criteria or qualifications based on unit standards.

Qualifications for educators in the Schooling sub-field of Field 05 will be entitled by two categories: Type and Specialisation.

Type is the name of the qualification that indicates level and credits on the NQF. The list of qualification types and their aims is shown on the next page.

Specialisation is a phrase in brackets after the qualification type, for example, Diploma in Education (Senior Phase: Human and Social Sciences). It indicates the particular purpose of the qualification and could include a phase specialisation (such as Foundation Phase), a subject/learning area specialisation (e g Further Education: Mathematics), a specialisation in a particular role (e g Education Management), or a professional or occupational practice (e g Curriculum Studies). There is no predetermined set of purposes/specialisations.

The qualifications described here may need to be amended in the light of new academic policy on higher education.

The various qualification types are shown in the following diagram:

QUALIFICATIONS FOR EDUCATORS IN SCHOOLING

MINIMUM SPECIALIST REQUIREMENTS FOR BASIC TEACHING QUALIFICATIONS

There is no longer a list of prescribed teaching subjects. Learners and providers are advised, however, that the design of programmes and qualifications, including subject choices, must lead to the competence to teach learning programmes, reaming areas, subjects or foci in the school curriculum.

The considerable importance of the specialist role should be reflected in the apportionment of credits. For each basic qualification, there is a minimum number of SAQA credits dedicated to the specialist role:

DE B Ed PGCE

96 credits 240 credits 20 credits

The precise specialist requirements for the initial teaching qualifications leading to qualified educator status are as follows:

NOTES ON ARTICULATION .

ARTICULATION WITHIN THE QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATORS FOR SCHOOLING:

• Learners who complete a 360 or 480 credit Bachelor's (other than a B Ed) degree are deemed to have completed their subject specialisation, but need to complete a   Graduate Certificate in Education as a professional capping qualification.
• A 480 credit B Ed degree includes both the professional qualification and the subject or phase specialisation.
• There are two entry and exit points within a B Ed - a Certificate in Education or a Diploma in Education.
• Learners entering a B Ed from a new 240 credit Diploma in Education or an old three-year Diploma in Education will be required to complete an additional 240 credits of the B Ed degree in order to achieve the over-arching purpose of the degree on a higher level.
• The flexibility of a qualification, the degree to which access and exit points are open or closed, will be described in the 'rules of combination' and the 'reaming assumed to be in place' contained in the registration information of the qualification.

ARTICULATION AND MOBILITY WITHIN THE WORKPLACE

• The roles, their associated applied competences and the qualifications framework provide a basis for the ongoing professional development of educators which will be steered by the Department of Education through using its occupational requirements - job descriptions, appraisal criteria, workload, post descriptions and career pathing - to influence the design of qualifications and reaming programmes. The creation of multiple career and reaming paths, will encourage the development of educators who are competent to teach in different contexts and in different ways, playing different roles and using different applied competences.

ARTICULATION WITHIN FIELD 05: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:

• The broad similarity between the contextual roles for educators for schooling, the generic roles proposed in the ETDP final report and the draft standards for ECD and ABET practitioners provides a basis for portability and flexibility between qualifications and programmes in different sub-fields of NSB Field 05. This will increase mobility for reamers and practitioners by opening up different career and learning paths.
• Since 'a qualification may be achieved in whole or part through the recognition of poor learning, which concept includes but is not limited to learning outcomes achieved through formal, informal and non-formal learning and work experience', the process of assessment of applied competence achieved through recognition of prior learning also provides for mobility of learners between different learning programmes and places of work.

5. THE TRANSFORMATION OF EXISTING PRACTICE: STANDARDS FOR THE DESIGN AND DELIVERY  OF EDUCATOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

A statement of the roles and competences (norms) for educators and the provision of a qualifications structure and specialist requirements (standards) are fundamental to the development of educators. They provide a definition of competence within this field, and a means of assessment of this competence. However, in themselves they will be unable to assure the quality of the learning programmes and qualifications.

It is necessary to establish key strategic objectives for the design and delivery of educator development programmes and qualifications which will provide guidance for the transformation of existing practice. The objectives are stated as standards for design and delivery and provide a basis for quality assurance of programmes by Education and Training Quality Assurance bodies. Quality assurance measures and mechanisms will be put in place by SAQA, the Council on Higher Education and its Higher Education Quality Committee, and/or the relevant Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA).

Standards for the design and delivery of programmes will include the following criteria:

PURPOSE OF THE QUAEIFICATION

• The purpose of the qualification states clearly the roles, the specialism(s), the level, the target learners, employability and the articulation routes.
• The purpose is in line with national and/or local needs.
• The purpose informs the statement of applied competence, curriculum design and the assessment strategy.

TARGET LEARNERS

• Entry knowledge of reamers is assessed/checked and informs the development of the programme.
• Access is promoted and reamer support is provided.
• There are processes for the recognition of prior reaming and experience.

