South Africa: Optimising a feedback system for monitoring learner performance in primary schools.

Abstract

This chapter describes how and education design research approach was employed to enhance a feedback system of an existing learner performance monitoring system in a number of primary schools in South Africa. The design research approach employed provided an appropriate and powerful approach to adapting, developing and optimising the feedback system and produced specific design guidelines to support other designers in developing effective learner performance feedback systems in similar contexts. The design research approach provided the opportunity to design, implement and evaluate various prototypes, which slowly started to approximate the ideal for the specific context, whilst the system functioned and served schools. The quality criteria employed in design research allowed for enhancing of specific aspects of the feedback system in a systemic manner during the various phases of the design process. The chapter deals with a number of aspects including the contextualisation, conceptualisation, each phase and cycle during the research phase, outcomes and then a reflection with the aim of illustrating the chain of reasoning for this particular design research process.