Literacy Considerations
Deconstructing Factorising Reasoning in a TVET College View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mbazima Ngoveni
Often, the term “diagnostic assessment” is used lightly. The analysis of the mathematical reasoning within the “black box” of the student’s mind remains a challenging journey of discovery for the educator. It needs to be carefully navigated, not to ascribe invalid motives, driving forces and explanations to the object of study, thereby deriving inappropriate remedial solutions. In this paper, I report on the challenges that National Curriculum (Vocational) Level 2 students at Technical Vocational Education and Training colleges face with regard to factorisation. I focus only on factorisation by grouping and analyse data using Donaldson’s error analysis model, which classifies errors into three types of generic errors, namely executive, structural and arbitrary errors. In my investigation, I discover that some of the challenges that students face include the misapplication of knowledge; lack of basic conceptual understanding disabling the factorising procedure; complex errors within their efforts; and errors due to a lack of precision.
Multiliteracies, Identity, and Second Language Spanish Learning in a Historically Black College View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gabriela C. Zapata
In her recent survey of existing studies on second language (L2) education and Black/African American students, Anya (2020) posits the need for classroom-based work that will offer information on effective methodologies and curricular content to answer the personal and academic needs of this population of students and counter the negative experiences that have been reported in the literature. This case study seeks to answer this call by investigating the use of open, L2 Spanish materials grounded in the multiliteracies pedagogy Learning by Design (Kalantzis et al., 2016; Zapata, 2022) directly connected to learners’ lifeworld in beginning L2 Spanish classes at a Historically Black College in Southern United States. This work was carried out during two academic semesters, and it involved the participation of 67 students. The first source of data was a survey which probed into the participants’ perceptions of the instruction received, and their personal connections to the pedagogical resources employed. The multimodal products created by the students constituted the second source of data. First I offer a brief description of the adopted practices and tasks, as well as of the pedagogical framework on which they were based. The second part is devoted to a discussion of the study’s results, including the analysis of the responses to the questionnaire and the exploration of learners’ artifacts based on Zhang and Yu’s (2023) dimensions of digital multimodal composing competence. I conclude with instructional recommendations and suggestions for future research.
Including Students with Extensive Support Needs in General Education Classrooms Using Multiliteracies: Narratives of Disrupting Deficit Identities and Providing New Learning Spaces View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sudha Krishnan
This study relates the transformation of one student's narrative identity (stories told about the student by himself and others) which took place over four months as he engaged in the pedagogy of multiliteracies while creating a multimodal book with his favorite images of family and school; videos and images of his favorite activities at home and school; an identity chart with adjectives that best described him; strengths; and a transition plan describing what he wanted to do after school that was presented at the individualized education program (IEP) meeting. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data collected through interviews, observations, and video and audio recordings. Data indicates that multiliteracies enabled student agency and offered this student with extensive support needs, who had struggled to access literacy through traditional instruction, an opportunity to change his narrative identity from deficit to competence. The study has implications for using multiliteracies to disrupt ableist notions of disability and promote inclusive settings for students with extensive support needs.
Exploring Factors Affecting the Academic Performance of Young Female Students in an Open and Distance E-learning Environment during COVID-19 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thulani Chauke
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt by both male and female students in Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) and contact-based learning institutions in South Africa. However, young female students have been the most affected group. Societal norms that reinforce cultural practices, which favour male students, hinder the academic performance of young female students. Therefore, this study explores factors that affected the academic performance of young female students in an ODeL environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight female students between the ages of 21 and 35. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the categories of factors that negatively affected their academic performance were a lack of family support, a lack of resources, and living in an overcrowded home. This study recommends that local municipalities in rural areas where these students reside should have at least one community hub that has working computers with consistent and stable access to the University of South Africa, as a leader in ODeL in South Africa. The University should partner with the Commission for Gender Equality to develop long-term strategies that will see both institutions offering free data to young female students studying through open and distance e-learning methods, particularly for those who come from remote and rural areas, or poor socioeconomic backgrounds. This will enable young female students to obtain access to the internet for information and their educational materials.
Characteristic Features of Speech Perception and Verbal Memory of Students with Atipical Language Development View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mária Laczkó
One of the special diagnostic methods of speech perception process is the sentence repetition task which is suitable for the measurement of verbal memory of children. The aim of present research is to analyse the verbal memory of secondary school students with different types of learning disabilities caused by their atypical language development during sentence repetition. The paper is focused on the analysis of detailed experimental results both in linguistics and pedagogical aspects.
