etap news - ched uct · etap director, naziema jappie, visited durban girls ollege this month, to...

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this issue CETAP video P.1 Meengs P.2 Brown Bag seminar P.2 Goodbye P.3 Facebook followers Twier followers Instuonal reports Writers CETAP News Internal staff newsleer for CETAP August 2017 CETAP video CETAP’s promo video is almost ready for the “big reveal”. We are grateful to UCT TV for the me and effort they have put into making this project a success. Here are some snapshots from the video: NBT-by-numbers 2074 314 9 +43000

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Page 1: ETAP News - CHED UCT · ETAP director, Naziema Jappie, visited Durban Girls ollege this month, to discuss the possibility of working with Independent Examinations oard (IE) educators

this issue

CETAP video P.1 Meetings P.2

Brown Bag seminar P.2 Goodbye P.3

Facebook followers

Twitter followers

Institutional reports

Writers

CETAP News Internal staff newsletter for CETAP

August 2017

CETAP video

CETAP’s promo video is almost ready for the “big reveal”. We are grateful to UCT

TV for the time and effort they have put into making this project a success.

Here are some snapshots from the video:

NBT-by-numbers

2074

314

9

+43000

Page 2: ETAP News - CHED UCT · ETAP director, Naziema Jappie, visited Durban Girls ollege this month, to discuss the possibility of working with Independent Examinations oard (IE) educators

CETAP director, Naziema Jappie, visited Durban Girls College this month, to discuss the possibility of working with Independent Examinations Board (IEB) educators to explore the performance of their learners on the NBTs, especially in Mathematics. Naziema was also asked to be a guest speaker at a Standard Bank Women’s Day function. The topic was Women Empowerment: Moving Forward, Leading the Way. The talk was attended by women from all sectors, such as education, corporate, law, and government.

Acting DVC for Teaching and Learning, Professor Daya Reddy, visited CETAP this month. The meeting

provided him an opportunity to get an overview of CETAP and its strategic future direction. Prof Red-

dy provided some useful insights into how the work of CETAP can address the areas of access and

success and student support. He also encouraged staff to continue with their research outputs and

other work they do in the higher education sector. Prof Reddy’s visit was received in a very positive

spirit by staff in CETAP.

Meetings

Brown Bag seminar This month’s Brown Bag seminar was presented by Sanet Steyn, our newest colleague

and Academic Literacy Research Lead. The title of her talk was “The design and refine-

ment of a test of early academic literacy”.

Abstract

The language of teaching and learning is a perennial source of concern in multilingual

contexts. Despite having eleven official languages in South Africa, only two of these lan-

guages, English and Afrikaans, are used as the medium of instruction beyond the foun-

dational phase of education. Consequently, many of the learners who study English only

as their second language from grade 0 to 3 must make the shift from a mother-tongue education to English medium

instruction once they enter the intermediate phase (grade 4 - 6). This means that, like native speakers of English and

learners who use English as their language of teaching and learning (LoLT) during their early education, these learn-

ers will have to be able to use English proficiently enough to receive all further instruction in English. This study

looked at the design of a new test that measures a student’s ability to use English for academic purposes at this lev-

el. A theoretically defensible construct was used to design the test before a prototype was administered to a cohort

of 179 grade 3 and 4 learners (9 and 10 years old) from English medium schools in South Africa and the Netherlands.

The piloting results were used to evaluate the productivity of the test items and the overall performance of the test.

With a Cronbach alpha of 0.91, this test appears to be highly reliable. Two items were flagged and need further re-

finement before application of the developed instrument. The final product of this study, the Test of Early Academic

Literacy or TEAL, must now be subjected to further piloting and evaluation. The paper will conclude with an outline

of what should be included in this further process of refinement, as well as how the multilingual goals of South Afri-

can education may be better served by developing a variety of similar tests.

Page 3: ETAP News - CHED UCT · ETAP director, Naziema Jappie, visited Durban Girls ollege this month, to discuss the possibility of working with Independent Examinations oard (IE) educators

Staff News

Centre for Educational Testing for Ac-

cess and Placement

Level 4, Hoerikwaggo Building

University of Cape Town

www.cetap.uct.ac.za

Telephone: +27 (0)21 650 5462

Fax: +27 (0)21 650 5466

Goodbye

CETAP said a sad “goodbye” to Quantitative Literacy Research Lead, Natalie le Roux,

this month. We wish her all the best in her new venture!

Send submissions to:

[email protected]

by the 20th of each month.

...to the August baby:

Melissa Peters (9 August)

Emlyn Balarin, Natalie le Roux, and Estelle Murray