Life orientation teaching 771

Week 1: Intro
 Know the curriculum thoroughly and understand it. Sections fit into each other.
 Lectures Mondays and Thursdays until practical teaching, then possibly Mondays and Wednesdays
 Assessments:
o Sem 1
 Starts of the years essay 10%
 SUNlearn activities 5%
 Lesson plan * 2 30%
 Test 31 May 15%
o Sem 2
 Health and wellbeing assessment 25%
 Final test 29 October 15%
 Textbook: life orientation for South African Teachers Mirna Nel second edition 2018
 Harvard referencing

Purpose of Life Orientation

 Holistic development of learners (biological, psychological, social and spiritual domain) and preparation of
learners for the new worlds they will encounter and live in
 Develop positive relations
 Build a democratic society and become caring citizens
 Exercising rights and responsibilities and showing respect
 Making informed, responsible and accountable decisions regarding health and environment
 Acquiring and practising life skills (including study skills) to respond to challenges
 Active and responsible role players in economy or society
LO topics and subtopics

Reality in schools
 Unnecessary, boring and irrelevant
 Any teacher with life experience can teach LO
 LO periods are for catching up or a free period
 LO is an additional subject with little importance
 In loco parentis: to guide and prepare learners for lfe and its possibilities, and to equip them for meaningful
and successful living in a rapidly changing and transforming society

Challenges in teaching LO
 The compulsory nature of LO
 Marginalisation of the subject
 Attitudes of some learners, colleagues and principals
 Poorly trained educators
 Dealing with sensitive issues in class
 Lack of time to address individual learners’ needs
 Adapting to a new unique teaching style
 A curriculum that may not always be relevant

