Andre du Plessis

Generative use of computers: promoting critical outcomes of the South African curriculum

In this study we focus on the development of the critical outcomes of the South African National Curriculum Statement via a generative use of computers approach developed within a framework of learning as design, Csikszentmihalyis notion of optimal flow and Activity Theory. The strategy aimed at introducing a sense of novelty, developing cooperation, providing a structure to analyse data and solve problems, as well as enabling learners to use technology. Data were generated via a questionnaire, interviews, learner journals, observational notes, learner artefacts and evaluation reports. These data suggest that the generative use of computers within a hypermedia project-based learning approach was successful in terms of helping to develop Grade 6 learners to be creative-critical-effective problem solvers, collaborators, responsible persons, collectors and analyzers of information, effective communicators and informed and skilled users of science and technology. Although not an explicit objective of the project, it became apparent that the learners had also developed a higher level of awareness of the notion of audience and significance of evidence during the course of the intervention. The dynamics of the strategy are considered in the light of Activity Theory as applied to ICT integrated classrooms.

What does it mean to be an ‘engaged university’? Reflections from a university and school-community engagement project

This article seeks to address what it means to be an ‘engaged’ university and, in so doing, to contribute to current discourses – in a fast growing field – about how to collaborate with communities for meaningful social transformation. As a group of researchers from the faculty of education in a South African university, we share our thinking and the theoretical notions that underpinned our planning and executing of a 3-year engagement with a rural secondary school. In asking ‘How might dialogic engagement of the university community and the community the university serves, enable agency towards active citizenship in the context of education?’, a collaborative engagement project between and within a school-community and the university was initiated. In this conceptual article, we unpack and discuss a critical university and school-community engagement with, and interpretation of, three key concepts that underpinned it: dialogic engagement, community and active citizenship. We conclude with a discussion on how we put these three key elements into practice. It is therefore argued that to be truly engaged requires constant dialogue, reflection, and the intentionality and commitment of all parties towards collaboration that is aimed at promoting mutual learning through socially just processes. Such university and school-community engagement is key in addressing complex social issues requiring collaborative intervention to enable social transformation.