| Abstract Detail
Education and Outreach Thorhaug, Anitra [1], Gilmour, John [2], Ramphele, Mamphela [3], Hughes, Barry [4], Schwarz, Arthur [5]. Holistic education of secondary Science and Math for “At Risk” South African youth. . In post-Apartheid policies after reconciliation, the Colonial British educational system remained dominant. Despite a transition to democratically elected government, this educational system has not shown the capacity to adjust to the rapidly expanding population needing work skills for employment and rapidly urbanizing work force. The Apartheid governance system had outlawed teaching Black and Colored people Science or Math. A new methodology geared to “at risk” youth from the poorest areas has been developed and successfully piloted showing that youth at risk can transform themselves within their own living circumstances within the safety and challenge of the LEAP self-liberating pedagogy. Statistics demonstrate clearly that many young people who would not otherwise have been in school, can and will succeed academically and gain access to and pass through university. Now over two thousand have been trained with the immersive LEAP technology and have shown in nationalized TEST scores to surpass the national average by up to 20% over a decade. Presently, there are 6 successful branches of LEAP in urban and rural environments, and in various regions of South Africa. UNESCO and the World Bank have stated that the 103 million “not in the educational system” students in Africa present a highly concerning problems of African nations productivity in the future and are exacerbated by the traditional educational systems. The question of use of this LEAP methodology in other African nations as an intervention to the problems, could lead to an important application of LEAP methodology in preparation for scaled impact. A predictive analytic model using International Futures 7.3 (Hughes, 2019) on a 2015-2050 scale shows that, while taking time to materialize, by 2050 the growing impact could reach about $2,500 per capita in South Africa, although throughout the continent, the gain could exceed $3,000 per capita above the average GDP. While the effect on the various Strategic Development Goals varies, there are many other factors in the country keeping up the poverty rate (including governance, economic structure, and legacy issues from the days of Apartheid such as great inequality in income and wealth). LEAP could reduce inequality rates (GINI) significantly. On a continent-wide level, the reduction could be more than 5 percentage points by 2050. This holistic science and math teaching approach is an African solution rooted in African philosophy that will empower young people to become global citizens contributing to solution-finding as active and insightful agents of sustainability change.
1 - Yale University, 1359 SW 22 Terrace, Miami, FL, 33145.0, United States
2 - Leap School, 122 Thornton Road, Cape Town , Cape Town , South Africa
3 - Reimagine sa, Cape Town, Western Cape, 7806, South Africa
4 - University of Denver, Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, Denver, CO, 80208, USA
5 - Southwestern Adventist University, Biological Sciences, 100 W Hillcrest, Keene, TX, 76059, United States
Keywords:
Teaching methodology STEM
New teaching methods Science for youth “ at risk
Leap Teaching methods
Teaching “whole child” Science and Math.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: EO3, Education and Outreach III: Diversity & Inclusion in Botany
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Thursday, July 30th, 2020
Time: 3:00 PM
Number: EO3001
Abstract ID:73
Candidate for Awards:None |
