Supporting Underprepared Students Through Technology and Inclusive Pedagogical Strategies

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Scaffolding; ECP; Technology Enhanced Learning; Underprepared Students

Abstract

South Africa’s higher education system faces significant challenges, including low academic performance and unsatisfactory throughput rates. These issues cannot be fully understood without considering the impact of the apartheid era, which left a legacy of pronounced educational inequality and fragmentation. Although the current government has made efforts to address these historical disadvantages and improve access to quality education, various contemporary challenges persist. Many South African students enter higher education underprepared, as evidenced by their low academic performance and throughput rates. This indicates that current responses to the teaching and learning needs of these students are insufficient. At some universities, particularly within the Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) where many underprepared students are enrolled, much of the problem lies in the teaching strategies employed. The aim of this article is to explore the use of inclusive pedagogical strategies focussing on scaffolding, inorder to address some of the challenges faced by underprepared students in a university of technology (UoT) in South Africa. Various emerging technologies are reviewed that can complement these scaffolding strategies. Vygotsky’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was used as a framework to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and the driving contradictions within the system.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mbangi Awonke
AU  - Ncobela Cyprial Ndumiso
AU  - Mbangi Hlumela Siyolise
AU  - Rapai Fred
AU  - Kavita Behara
AU  - Msomi Alfred Mvunyelwa
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/31
TI  - Supporting Underprepared Students Through Technology and Inclusive Pedagogical Strategies
BT  - Proceedings of the Focus Conference (TFC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 422
EP  - 451
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_23
ID  - Awonke2024
ER  -