Investigation of teachers' use of language during teaching of evolution in South African life sciences classrooms

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMupfawa, Shungu
dc.date.accessioned2017-12-07T13:13:14Z
dc.date.available2017-12-07T13:13:14Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.descriptionA research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg March 2017en_ZA
dc.description.abstractIn South Africa there are eleven official languages and every citizen has a right to receive education in any of these languages. Nevertheless, the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) in most schools is either English or Afrikaans. Of the two languages English is more dominant because it is a global language and is preferred by parents. In a bid to embrace the call by UNSESCO (2007) which encourages science learning and teaching to be done in the mother tongue, South Africa implemented the teaching of science in indigenous languages in the lower grades in primary (1-3). Nonetheless, this endeavor has its merits and demerits. In South African schools most teachers and learners are English Second Language speakers. This study investigated the South African life sciences teachers’ use of science classroom language (technical and non-technical components) when teaching evolution to grade 12 learners in public schools. The primary objective of this study was to establish South Africa’s life sciences teachers’ awareness of the difficulty of the science classroom language towards suggesting strategies that they use to assist learners to better understand the science language. Three grade 12 life sciences teachers from two public schools in Johannesburg were observed and audio recorded three times while teaching evolution. A follow-up interview with each teacher was conducted to obtain clarity on language related issues that arose from the observations. As a result, the empirical data consisted of nine recorded lessons and accompanying field notes for each lesson as well as three recorded interviews. The interviews and the field notes were analysed using an interpretive approach whilst a strategy known as content analysis was used to analyse classroom observations so as to conclude on the teachers’ preferred approach to language use during teaching. From the findings, it can be suggested that South African life sciences teachers who participated in this study employed a variety of strategies to present technical terms to their learners but lacked explicit awareness of the difficulty of the science classroom language.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianMT 2017en_ZA
dc.format.extentOnline resource (xi, 224 leaves)
dc.identifier.citationMupfawa, Shungu (2015) Investigation of teachers' use of language during teaching of evolution in South African life sciences classrooms, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/23460>
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/23460
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshLife sciences
dc.subject.lcshLife sciences--Study and teaching
dc.subject.lcshLanguage and languages--Usage
dc.titleInvestigation of teachers' use of language during teaching of evolution in South African life sciences classroomsen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
SHUNGU MASTERS RESEARCH REPORT 23 MARCH 2017 FINAL.pdf
Size:
2.42 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
ETD Collection