Science Education and Pedagogy in South Africa

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Chapter One: Does Caps for Physical Science Promote Canonical or Humanistic Science?

Chapter Two: How to Teach Western Science and Indigenous Knowledge as Complementary Bodies of Knowledge

Chapter Three: The Dangers of Poor Science Teaching

Chapter Four: How FET Physical Science Teachers Teach Selected Chemistry Topics

Chapter Five: Argumentation as a Teaching Method

Chapter Six: The Effect of a Professional Development Programme on Science Teachers’ Instructional Practices

Chapter Seven: Towards a Humanising Philosophy of Education in South Africa

Index←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Figures

Figure 1.1: Findings in the form of a bar graph

Figure 2.1: The model of third space

Figure 2.2: The model of fourth space

Figure 5.1: The five stages of implementing DAIM

Figure 6.1: Sequencing of events in a phenomenological classroom

Figure 6.2: Graphical representation of POP scores of teachers’ lessons

←ix | x→ ←x | xi→

Tables

Table 1.1: Specific aims of CAPS for Physical Science

Table 1.2: Comparative weightings of canonical and humanistic science in the FET syllabi

Table 1.3: Overview of formal assessments in the FET band

Table 1.4: Taxonomical classification of tests and examinations

Table 3.1: Overview of the research participants

Table 3.2: Biographical data of the participants

Table 3.3: A description of the teaching styles of the participants’ Physical Science teachers and lecturers

Table 3.4: Narrative data on their own practices as teachers

Table 4.1: Summary of lessons and the enactment of triplet Chemistry and types of explanations

Table 5.1: The five stages of CAT as proposed by Ogunniyi

Table 6.1: Background information of the participants

Table 6.2: The POP items related to inquiry orientation

Table 6.3: POP scores of the teacher over a period of two years ←xi | xii→ ←xii | xiii→

Foreword

When a person attempts to unlock a door with the wrong key or tries to open a safe with the wrong code, the result can be much unnecessary frustration, anxiety and stress. The danger is that all of this emotional pressure can become so intense that a person can resort to violence in trying to force the lock of the door or the safe open. As I was reading this book I realised that many science teachers in South Africa metaphorically find themselves in a similar position as they try to unlock the minds of their learners using a particular pedagogy to see the world in a new light or to change their perceptions of the world.

This book Science Education and Pedagogy in South Africa as scholarly text is a contemporary, timeous and most welcome contribution that entices science teachers to ‘re-examine’ or ‘rethink’ the pedagogical strategies they use in their teaching. It offers a fresh approach and represents a bold attempt by the author to explore and tackle the worrisome problems of how to plan, implement and present excellent and quality learning opportunities as a driver to enhance, promote and accelerate learner performance in science education. These imperatives to achieve quality education for all is weighed against the Department of Higher Education and Training’s flagship policy intervention strategy, Revised Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (2015) and the National Department of Basic Education’s (2015) visionary goals as stated in Action Plan to 2019: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2030. This book is a well-crafted text, and is written ←xiii | xiv→ in concise and persuasive language to convey the principles of teaching science. The author of this seminal publication paves the way for researchers, postgraduate science education scholars as well as pre-service and in-service science teachers to become empowered in their professional growth and development in search of appropriate pedagogies for a multicultural classroom.