What we do in this area:

“The Shuttleworth Foundation is involved in research into the idea that the two core skills acquired by learners at school are communications and analysis. As such, the transfer of these skills should be prioritised – especially in the African context where resources are often scarce and fundamental skills require specific focus.”

This month’s highlights:

Steve Vosloo has been researching mother-tongue education and will produce a paper on this topic in early April. This will be the first in a series of papers exploring key issues relevant to the this area of investment. The mother-tongue education research has involved conducting a literature survey as well as interviewing important stakeholders such as Professor Zubeida Desai (UWC), Professor Neville Alexander (UCT) and Anne Schlebusch, who headed up the Language Transformation Plan at the WCED. Really looking forward to reading it!

The next paper will be on literacy and numeracy, especially in the Foundation Phase (FP) of school. It will ask questions such as: What are they key related issues? How are they being addressed? What potential opportunities exist for the Shuttleworth Foundation to support the improvement of literacy and numeracy? To begin the research, Steve has met with the WCED team driving the 2006-16 Literacy and Numeracy Strategy for the Western Cape.

After some rounds of feedback and refinement, we have agreed upon process with Wordwise to implement a Teachable Agents (TA) pilot at 6 schools. We are currently engaging both Wordwise and the team at Stanford University behind the TA software, in order to work out a realistic plan and timeline for the project. Wordwise proposes 2 rounds to the research, the first being educator-focused (What do they think of the TAs?) and the second being learner-focused (Their perceptions? Any grade improvements? Etc.).

A UCT student doing a Masters in Media Theory and Practice has begun a 6-week research internship at the Foundation, supervised by Steve. He will produce a short paper on the potential for mobile learning among high school students in grades 10 to 12 in the Philippi township in Cape Town.

Steve comments on a how to stem the Matthew Effect in education. The “Matthew Effect” denotes processes whereby inequality is created or maintained. He also blogged his notes on the Integrated Education Program (IEP) Conference, touching of the subjects of how to improve the quality of primary education by supporting programmes in teacher education, as well as school management and governance.