Pedagogical principles
 LO helps to develop learners who are confident, live balanced lifestyles, make informed and responsible
decisions, and who are able to make meaningful contributions to a just and democratic society, a productive
economy and an improved quality of life for all in South Africa.
 Pedagogy: teaching strategies and includes teaching methods, learning activities and assessment. This is the
approach to teaching something.
 Principles: the basis or source of something.
o What are the principles of the pedagogy of Life Orientation?
o How would the principles be best applied in a Life Orientation lesson / classroom?
o What is the difference between pedagogy and teaching?
 Pedagogy of Life Orientation:
o Based on Piaget’s, Vygotsky’s and Bruner’s cognitive constructivist theories - they believe teaching
and learning should be active
o How? (guided discovery)
 Allowing exploration
 Giving learners opportunities to
 try things out
 question & discuss
 reflect, and
 solve problems for themselves
 use “talk and chalk” method to limited extent
 Pedagogical Principles of Life Orientation
o Pedagogy of LO should be built on the following principles
 Attitude
 Knowledge
 Familiar to unfamiliar
 Guided discovery
 Mediation
 Scaffolding
 Cooperative learning
 Diversity
 Variety of learning material & activities
 Questioning
 Classroom atmosphere
 Pedagogical principle 1: Attitude
o Positive & resilient attitude = Success in the classroom
o Why? Helps teachers to connect with learners to encourage constructive change
o What does this require of you as a teacher?
 Understand and engage with your own attitude towards LO.
 Wrestle with the specific details of the subject and its topics (i.e. CAPS curriculum) You must
understand the power and purpose of LO as a subject
 Investigating your own biases, perceptions and attitude towards specific topics in LO. is
crucial
o Helps the learners to aquire new knowledge structures
o Some biases wrong; other biases = natural
 o LO will never ask of you to deny your belief systems, but will ask of you to be aware of them.
o Power-relationship with learners
o Do not enforce views
o How do you teach a certain topic that doesn’t align with your personal viewpoints?
 Pedagogical principle 2: Knowledge
o Knowledge structures: aim is to prepare learners to participate in diverse society, therefore focus on
life experiences, personal meaning making
o Theory 1: Positivist approach
 Views knowledge as:
 objective and external to the knower
 standard, universal and unchanging
 true when proved through scientific research methods
o Theory 2: Socialist constructivist approach
 Most applicable to LO
 Views knowledge as:
 Not fixed, varies from social context and historical times
 Built and passed through social interaction
 Is always in the process of construction and reconstruction
 Cannot simply be transferred from teacher to learner as a given
o What does this require of the teacher
 Allow guided discovery / exploration in your lessons (e.g. gather information, solve
problems, consider different possibilities and choices)
 Apply knowledge to real-life problems
 This approach requires good planning (provide hints, frameworks and guidelines)
 Pedagogical principle 3: Familiar to unfamiliar
o Important to connect what is familiar to the unfamiliar especially when starting a new theme
o Explore and acknowledge learners’ prior knowledge and experiences = familiar
o Then guide to new learning and discovery
o Remember: Unfamiliar knowledge may be due to different cultural/political contextual perspectives
or social experiences
o What is the responsibility of the teacher?
 Get to know your learners
 Continuous reflection in terms of your own cultural & religious biases and opinions
 Pedagogical principle 4: Guided discovery
o DOES NOT MEAN LEARNERS EXPLORE AND DISCOVER BY THEMSELVES
o Learners need to be guided on how to select and use knowledge appropriately
o What is your responsibility as a teacher?
 Guide learners to recognise key elements in the conceptual structure of a topic. How is this
achieved?
  through questioning; (modelling can take
place)
 using thought-provoking statements;
 encouraging discussions, debating,
reflection and problem-solving;
 cooperative learning.
 Cognitive learning: group structure is NB,
classroom management
 Pedagogical principle 5: Mediation
o Mediation = Guided assistance (Vygotsky) – within the
ZPD
o Zone of Proximal Development: zone where learner
does not yet grasp a concept, but has the potential to
understand it through mediation and interaction with someone else (can be peers as well, does not
need to be teacher only)
o Significant other make connections between familiar and unfamiliar
o Active construction and reconstruction of knowledge with guidance
o Assessment is NB for evaluating
 Pedagogical principles 6: Scaffolding
o Process of mediation is achieved through scaffolding: How does this take place?
o Modelling key knowledge structures and strategies at the introduction of a new theme (e.g.
demonstrating or explaining)
o As learner starts grasping and internalising new knowledge, mediator withdraws amount of guidance
 Learner should be actively involved in this process
 A variety of activities should be implemented
o iii. Learner begins to construct by him-/herself with very little guidance
o NB feedback must be built into lesson plan at all times
o What is your responsibility as a teacher in the scaffolding process?
 Direct Instruction at the
introduction of a theme
 Actively involve learners
 Use a variety of activities to
capture learners’ attention
o DI = unambiguous (concrete / start with
content in it’s simplest form), sequential
(step-by-step) teaching, with step-by-
step feedback (mediation)
 Pedagogical principle 7: Cooperative learning
 o Also known as collaborative learning, more than group work;
o Use of small groups;
o Learners work together to maximise their own and each other's learning = social learning;
o Completing different academic tasks over a period of time;
o Equally devised work, each member responsible for a section of the work.
o More than putting a group together and leaving them to work on their own
o Social learning
o Each group member has a responsibility
o Requires pre-process – learners are given tools in HOW to engage in cooperative learning (a lot of
planning involved in the process)
 Pedagogical principle 8: Diversity
o No topic can be addressed from one perspective / thought process;
o Opens doors of understanding and allows learners to learn from each other;
o Also implies different learning needs, styles, barriers to learning, socio-economic backgrounds
 South Africa – very diverse country i.t.o. cultures, religions, language groups, socio-economic
backgrounds, disability, etc.
 Create safe space where learners can express their perspectives – learners can learn from one
another.
 Aware of different needs – learning styles, barriers to learning
 Example: Learner social outcast – specific learning disorder; practical (fix things) and good in
art
o Diversity amongst learners can include the following: *
o Interest in learning
o Self confidence
o Attitude towards school
o Aptitude for reasoning
o Home and social life
o Cultural background
o First language
o Antisocial tendencies
o What does this mean for you as a teacher?
 Use different and varying learning materials to stimulate, excite and engage learners;
 Plan lessons that are inclusive of the diversity in your learner profiles
 Create a classroom where learners can see a reflection of themselves.
 They bring their lived realities to the classroom – and those realities must be reflected in the
classroom.
 Pedagogical principles 9 and 10: Variety of activities and learning materials
o Whole class discussions
o Group discussions
 o Cooperative learning
o Individual tasks
o Group activities: role plays, debates (questioning), games, community projects, collages, posters, etc.
o Newspapers, magazines, websites, video clips, movies, music, pictures, PowerPoints etc.
 Make sure that it is age-appropriate
 Pedagogical principle 11: Questioning
o Ask questions that stimulate learners’ critical thinking skills
o Bloom’s taxonomy is helpful in phrasing questions
o What does this mean for you as a teacher?
 Phrase lower- and higher-order questions within your lesson, to accommodate all students
(Bloom’s taxonomy)
 Actively plan for questioning and feedback loops in your lesson planning
 The why, the what, the how, the when?
 Just keep in mind – not everyone in the class in on the same level
 Balanced question paper
 Pedagogical principle 12: Classroom atmosphere
o The importance of a welcoming and warm atmosphere
o Teacher’s attitude is key here (pedagogical principle 1.)
o What does this mean for you as a teacher?
 Consideration needs to be given to: respect for all;
 how to avoid stereotyping and discrimination in the classroom;
 creating an atmosphere of positivity and inclusivity.
o