APPLIED AND INTEGRATED TEACHING COMPETENCE

• The applied and integrated competence to be achieved by the reamers is expressed in exit level outcomes, and is clearly related to the purpose of the qualification.
• The reaming programme is designed in such a way that it develops this competence.
• The courses/modules in the programme and the roles that the programme seeks to develop are integrated.

APPLIED AND INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT

• The assessment strategy is clearly related to the purpose and exit level outcomes of the programme.
• The practical, foundational and reflexive competences for each role provide a basis for assessment criteria.
• Accountability and transparency are necessary features of all assessment practices and learners should be informed of the assessment criteria and strategies before the reaming begins.
• Evidence can be demonstrated through a variety of options: case studies; problem solving assignments; teaching practice in simulated and in situ contexts; portfolios of reaming materials; projects; written and oral examinations.
• The assessment strategy assesses the extent to which reamers have achieved horizontal integration, that is, the integration of roles and the knowledge and skills delivered through the different courses/modules which make up the educator development programme. It is designed in such a way that the seven roles are assessed through the specialism.
• The assessment strategy also assesses the extent to which reamers have achieved the vertical integration of foundational, practical and reflexive competence. In other words, it assesses whether reamers are able to integrate the ability to perform important teaching actions competently (a practical competence), understand the theoretical basis for these actions (foundational competence), and reflect on and make changes to teaching practices (reflective competence) so that they can be described as achieving an applied and integrated competence.
• The assessment strategy assesses the extent to which reamers have the ability to teach in authentic and changing South African contexts.
• The assessment is ongoing and developmental.
• There are detailed diagnostic records of reamers' progress.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPECIALISATION

• The development of knowledge of the specialism (discipline, subject, reaming area, phase of study) embraces content knowledge (knowing that), concepts and theories (knowing why), procedural knowledge (knowing how), and strategic knowledge (knowledge about why, when, where and who)4.
• Knowledge of the specialism is central to the programme and integrated into the development of competence in the other roles.

INTEGRATION OF THEORY AND PRACTICE

• The worth and value of qualifications and reaming programmes are determined by the reamers' ability to demonstrate applied and integrated competence in the satisfying of academic, professional and occupational requirements. Such an integrated approach to reaming places great emphasis on the lifelong professional development of educators.
• In order for qualifications and their associated reaming programmes to be recognised for employment in education, providers must ensure that the roles and applied competence specified in the exit level outcomes of the qualification meet The requirement of reamers to demonstrate their ability to integrate theory and practice.
• School experience is integrated into the programme, rather than being a separate 'add-on'. It is a structured teaching and reaming experience with some form of observational assessment.
• The programme is contextually sensitive.
• There are close links between the work place (schools) and the institutions providing the programme.

EXTENDED PROFESSIONALISM

• Providers develop programmes and an institutional ethos which develops educators as extended professionals and lifelong learners.
• Programmes are increasingly offered in modes that allow practising educators to attend.
• Learning materials are developed and used to create spatial flexibility in courses: learners can learn at a variety of sites and do not necessarily have to have face-to face contact with their educators.
• Assignments are designed to encourage problem-solving within authentic contexts.
• The programme prioritises the promotion of critical engagement, reasoning and reflective thinking.
• The programme grounds teaching in a wider social, economic and political understanding and awareness.
• The provider demonstrates an understanding of educator development as an that goes wider than formal schooling.
• The teaching staff is involved in policy and development activities outside of their Upstream activity.

PROGRAMME DESIGN PROCESS

• The programme is designed on the basis of research, with national/local needs and standard as well as the needs of target learners and employers in mind.
• The programme has outcomes, learning and assessment strategies that are appropriate to the purpose of the qualification.
• Programmes are regularly reviewed in the light of new developments in the field as well as on the basis of feedback from employers, learners, tutors, and  assessment processes.

RECOGNITION OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT IN PUBIC EDUCATION

In evaluating qualifications for employment in education, qualifications meeting the following criteria will be recognised. The qualification must:

• integrate the critical cross-field outcomes into exit-level outcomes of the qualification;
• integrate the six contextual roles and their applied competences into the seventh specialised or elective role that is described in the exit-level outcomes;
• be registered on the National Qualifications Framework;
• integrate the job descriptions, workloads, post level requirements and other specific occupational requirements of the employer;
• integrate the professional requirements for registration with SACK;
• be certified by the relevant ETQA or its designated body;
• be attained through a provider accredited by the relevant ETQA or its designated body.

The Department of Education will publish a list of such recognised qualifications on a regular basis.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR EDUCATORS

• The nomenclature of existing educator qualifications must be changed in accordance with these norms and standards by June 30, 2001.
• From April 1, 2002, only those programmes leading to qualifications which are registered on the NQF and where the programme and the provider are accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee of the Council on Higher Education will be eligible for funding from the Department of Education.
• All existing educator qualifications which have been formally accredited by COTEP and HEDCOM and have been recorded and/or provisionally registered by SAQA will be recognised by the Department of Education for purposes of employment in public education until June 30, 2003.

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