Dr Cas Prinsloo is Chief Research Specialist in the Education and Skills Development research programme. During his employ at the HSRC his research focused on personality theories, development and assessment, mainly from the perspective of psychometrics, followed by science policy and systems (at the former Centre for Science Development), to his current specialisation in educational assessment. The latter has mainly been about the factors influencing learner performance, teaching and learning, school effectiveness and improvement, and evaluating interventions in the education system. Dr Prinsloo is registered as a research psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
His current and most recent interests and research activities have focused on literacy and language acquisition and development, especially exploring the relationship between paradigms and practices of language teaching and learning in primary schools from a psycho-linguistic perspective. He has also been involved in a number of assessments of learner achievement in literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics, either as part of evaluating school interventions or of large-scale learner assessment programmes, such as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2011, of which he is the project manager.
Dr Prinsloo has authored or co-authored many client reports, made many conference and other presentations, wrote a range of articles, and produced a few chapters in books and a couple of edited books. Projects he recently led were on literacy teaching and learning in primary schools, the effect of after-school tuition in English and Mathematics on the performance of learners, the impact of a school-support programme in mining communities, and province-wide learner assessment. Clients and funders included the Limpopo Department of Education, the Western Cape Education Department, the national office of the Department of (Basic) Education, JET Education Services, Irish Aid, the Shuttleworth Foundation and BHP Billiton. |