Microteaching
 Refer to your LO CAPS document for grade 10-12
 Select any topic
 Use the 2023 – 24 annual teaching plan document as a guide
 Complete a lesson plan (sunlearn micro teaching 2024 for suitable lesson plan)
 When planning your lesson, refer to the rubric provided in the lesson plan and microteaching document
provided during orientation
 Lesson plan, as if teaching for 45 minutes. 15 minute snapshots, each component must be presented
 Choose one theme within a topic, steer away from too much information being presented
 Knowledge: what do you want the learners to know
 Skills: what you want the learners to be able to do with the knowledge (learners should be able to, guide to
assessment)
 Values: better understanding of societies and communities affected by bullying or HIV or mental health
  Integration: how can I link it to another subject
 Lesson objectives: knowledge, skills and values
 Prior knowledge: previous lessons
 I do, we do, you do
 10 -15 minutes talking, micro teaching 5 – 7 minutes
 Instrument: rubric or memo or checklist

Lesson planning
 Refer to CAPS annual lesson plan NB
 1 week = 2 lessons roughly
 Objective NB, properly structured
o need to learn
o how it will be taught
o how learning will be measured.
 Elements
o Lesson content?
o How to present the learning content?
o Assessment?
o Learning activities? (may be a role play)
 Lesson objectives:
o Knowledge: Helps to decide on a focus of a lesson (within a broader topic area / theme / curriculum
plan)
o Skills: Sets out what you want to achieve

Micro teaching lecturer notes

 Planning nb!!!
 Ice breaker/introduction (hook)
o How you introduce the topic or lesson
o Be careful that the icebreaker
o Introduce the topic without launching the content
o The way in to a lesson that captures learner’s attention and keeps them engaged (how will it begin).
This must clearly set out in your lesson plan.
o Elements of a strong hook
 Introduces what students are about to learn
 Sets the stage for why what they are about to learn is important
 Connects what they are about to learn to what they already know
 Captures student’s interests
o Examples
  Show a news clips of the topic of the day
 Read an interesting story
 Show a rang of prictures
 Demonstrating using a prop
 Asking questions
 Lesson development
o Flexible, according to how learner responds to topic
o The substance or content that needs to be taught, as presented by the teacher and practised by the
learners
o Step by step
o How do we make sure all learners are catered for
 Differentiation: something for everyone
 Make sure lesson plan explains how differentiation is ensured
 Closing
o Make a summary as a form of assessment to see if your objectives was reached
o Assessment is not concluding phase (conclusion is rounding off the lesson)
o If you mark with a rubric, make sure the learners have a rubric as well
 Presentation phase: I do
 Learning and teaching strategies:
o Explanation
o Exposition
o Demonstration
o Description
o Question and answer
 Indirect methods
o Learner centred
o Tick which one you want to use

