Wednesday, April 4
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Neville Scarge, Room 310
Presentation Title:
Students’ conceptual development and their language of learning & instruction: lessons learnt from selected South African research
Summary
More than 90% of South African school and university students, learn in a language other than their mother tongue. This lecture will present findings from research on the difficulties students experience in the development of concepts when they learn in a second (third, or even fourth) language. Examples will focus, inter alia, on young children’s learning of math at a primary level, and on university students’ learning of child development in their university coursework. I will discuss the relevance of the research for special educators, educational psychologists, test developers, as well as university lecturers.
Biography
Dr. Lara Ragpot is an Associate Professor in the Department of Childhood Education at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her academic focus is on aspects of childhood cognitive development, executive functioning in childhood, and the study of learning in the classroom and lecture hall.