Department of Early Childhood Education

Dr TAL Phala

College of Education
School of Teacher Education
Department: Early Childhood Education
Chair
Tel: 012 429 4612
E-mail: phalatal@unisa.ac.za

Expertise

  • Early Childhood Education
  • Inclusive Education in Early Childhood
  • Teacher/ Learner Support in ECD

Qualifications

  • PhD

Currently teaching

  • Inclusive Education & Early Childhood Education

Fields of academic interests

  • Teaching and supporting  reading in the early years

Field of Specialisation

  • Inclusive Education & Early Childhood Education

Books

Jacomina Motitswe & Thembi Phala. Realigning the role of school based support team in addressing barriers to learning in schools. (in Realigning teacher training in the 21st century)

Journal articles

  • Thembi Phala & Anna Hugo. 2016.  Reading problems in the Intermediate Phase: Grade 4 teachers’ opinion.

       Journal for Language Teaching, Volume 50, Number 2, pp. 167 – 183. 2016. ISSN 0259-9570.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v50i2.8.

 

Paper presentations

  1.        Prof Ebrahim HB, Dr Hannaway, D & Ms Phala TAL. The Development of Critically Reflective Early Childhood Student                      Teacher in an ODeL

                 Environment. The 8th Teacher Education and Interdisciplinary Research Conference 2018, Drakensburg Sun Resort, 09-12                    0ctober 2018.

2.              Phala TAL & Mohapi SJ. Partnership and Inclusive Education: A case study of two rural primary school in South Africa.                           UNISA: Centre for Continuing Education and Training (CCET) 2NDConference 2017, Sun City 7-10 May 2017.

 3.             Phala TAL. Problems in word recognition for grade 4 learners in an inclusive classroom in Ekurhuleni South, Gauteng,  36th                    International Society for Teacher Education (ISfTE) Conference, Kruger National Park , 17-22 April  2016.   

4.              Phala TAL & Motitswe JMC. Challenges experienced when assessing students registered for Teaching in Grade R Short                          learning programme.

                   UNISA:  Centre for Continuing Education and Training (CCET) 1ST Conference 2015, Sun City 24-27 May 2015.

  5.             Phala TAL, Motitswe JMC & Mphahlele RS. Breaking digital divide in Open and Distance Learning using onscreen marking:                    Experiences of external markers. 26th ICDE World Conference, Sun City, 14- 16 October 2015.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Senior lecturer
  • Fellowship Awards-None

Projects

  1. Capacity Building, Access and Support  (CBAS) Programme for ECD Workforce Development for Qualifications in Early Childhood Care and Education (Birth-4)
  2. ECE Departmental project- Academic support for Foundation Phase teachers in North West, Kwazulu Natal and Limpopo
  3. Matthew Goniwe project - Supporting BEd foundation Phase students