Learner performance and teaching in public secondary schools in Zambia : a critical study
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Authors
Haamoonga, Brenda Cynthia
Issue Date
2017-12
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Critical study , Performance of learners , Public secondary schools , Teaching , Zambia
Alternative Title
Abstract
The study was primary undertaken to critically study the nature of learner performance and
teaching in public secondary schools in Zambia, with a focus on four public, co-education, day
schools in the Copperbelt region for the purposes of addressing the challenge of poor
performance in the Grade 12 National examinations that has characterised public secondary
schools in the country. The researcher was guided by the main research question: ‘What is the
nature of learner performance and teaching in public secondary schools in Zambia?’ The aim of
the research was to establish the factors that negatively affected learner performance and
teaching in the selected schools in order to develop effective mechanisms that would improve the
education system in public secondary schools both at regional and national levels.
The study was undertaken using a qualitative interpretive phenomenological approach mainly
propounded by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), for the purposes of collecting the lived
experiences of the 24 purposively selected participants employed in this research: 4 head
teachers, 8 teachers and 12 learners. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews
among the two longest serving teachers (male and female) per school and each of the head
teachers in all the four schools; and two focus group interviews (from the highest and lowest
performing schools) comprising six learners per group of equal gender among the selected Grade
12 candidates from the debate club and school council. The research also included analysis of
documents like: school mission statements and visions, schemes and records of work and
learners’ record of performance. The gathered information was manually analysed and
interpreted.
The major findings from the analysed data were that public secondary schools were negatively
affected by four main categories of factors: (a) socio-economic factors; (b) the nature of the
teaching and learning environment; (c) personal factors relating to the learners, teachers and head
teachers; and (d) policy issues relating to learner enrolment and assessment, teacher selection,
recruitment and development and highly controlled bureaucratic systems.
The study established that improved learner performance is crucial to national development
because the quality of an education system is measured by the performance of learners, and is the major drive for many aspects of development. The study also revealed that it was possible to
improve learner performance, based on a number of lessons that can be drawn from the
international research findings on characteristics of high-performing schools.
Finally, the study recommends that public secondary schools in Zambia should revise their
approach to enrolment of learners, teacher recruitment and development, and leadership
appointment, and should adopt policies that meet the needs of the Zambian context as well as
investing in research.
Description
Citation
Haamoonga, Brenda Cynthia (2017) Learner performance and teaching in public secondary schools in Zambia : a critical study, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/24461>