Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=2223-038620190002&lang=en vol. num. 22 lang. en http://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.za http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The study investigated teachers of History's implementation of the competency-based teaching approaches in the teaching and learning of History in Lusaka district, Zambia. A mixed-methods approach particularly the explanatory sequential design was used in this study. The study focused on schools in Lusaka from the ten zones. The total sample size of this study was 99. A total of 80 teachers participated in this study and 10 of them were interviewed. The participants were randomly and purposively selected. A questionnaire was used to gather information from the teachers. Interview guides were also used to collect data from one Chief Curriculum Specialist, one Subject Curriculum Specialist, 2 Standard Officers, 5 Head-Teachers, 10 Heads of Sections and 20 Teachers. Classroom lesson observations and document analysis were also done. Quantitative data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and qualitative data was analysed thematically. The findings of the study revealed that 67% of the teachers of History did not understand the concept of the competency-based curriculum or outcome-based curriculum. It was also revealed that teachers of History were not using the competency-based or outcomes-based approaches to a large extent in the teaching and learning of History in the selected secondary schools because they did not have the knowledge and skills of the competency-based approaches. Thus, it was recommended that the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) should strengthen the in-service training and continuous professional development meetings in schools and zones for the competency-based curriculum to be successfully understood and implemented effectively in schools. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The following design paper reports on a serious game project being made by interdisciplinary researchers at the North-West University (NWU), Vanderbijlpark Campus. The aim of this venture is to develop a trading card game based on specific History content, using similar mechanics found in popular card games such as Magic: The Gathering and the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The game is called Dogs of War (DoW) and the historical figures will be depicted as various dog breeds to subvert player expectations and assuage a grim period of human History. The game itself is designed in such a way that up to six people can play together, with each player representing a faction that was involved in the war. These factions include: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, Great Britain, United States of America and Soviet Russia. The conceptualisation of DoW has already reached the initial play-testing phase, wherein the basic mechanics and units already having been designed. The game will be implemented in a third year History class at NWU in 2020, with the aim of researching whether the game itself can enhance self-directed learning through tangential and exciting gameplay. Focus group interviews will be held at the end of the first semester (2020) to gauge this prototype's overall effectiveness. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This conceptual article argues that a pedagogy of poetic memory, or epi-poetics, can be used to remember and 're-member' the past in the present in the history classroom. Epi-poetics as a theory encapsulates the dynamic interplay of language (including indigenous poetry), the body (both physical and psychological remembering of the past) and the socio-cultural and physical environments in memory construction. As a pedagogy, epi-poetics allows for the indigenisation of the curriculum by tapping into Indigenous Knowledge constructs, specifically indigenous poetry and how it relates to memory, trauma and history. The indigenous poetry is both a source of memory, and, therefore history, and a fount and font of inter-generational experience and trauma. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article explores the experiences of History and Social Sciences (History) trainee teachers (n=33) and their learners during the implementation of five versatile and innovative alternative performance assessment strategies in their diverse classroom settings during their practicum at schools. Originally designed for the corporate staff training environment, and subsequently utilised as community building and data collection techniques in a participative community-engaged research project, these five interactive activities were adapted to act as innovative teaching and alternative formative performance assessment strategies in the History classroom, the latter of which is the main focus of this article. The article is anchored in a social constructivist and dialogic theoretical framework and argues that alternative performance assessment techniques that are non-graded, interactive, formative and dialogic in nature, take place within an atmosphere of emotional safety, and integrate a strong element of enjoyment, are able to remove the anxiety that often characterises both summative and graded formative assessment. This, in turn, makes learners more receptive to learning and brings History to life in the classroom. In an attempt to answer two interrelated research questions: "how did trainee History teachers experience the implementation of innovative alternative performance assessment strategies", and "how did they perceive the response of the learners to a fresh approach to formative assessment", the article employs a qualitative research methodology which rests on research findings generated through the use of data gathered from written, visual and oral feedback from the participants during and after a practical workshop which prepared them for the implementation phase of the study. The research findings suggest, inter alia, that both the trainee teachers and their learners enjoyed a fresh, non-threatening approach to formative assessment and that the learners participated freely and enthusiastically in groups when implementing these formative assessment strategies. The findings also indicate some challenges including time management, classroom management, and appropriate facilitation skills in managing more advanced learners who, it was found, tended to overpower less confident learners in their groups. It finally offers recommendations for improvement should History teachers prefer to implement these alternative performance assessment strategies in their classrooms. