HOW IT WORKS:
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the first on-line courses in South Africa to improve ECD teachers’ subject knowledge of Emergent Literacy and Mathematics, and Foundation Phase teachers’ understanding of Fractions, Decimals and Percentages – designed and created for teachers, by teachers and with teachers, tested in the classroom and configured especially for e-learning.
Create a Professional Learning Community. To benefit fully, it is recommended that you work in pairs or larger groups with colleagues who have similar interests to you, so that you can share your experiences and expertise.
Collaborative learning is encouraged. It not only makes the learning process more enjoyable, but it will also help you keep focused and motivated.
Level
‘It Begins at Birth’ has been created especially for ECD practitioners. However, teachers throughout the primary school phase would benefit from the understanding they would gain from doing the course. It is the first course of its kind to look specifically at the relationship between Emergent Literacy and Emergent Mathematics.
The Fractions, Decimals and Percentages courses are for all teachers at any level from Grade 1-12 who feel they would like to improve their subject knowledge and teaching.
Time
There is no time limit according to which a course must be completed. Much will depend on how much time you are prepared to put in and the support you get from your Learning Community.
For ‘It Begins at Birth’, it is recommended, for the best results, that each module within should be completed within two to three weeks. That is the whole course should take approximately 24 weeks.
The Fractions (9 units) and Decimals (5 units) should take 14 weeks.
Of course, there may be some of you who can do them in a much shorter time; others may take longer. It will all depend on your circumstances.
Registration
You will need to register on-line on the website www.trainingteachers.org.za and receive a user-name and password.
What you will find once you have registered
Once you have registered you will discover tabs that will take you to the English or Afrikaans versions of the courses. Choose which course you want to do.
Each course comprises a number of units followed by a quiz. You must pass each quiz with 80% before you can go on to the next unit. The quiz questions are all taken from examples in the preceding unit.
After the final quiz at the end of the last unit you will find a test. All the questions have been taken from the preceding quizzes.
An exam pass mark of 80% guarantees you 5 CPD points.
Procedure
Begin at the beginning: Unit 1 Fractions and wholes. Work through the exercises and examples systematically. Whenever you get to the end of a page you will see a Mark as Complete button. It’s very important that you click this button to indicate to the system that you have completed the topic and can go on to the next one. When you’ve marked a topic as complete it will show with a green dot in the navigation in the right-hand pane.
When you have marked all topics in a unit complete and are satisfied that you have mastered the material, do the quiz. Your results will be immediately available to you. No one can see your score except you.
You have to get 80% to pass on to the next unit. If you don’t get 80%, look at those questions that have given you trouble and return to the relevant sections in the unit. When you feel confident, re-do the quiz. And so on, until you do the exam at the end of the course.
