Formative virtual assessment towards sustainable foundation phase teacher education learning environments.

Abstract

The Minimum Requirements for the Bachelor of Education Foundation Phase Teaching qualification are pitched at the National Qualification Framework – NQF Level 7. Graduates of this qualification are expected to have a sound knowledge at least of the learners in Grade R to 3. This includes their physical, physiological, psychological and sociocultural growth and development so that they can provide them with adequate support. They also have to know the backgrounds they come from, especially the many vulnerabilities that might be afflicting them. These graduates must be competent with theories and applications of language development, mathematics and literacy acquisition of Grades R to 3 learners. As such, they have to be able to manage the experiences of these learners effectively so that learning can be optimised. Unfortunately, due to the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, all this learning has to take place mostly through remote technologies in observance of the lockdown regulations that include social distancing. Assessment under such circumstances has proven to be a huge challenge, which this chapter attempts to grapple with in order to maintain and even enhance its quality. Therefore, this chapter, based on the conceptualisation of assessment of, for and as learning, proposes forms of virtual formative assessment strategies geared towards the creation of sustainable Foundation Phase teacher education learning environments. This focus has become necessary, because limited resources like time, skills and requisite human capital at many universities threaten to lead to surface learning where only the bare essentials are learnt and taught. Thus, the paper argues that formative virtual assessment can still reach its goals by complying with the already available NQF level descriptors, as they provide the principles for good teaching.