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article explores the experiences of History and Social Sciences (History) trainee teachers (n=33) and their learners during the implementation of five versatile and innovative alternative performance assessment strategies in their diverse classroom settings during their practicum at schools. Originally designed for the corporate staff training environment, and subsequently utilised as community building and data collection techniques in a participative community-engaged research project, these five interactive activities were adapted to act as innovative teaching and alternative formative performance assessment strategies in the History classroom, the latter of which is the main focus of this article. The article is anchored in a social constructivist and dialogic theoretical framework and argues that alternative performance assessment techniques that are non-graded, interactive, formative and dialogic in nature, take place within an atmosphere of emotional safety, and integrate a strong element of enjoyment, are able to remove the anxiety that often characterises both summative and graded formative assessment. This, in turn, makes learners more receptive to learning and brings History to life in the classroom. In an attempt to answer two interrelated research questions: "how did trainee History teachers experience the implementation of innovative alternative performance assessment strategies", and "how did they perceive the response of the learners to a fresh approach to formative assessment", the article employs a qualitative research methodology which rests on research findings generated through the use of data gathered from written, visual and oral feedback from the participants during and after a practical workshop which prepared them for the implementation phase of the study. The research findings suggest, inter alia, that both the trainee teachers and their learners enjoyed a fresh, non-threatening approach to formative assessment and that the learners participated freely and enthusiastically in groups when implementing these formative assessment strategies. The findings also indicate some challenges including time management, classroom management, and appropriate facilitation skills in managing more advanced learners who, it was found, tended to overpower less confident learners in their groups. It finally offers recommendations for improvement should History teachers prefer to implement these alternative performance assessment strategies in their classrooms. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses four curriculum documents in terms of the kinds of academic and civic identities that they would seek to produce. The curriculum documents are two South African (Curriculum 2005 [1997] and the Curriculum and Policy Statement [2011]) and two English (the first History National Curriculum [1991] and the most recent Secondary History National Curriculum [2014]). The theoretical underpinnings of the discussion of identity are Bernstein's concepts of instructional and regulative discourse. The shifts in overall purpose and identity within the two contexts are striking. The first English national curriculum saw a tension between a focus on developing history learners who had a strong sense of national identity and using constructivist models that teach the learners the knowledge base of the subject. By contrast, Curriculum 2005 focused on attempting to create learners who were actively engaged with the problems of their current-day situation. By the second English national curriculum, a focus on making connections to current-day challenges had been introduced in addition to the existing concerns about national identity and understanding the way in which historians work. The Curriculum and Policy Statement (CAPS) reform in South Africa expressed greater concerns for developing historical thinking, but nevertheless retained a focus on actively engaged citizenship. The findings of this research provide a lens through which to consider current history curriculum reform and in particular, the ways in which curriculum documents imagine the learners that they would want to produce as both historians and citizens. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses four curriculum documents in terms of the kinds of academic and civic identities that they would seek to produce. The curriculum documents are two South African (Curriculum 2005 [1997] and the Curriculum and Policy Statement [2011]) and two English (the first History National Curriculum [1991] and the most recent Secondary History National Curriculum [2014]). The theoretical underpinnings of the discussion of identity are Bernstein's concepts of instructional and regulative discourse. The shifts in overall purpose and identity within the two contexts are striking. The first English national curriculum saw a tension between a focus on developing history learners who had a strong sense of national identity and using constructivist models that teach the learners the knowledge base of the subject. By contrast, Curriculum 2005 focused on attempting to create learners who were actively engaged with the problems of their current-day situation. By the second English national curriculum, a focus on making connections to current-day challenges had been introduced in addition to the existing concerns about national identity and understanding the way in which historians work. The Curriculum and Policy Statement (CAPS) reform in South Africa expressed greater concerns for developing historical thinking, but nevertheless retained a focus on actively engaged citizenship. The findings of this research provide a lens through which to consider current history curriculum reform and in particular, the ways in which curriculum documents imagine the learners that they would want to produce as both historians and citizens. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862019000200010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article analyses four curriculum documents in terms of the kinds of academic and civic identities that they would seek to produce. The curriculum documents are two South African (Curriculum 2005 [1997] and the Curriculum and Policy Statement [2011]) and two English (the first History National Curriculum [1991] and the most recent Secondary History National Curriculum [2014]). The theoretical underpinnings of the discussion of identity are Bernstein's concepts of instructional and regulative discourse. The shifts in overall purpose and identity within the two contexts are striking. The first English national curriculum saw a tension between a focus on developing history learners who had a strong sense of national identity and using constructivist models that teach the learners the knowledge base of the subject. By contrast, Curriculum 2005 focused on attempting to create learners who were actively engaged with the problems of their current-day situation. By the second English national curriculum, a focus on making connections to current-day challenges had been introduced in addition to the existing concerns about national identity and understanding the way in which historians work. The Curriculum and Policy Statement (CAPS) reform in South Africa expressed greater concerns for developing historical thinking, but nevertheless retained a focus on actively engaged citizenship. The findings of this research provide a lens through which to consider current history curriculum reform and in particular, the ways in which curriculum documents imagine the learners that they would want to produce as both historians and citizens.