Assessment and Development of Potential of High School Pupils in the Third World Context of Kwa Zulu/Natal

Abstract

Part One of this series of articles outlines the current educational situation in the Third World context of Kwazulu/Natal. It highlights the problems caused by inadequate school buildings, low school attendance, lack of adequately trained teachers and, not surprisingly, the consequent general low school achievement of pupils. To compound these already debilitating factors, pupils learn in their second language (English) and the curriculum is Western oriented. However, the writers argue that even if the material conditions were improved, the teachers' qualifications upgraded and the curriculum made more relevant, there are other factors concerning the pupils themselves which inhibit their learning. Part two analyses some of the causes of underachievement.

Certain types of social environment are not conducive to cognitive development to an extent sufficient for the learner to derive optimal benefit from schooling. (Vygotsky, 1978, Brushlinsky 1979, Feuerstein, 1979). These social conditions which include poverty, disrupted family life and fragmented cultural heritage are common causes of under-achievement. A direct and primary cause of pupils' under-achievement (which is distinct from hereditary or organic factors) derives from a lack of relevant and appropriate mediated learning experiences which are necessary for school-based learning.

Mediation refers to the intentional selection and interpretation of the child's experiences by an adult who helps the child to build the cognitive “scaffolding” and gradually enables him/her to make sense of the world and to gain mastery and independence in learning. The child builds on mastered concepts, the higher concepts extending and transforming the lower. It is not a question of whether the child receives mediation or not because obviously in any home environment mediation is taking place between adult and child, but whether the child receives the kind of mediation which provides the cognitive scaffolding necessary for certain kinds of learning, in this instance, formal school learning.