Teacher Development Through Distance Education: Contrasting Visions of Radio Learning in South African Primary Schools

Abstract

South African Radio Learning Programme, froman initial product based conception of curriculum to one which was process based.This was accompanied by shifts in implementation theory as well as implementation strategies, which are described and then analysed. The initial aims of the programme were based on an interactive radio model originally applied in Nicaragua in 1974 (Perraton, 2000) and then replicated in a number of other developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Its initial radio curriculum was based on a teaching approach developed in Kenya, which was designed to raise the quality of English teaching in the first three years of primary school(Imhoof \& Christensen, 1986). In Kenya, the curriculum involved a series of daily half hour audio lessons, which were used to introduce English to primary school children.These audio programmes were interactive in involving children in a variety of activities, which required to responses using English. The radio lessons also involved music and movement, and were carefully designed to introduce core concepts and vocabulary. The programme was based on behaviourist principles, using distributed learning and repetition to ensure that concepts and vocabulary were internalised. The Kenyan radio learningprogramme can thus be characterized as a skills-based distance education programme, based on use of radio as a medium of instruction. Like its Nicaraguan and Kenyan predecessors, the South African Radio Learning Programme (called �English in Action�), was introduced to Southern Africa using funds provided by USAID. The grant was provided to a South African NGO (the Open Learning Systems Education Trust) on the condition that technical advisers funded by USAID would train staff in radio lesson development as well as in programme implementation. The sponsors also required an evaluation design which included use of pre and post tests of English language competence, in line with the type of summative evaluation used to monitor previous implementations of interactive radio programmes in other countries.