Current research activities

The Department is currently involved in the following research initiatives:

1. Linking funding to educational outcomes/learner performance – under the leadership of Prof Raj Mestry. It is a departmental project. This research project seeks to establish the relationship between learner performance and financial resourcing to the various schools classified under the five quintiles and the relevant poverty indicators.
2. Systems innovation for the effective management of SBA in Grade 12 (FET). Joint research project with the GDE under the leadership of Prof. Coert Loock. The research focuses on the management of moderation and therefore the theoretical framework that will serve as the basis of this study will be a combination of the systems model and the total quality model (TQM). It is underpinned by a quality assurance model which is an extension of the quality control approach which focuses narrowly on the environment, the process and the outcome of the assessment activity.
3. The dilemma of equating examinations and assessment results. This is a joint research project with the GDE under the leadership of Prof. Coert Loock. The burning issue currently in South Africa is to increase the probability that learners with equal ability, who write different examination papers under different circumstances, will obtain equivalent results, thus ensuring equal opportunities to all learners in the system. Since a single certificate is issued to all learners in South Africa, it is also necessary to ensure that standards between examining bodies are comparable. The question is, can the current “equating” procedures (the so-called, “standardization” of examination marks), inherent in our Senior Certificate (Matric) examination, be regarded as fair, objective and politically legitimate?