Assessment for learning part 1

 Why do we assess?
 What do we assess?
 How should we effectively assess?
 Consider all 12 pedagogical principles
 Why do we assess for learning
o Recognises all educational achievement
o Develops capacity for seld and peer assessment
o Part of effective planning
o focuses on how students learn
 o fosters motivation
o promotes understanding of goals or criteria
o helps students know how to improve
o sensitive and constructive
o key professional skill
o central to classroom practice

Assessment methods
 Baseline assessment:
o Takes place before learning commences
o Used to determine what learners know and can do
o Informs teachers about where to begin the teaching and learning process
o Quick quiz or questionnaire
o Any tool to determine what learners know or don’t know
 Formative asse ssment:
o This takes place during the learning process
o It determines the progress of learners and the appropriateness of learning acquired
o Assessment FOR learning
o Formal or informal: can also be not for marks (role play or activity in class)
o Never counts as much as summative assessments (tests)
o Informs the planning of future learning activities
o Examples: making posters, oral presentations, quiz, class activities and homework
 Summative assessment:
o Determines the overall achievement and learning success
o Takes place at an end of a learning cycle or phase
o Assessment OF learning
o Always marked by teacher and not peers
 Diagnostic assessment
o Takes place at any time during learning process
o Determines barriers to learning and or learning gaps
o Remediation should follow
 Principles of assessment
o Valid
o Fair: Bloom’s taxonomy
o Current
o Reliable
o Sufficient
Terms 2 Assignment
 2 lesson plans
 Due 19 April 2024
 Theme: week 7 – 10
 Grade 10 Democracy and Human Rights (week 7 – 10) in CAPS and ATP
 Design two lesson plans (45 min)
 Lessons must follow one another
 Use full LO lesson plan template for submission of your lesson plan
 The lessons must have a resource to support the lesson
 Do not devise PowerPoint for your lesson plan

Term 2:
Human Rights
Mainly self-study

 Definition
o Human rights are those basic freedoms you are entitled to just because you are born human. Because
you are born human, nobody can take these rights away from you. For example, your right to life or
your right to human dignity. These rights are inalienable. You have them forever.
o Making the Bill of Rights a reality in the lives of those who live in South Africa has presented some
challenges.
 Activity:
o The Bill of Rights states we all have human rights, but do all South Africans experience the lived
reality of HAVING RIGHTS?
 There are various ways in which you can get learners to talk about human rights. For example, you can:
o Use case studies on topics / examples of human rights and allow for peer discussions to gauge
differences in opinion;
o Use statement cards in groups and learners discuss different opinions;
o Use pictures of human rights violations and invite learners to discuss what is wrong in the picture and
why is it wrong? Or how to fix it?;
o Devise a research project piece / collaborative homework series on the history of human rights or the
Constitution of South Africa / SA Bill of Rights, followed by group presentations;
o Human rights games, word puzzles and many more…..
 Key documents
o The Constitution 1996
o Local government posters
o Mini booklets
 Creating opportunities for learning through our curriculum
o The National Curriculum Statement is clear that as teachers we need to promote human rights,
inclusivity, environmental and social justice across the whole curriculum.
 Humanising experiences
o Include learners into the conversations about how we can make our classrooms, our school, our
community more humanizing. How can this be achieved?
 Just ask them!
 Use school systems to structure the conversations eg the learner representative councils. If the
school does not have a LRC, well maybe start one?
 Invite the local councillor or a magistrate in for an assembly talk and arrange small group
discussion on how to make our communities safer? Or put together a few learner questions
before the assembly talk for the councillor or magistrate to respond to?
 Start a school-wide visual art project. Get learners to visually display how and why their
rights and responsibilities are important to them. Display this around the school environment
as a visual reminder (and celebration) of everyone’s commitment to uphold the school as a
proud space that values human rights, respect and human dignity.
 Human rights and CAPS

