Teacher Support of Visual Processing Challenges in Foundation Phase Classrooms

Running head: TEACHER SUPPORT OF VISUAL PROCESSING CHALLENGES IN
FOUNDATION PHASE CLASSROOMS
Teacher Support of Visual Processing Challenges in Foundation Phase Classrooms
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Teacher Support of Visual Processing Challenges in Foundation Phase Classrooms
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

TEACHER SUPPORT OF VISUAL PROCESSING CHALLENGES IN FOUNDATION
PHASE CLASSROOMS 2
Introduction
The development of the child in the process of growth is bound to the essential early childhood
education. All credit to Freidrich Froebel, who is recognized historically as the father of early
childhood education from late 1837 for the establishment of the very first
kindergarten. Freidrich had a well-controlled understanding of the value cognitive
development had in the life and future of a person in the life cycle. However, from 1837 to
the late 1990s, education at the foundation phase level was not compulsory until the year
2001 in Pretoria when it was made mandatory. In the same education system, early childhood
in specific, the stage is to as the foundation phase. This stage is in primary school education and
is inclusive grade R, which means reception to grade 3. The aspects developed in the foundation
phase include ethics, essential learning techniques, and manners. Therefore, the foundation
phase level is fundamental in the establishment of skills necessary for elementary study
level.
In such an understanding, teachers in the foundation phase play a remarkable role in building
cognition development of children that governs their future in terms of sense, experience,
agreement, and acquiring knowledge. In simple words, education from grade R to 3 is the
foundation of a bright future if well considered. Foundation phase teachers have been trained
through creativity to develop the capabilities, abilities, and interests of their learners. It is,
therefore, through the numeracy, literacy, and creativity that the classrooms of learners in this
phase are evaluated in regard to visual structure. Classes in the foundation stage of learning
should promote learning in practical visual ideas such as interpreting charts and pictures,
among other visual-stimuli resources (Singh, 2009. Therefore, coupled with teaching
2

TEACHER SUPPORT OF VISUAL PROCESSING CHALLENGES IN FOUNDATION
PHASE CLASSROOMS 3
experience, teachers have identified different visual perception challenges and how to deal
with them.
In most cases, the challenges are more prominent in a rural setting in that; the socio-economic
status cannot allow purchases of the all required resources necessary in making classrooms real.
Several studies have been carried out in the evaluation of the challenges experienced in the
foundation phase classrooms as far as visual processing is concerned. These problems run from
the site where the classroom is located, the surrounding environment, and the population inside
the school, structure, and visual resources inside the class (Condy and Blease, 2014). Besides,
Condy and Blease (2014) stated that teachers in the multi-grade courses are committed to
excellence despite the challenges faced, such as discrimination cases, especially in payment.
However, the state of the environment at which learning is carried out makes the process much
harder for teachers to deliver their services as the curriculum supposes effectively.
A research was conducted in South Africa in 2008 to determine the visual perception challenges
in the foundation phase classes, and that are discussed below.
School location
In the perception skills aspect, coordination between movement and sight abilities is one f the
beneficial contributing factors to a child's brain growth and specifically motor accuracy
(Tarrasch, Margalit and Berger, 2017). A school, situated in the most interior parts of the
rural areas, covered with sand and no grasslands, there is reduced perception in the child's
brain development. For such a learner, chances of developing in the future to be an open-
minded person be minimal (Condy and Blease, 2014). The same school, situated in an area
with the most spectacular view surrounded by farmlands and grasslands, there is a likely
probability of improved perception skills and coordination hence optimal brain
3

TEACHER SUPPORT OF VISUAL PROCESSING CHALLENGES IN FOUNDATION
PHASE CLASSROOMS 4
development. Therefore, the location of the school itself poses a challenge of visual
perception by limiting intellectual development leading to retardation of intellectual
quotient associated with visual perception coordination.
Classroom context
Classrooms both from the inside and the outside describe the kind of activities that take place in
the learning institutions. For the foundation phase, the outside and the inside of the classes are
supposed to be visually attractive to promote imaginative and artistic visual support as per the
curriculum. The chief complaint is that the outside colors are fading out, others are not
creative and no required infrastructures like reading charts inside. Is such classrooms,
teachers have established a concern on how hard it is to impact the necessary degree of
knowledge and skills. The reason for the difficulty in the development of such skills is that;
the classrooms lack sufficient resources to conduct lessons such as role-plays, imaginative
arts shows, and free plays.
There is also a complaint of demarcation problems whereby foundation phase classrooms are
integrated in the rest of elementary classes, which in one way or the other destructs learning
(Christiansen, Bertram and Mukeredzi, 2018). It is thus in the appearance of the classrooms from
paintings to the interior décor that significantly contributes to visual processing and
psychological development, and thus the insufficiency prompts teachers to make claims of visual
perception challenges.
In 2016, the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, carried out a study in Kwazulu-Natal
school regarding the long-existed challenge of the perceptual skills challenge. The conclusion
was, the levels of numeracy and literacy in the school just one among the many across the globe
were reducing, and so were the perceptual skills for reading. Also, the study quoted that, Grade R
4