A critical analysis of CAPS for Life Skills in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3)

Abstract

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Foundation Phase Life Skills curriculum (DBE, 2011) is composed of four focus areas: Beginning Knowledge; Personal and Social Well-being; Creative Arts; and Physical Education. These areas draw on a number of disciplines and this makes the curriculum dense. This density is, in turn, a challenge for teachers and teacher education. We perform an historical analysis of Life Skills curriculum documents from 1977 to the present and a content analysis of the CAPS document. Using Bernstein (1971Bernstein ( , 1996 we show that this curriculum is weakly classified and that epistemological orientations are blurred, if not rendered invisible. The specificity of different disciplinary lenses that have different objects of enquiry, methods of analysis, and criteria for truth claims is lost in an overemphasis on everyday knowledge. If teachers are not themselves schooled in the languages of the disciplines that underpin Life Skills they may not be able to give children access to them, nor are they likely to be able to help them understand how different parts of the system relate to one another.

Foundation phase pre-service teachers’ experiences of teaching life skills during teaching practice

“…In a bid to design the lesson plan and cover the content within the limited time allocated, the students ended up not giving of their best. A study conducted by Dixon et al (2018) supported the students' claims that the complex and dense nature of the LS curriculum makes it difficult for teachers to implement effectively.…”

“…The CAPS for FP teacher education in South Africa comprises three learning areas, which include mathematics, literacy and LS (DBE 2011). Life skills, which is the focus of this study, is a complex and dense curriculum (Dixon et al 2018), as it is divided into four sections (Beginner Knowledge, Personal and Social Well-being, Creative Arts and Physical), each of which is further divided into knowledge segments.…”

Development of Digital Worksheet Based on Ngerti, Ngrasa, Nglakoni to Improve College Student Lifeskill

“…The success of achieving the objectives of lectures depends on the quality, structure, planning, systematization and differentiation of student lecture activities where the effects of the learning process depend on the didactic-methodological features, the quality and systematization of student lecturing activities (Pejchinovska & Talevski, 2013). To internalize lifeskills in lectures, creativity and competence of lecturers are needed with the depth and breadth of specific knowledge that supports topics in the range of disciplines that make up life skills (Dixon et al, 2018). Through this digital worksheet, students can more easily study the media, references, and worksheets to be active both intellectually, attitudes and psychomotor.…”

A Review on Error Analysis Stages in Teaching English Structure

“…with the purpose to explain and predict a phenomena based on the data acquired in the field. This research is only trying to draw clearly and sequentially towards the questions of research which had been determined before researcher come to the field Kerryn Dixon et. al., (2018).…”