The re-design of a fourth year Bachelor of Education programme using the Constructive Alignment Approach

  • Melanie B. Luckay University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Keywords: initial teacher education, bachelor of education programme, backward mapping, constructive alignment, higher education institutions, curriculum, education re-design

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the re-design of a fourth year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programme at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Due to the changes in teacher qualifications, as outlined in the 2015 Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualification (MRTEQ) policy document, Higher Education Institutions were required to adapt their Initial Teaching Education (ITE) programmes to meet the requirements of the new policy document. This article describes the use of a backward mapping approach, in conjunction with the application of a constructive alignment framework, used by the education faculty at UWC to adjust the teaching and learning in the B.Ed programme to address the outcomes and standards required by the MRTEQ policy document. Given the type of student enrolled at UWC, the article provides a discussion on the challenges involved in developing a programme for students who might not have been adequately prepared for their tertiary studies due to the disadvantaged school contexts they come from. The article thus provides a reflective discussion on the challenges involved in the re-design process that used the pre-service teacher competencies expected at the end of the B.Ed programme at UWC, to develop the teaching and learning programme and assessment tasks for the fourth year B.Ed course.

Received: 02 August 2018
Accepted: 31 October 2018
Published online: 29 November 2018

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Author Biography

Melanie B. Luckay, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. She has a PhD in Science Education obtained at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Research in Engineering Education (CREE) at UCT. Her current role for the past six years as a faculty member at the University of the Western Cape is the teaching practice co-ordinator and academic teaching in the area of Education Practice. Her research focus is in science education, learning environment research, technological literacy and technology education, and she links her research to teaching practice with a link to socio-economic issues affecting education. Mail: mluckay@uwc.ac.za

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Published
2018-11-29
How to Cite
Luckay, Melanie B. 2018. “The Re-Design of a Fourth Year Bachelor of Education Programme Using the Constructive Alignment Approach”. Tuning Journal for Higher Education 6 (1), 143-67. https://doi.org/10.18543/tjhe-6(1)-2018pp143-167.