5-9 September 2016, Howick, Kwazulu Natal
[bg_collapse view=”link” color=”#000000″icon=”arrow” expand_text=”A five-day teacher training course was held in Howick, Kwazulu Natal from the 5-9 September 2016. The course facilitated by WESSA, was attended by 20 teachers comprising of Grade 7-9 Natural Sciences teachers.” collapse_text=” A five-day teacher training course was held in Howick, Kwazulu Natal from the 5-9 September 2016. The course facilitated by WESSA, was attended by 20 teachers comprising of Grade 7-9 Natural Sciences teachers.” ] Course participants were drawn from KZN schools involved in the Schools Environmental Education Programme (SEEP), a Department of Environmental Affairs driven programme with schools. The course was co-facilitated by Shanu Misser and Caleb Mandikonza, with support from Jim Taylor, The Umngeni Valley Education Team and Ntokozo Ngubo.
Highlights from the course
A presentation on the Fundisa for Change programme and partnerships was made and the issues of the nature of knowledge and climate change knowledge were developed using core text. Another key outcome of the day was the establishment of direct and indirect curriculum links of Climate Change in the Natural Science CAPS document by the teachers.
A consolidation of the notion of climate change through sharing of earth systems and the greenhouse effect was made. The course saw the introduction of the paper and electronic versions of the My2050 Energy Pathways Calculator. A discussion on methods was facilitated by working on active teaching and learning, as well as by the methods and processes resources. Participants also got a chance to work on their Portfolio of Evidence tasks.
Participants work on their tasks during the climate change training course
Participants explored cognitive requirements of assessment using Bloom’s Taxonomy before designing their own assessment tasks, which is part of the assessment requirements for the CAPS. Most of the times, teachers struggle with questioning. It is through questioning that some of the climate change knowledge, affective faculties and action dispositions of learners can be assessed. A presentation on local and provincial responses and understandings of climate change was made by Ntokozo, who works on climate change issues in the KZN province. The teachers were given an on-course task to work in groups to produce lesson plans that they could use as part of their last Portfolio of Evidence question.
A review and evaluation of the workshop was made on the last day of the training. Teachers presented lesson plans that they prepared with emphasis on the portfolio of evidence. A six-week window was suggested for submission of PoEs.
Some of the participants who attended the course
Participants at the climate change training course
[/bg_collapse]