 Human rights at school

o Human rights at school are often regarded as the reason that children misbehave or that teachers are
unable to exercise ‘control’ over the learning environment. It is essential that this is a
misinterpretation of what human rights are about.
o For there to be a true culture of rights at school AND responsibilities are key!
o A rights-based culture at school would be based on:
  respect
 responsibility,
 self-discipline
 dignity.
o It therefore goes without saying that the respect for others, their person and their belongings as well as
hard work, the pursuit of excellence, and participation and commitment to the well being of others in
the school community (and outside of) are central features of a school with an ethos of human rights
and responsibility
 The rights of a teacher
o The right to dignity and respect
o You also have the responsibility not to infringe on the rights of others and to conduct yourself
professionally in a manner that demonstrates your understanding of and commitment to rights and
responsibilities.
 Rights and Responsibilities
o Enjoying individual freedoms cannot really be separated from the freedoms of the whole community.
We do not live our lives in isolation from one another. Our lives interface on a daily basis. To be
constructive, positive and enabling, it needs to be based on a culture of human respect and
responsibility.
o The Bill of Responsibilities was developed to remind all who live in South Africa that human rights
cannot be real without human responsibility. The Bill of Responsibilities is a reminder for the youth of
South Africa that even though we all have and should enjoy rights like equality, respect, dignity and
life, this cannot happen unless we also take responsibility to act in ways that protect, ensure and
uphold these rights.
o Focusing on the Bill of Responsibilities tries to shift us all away from a belief that freedom means
doing what I like. It moves us towards a way of life based on the idea that we need to take
responsibility for the way we live together. It affirms that we should give back to our communities
and our country so that human rights become real for everybody.
 Further strategies for teaching about human rights
o Storytelling. Stories can be non-threatening and so make it possible to touch on many aspects of daily
life in a way that enables participation, discussion and deepens understanding;
o Talking religion. Invite the children to bring stories about their religions to school. Develop story
boards with them about their different beliefs and how this influences the way they live. Invite
different religious leaders to your classroom or even just parents to tell their stories of faith and belief.
Help children to understand that religion is about a lot more than the things we observe like head
scarves, yarmulkes, eating habits or special days. (remember, the basis is respect and openness to
learn from each other. Really understanding what another person’s faith or beliefs mean to them is an
important part of learning about empathy and forms a solid basis for respect);
o End off the above by developing a short statement together about what your class believes about
freedom of belief, religion and opinion and how you will uphold it in your classroom and school
 environment. Think about sharing it in an assembly as a theme for the day. This could be added to
your ideas on equality and dignity;
o Develop a series of scenarios on a topic related to human rights. Put the children into groups and ask
them to decide what the problem is and how they think it should be addressed. You could invite
groups to present their scenarios as mini role- plays.
o Inaugurate a school rights and responsibilities prize / monthly or annual award?

Democratic citizenship education

 Important to know:
 Part One:
o Identifying the characteristics which make South Africa a democratic nation-state
o What the concept ‘citizenship’ means to us in the context of democracy
o What citizenship education encompasses
o The complexities of citizenship education
 Part Two: (next week)
o Explore the global dimension of citizenship education
o The facilitation of democratic citizenship education and ideas for classroom practice
 What is democracy
 Features of a democracy
 What do we need for a democracy to work
o Awareness of the rights & responsibilities as citizens
o Informed about the social and political world
o Concerned about the welfare of others
o Articulate in opinions and arguments
o Capable of having an influence on the world
o Active in communities
o Citizens responsible in how they act
 Key questions
 How do we get people to know these?
 Where do they learn these from?
 Where are they supposed to learn these from?
 Interrelatedness of citizenship
o Legal and political status
o Involvement in public life and public affairs
o An educational activity
o “citizenship” is not just a noun, it is a verb
o Democratic citizens are not born, they are made and citizen education is meant to accomplish this
task. (Sigel, 1991)
  What are the essential element of citizenship education
o Knowledge & understanding
 human rights, diversity, concepts such as justice, equality, freedom, rule of law
o Skills & aptitudes
 critical thinking, expressing opinions, taking part in discussions and debates, negotiating,
conflict resolution (cooperative learning, class discussions and engagement) (teachers fear
what discussions might come out)
o Values & dispositions
 respect for justice, willingness to listen to, work with and stand up for others, courage to
defend a point a view
 Lesson plan objectives as well
 Activity 3: What kind of citizenship learning would come out of…
o 1. A classroom debate on immigration?
o 2. A whole day event on human rights?
o 3. A visit to a magistrate’s court?
o Be specific on the kinds of learning you think would emerge for each of these activities?
o Use the previous slide as a guide
 Lesson plans may include discussions on citizenship
 What would you say are some of the complexities of citizenship education? Explain why.
 Why do we have citizenship education
o citizenship education is
 Of benefit to young people, teachers, schools and the wider communities
 An entitlement for all young people
 Active, enjoyable, stimulating
 Rigorous & challenging
 About helping young people think for themselves
o Citizenship education is NOT
 About the indoctrination of young people
 About teachers following a particular political agenda
 Just about feelings, values, school ethos or circle time
 Just about volunteering and charity work
 Solely about what goes on in schools

Resilience
 What is resilience: the capacity to cope well with very challenging life circumstances
 Challenging life circumstances:
o Poverty
 We can only speak about resilience in the presence of significant risk. The contexts of everyday stress are not
the same as significant risk.
 o The first criteria for describing a learner as resilient is that he/she must have first-hand experience of
considerable hardship
o The second criteria is when a learner adjusts well to the context/experience of considerable hardship

Subject advisors lecture:

 Teacher readiness
o What to expect:
 Workshops after school or on Saturdays
 School visits subject advisors: we are currently following ATP, subject to change
 Files are checked
 You need to teach a lesson, you are just being observed
 what support has been offered to a struggling teacher
 Reporting and recording: CEMUS
 Schedule
 QMS: quality management system
 School fundraisers or events
 Collaboration: get external stakeholders to address issues that you don’t know how to
navigate
 Personal growth: make yourself visible and have a brand
 How to survive in the classroom
o Preparedness, organised, time management
o Effective classroom management
o Reflections and feedback
o Professional development
o Mentorship communication
o Self-care positivity flexibility
 Back on track (BOT)
 Subject advisor: Kim Thompson (pod for support)

Lay counselling
 Not included in May test
 Life orientation teachers are equipped to be lay counsellor: limited scope
 Significant counselling approaches
 Life Orientation: humanistic approach
o With guidance, learners will reach their potential
o Present and future orientated
o Allows for lay counselling
o Personal resources to guide own development
 o Conscious level
o Counselling strategy focus on healthy decision making, potential within, having choices, reflection to
guide us
o Do not delve into the psyche of the learner
 5 approaches: focus on two
o Carl Rodgers: Unconditional positive regard, empathy (not sympathy), congruence
o Maslow: hierarchy of needs
 Approach to learner being in physical danger:
o Three factor model: affect (initial starting point), behaviour, cognition
 Nature of counselling (lay counselling)
o Empathy, not sympathy (not overly involved)
o Drastic intervention: places of safety
o Confidentiality: explain boundaries of confidentiality
 Aware of scope
o Know when to refer to school counsellor (part of the School Based Support Team or SBST)
o Know when to refer to Social Services, Educational Psychologist
o Know when to refer to District Based Support Team or DBST
 Steps
o Create a warm, safe and welcoming space
o Listen actively to the problem (reflective questions, summarize your understanding at certain
checkpoint)
 Strategies
o Active listening
o Reflection
o Paraphrasing
o Summarizing
 Rationale emotive counselling
o Identify the activating event
o Uncover beliefs
o Discuss consequences of beliefs/event (starting point)
o Disputing irrational beliefs
o New effect will appear over time
 Narrative counselling
o Psychotherapy: creating stories to make meaning
 Challenges in lay counselling for LO teachers
o Time
o Might need to take place after school hours
o Financial constraints of school
o Formal/informal qualifications
o Atmosphere/venue