Browsing by Author "Mupfawa, Shungu"

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Investigation of teachers' use of language during teaching of evolution in South African life sciences classrooms
(2017) Mupfawa, Shungu
In 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.
Product innovation strategies that support an organisation’s reset business strategy
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Maithufi, Marang Norah; Mupfawa, Shungu
Literature reveals that many organisations do not have well-communicated innovation strategies, or rarely articulate their innovation efforts to align with business strategies. In addition, research further emphasises that without innovation strategies, different parts of an organisation can find themselves pursuing conflicting priorities even in the existence of a clear business strategy. Organisation A, the case under study, has recently accounced its new refresh business strategy; in order to align itself with the changing business and consumer landscapes. The new business strategy focusses on value delivery through customer-centricity and market-focused businesses. The aim of this study is to ascertain product innovation strategies that can support Organisation A’s new business ambitions. Organisation A produces and markets a wide range of products, including chemicals; both commodity as well specialty chemicals. The products identifed for the study are polymers products, selected due to the unique challenges the products currently face; which include being commodity products at the mature stage of their product lifecycle. Parallel to this, these products have recently endured substantial environmental scrutiny relating to the increasing (polymers) plastics waste footprint in the environment and other externalities, with consumers thus demanding more environmentally sustainable product solutions. For a richer discovery, as well as uncovering perceptions which may influence how innovation is conducted at Organisation A, a qualitative single case study research strategy was pursued, via semi-structured interview schedules with Organisation A’ employees involved in and associated with the development, production, marketing, sales and support of polymers products under study. The study revealed that although innovation is widely acknowledged as important, the perceptions held within the business were that polymers product innovation was not a forefront imperative. This, according to the study participants, manifested as an environment that was unsupportive of product innovation endevours, a business that was overly risk-averse, internally focussed, and considered other categories of innovation such as manufacturing process innovations as more value creating than polymers product innovation efforts. Consequently, only incremental and sustaining product innovation activities that were perceived to not disrupt the business were embraced. Three strategies or opportunity areas are proposed, that Organisation A can explore for its polymers product innovation efforts to support the new business strategy
Teachers' Discourse, Language, Genetics, Life Sciences, South Africa, classrooms
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mupfawa, Shungu
South Africa has consistently ranked close to the bottom in international studies on the quality of mathematics and science education. This poor performance portrays a negative picture of the quality of teaching and learning science and mathematics in the country. Local reports such as the South African National Diagnostic Report on grade 12 performance attest to this as it shows that the quality of passes in life sciences at the matric level is low. As a result, fewer matriculants enrol for life sciences-related careers at higher institutions of learning. The overall quality of passes in life sciences could be aggravated by the poor performance of learners in genetics-related questions which make a substantial contribution to scores in the Life Sciences examination. Literature on the teaching and learning of genetics also points to difficulty with the teaching and learning of this topic, including the use of language by the teachers. This thesis reports on a case study in which I investigated the classroom Discourse of four life sciences teachers while teaching basic genetics to grade 12 learners. The study aimed to characterise the teachers’ Discourse during the teaching of basic genetics. In this study, my conception of Discourse was influenced by Gee’s Theory of Discourse which makes a distinction between Discourse with an upper-case ‘D’ denoting language and other factors associated with it and discourse with a lower-case ‘d’ as referring to language. Therefore, in this study, the teachers’ Discourse ‘D’ was conceptualised in terms of language ‘d’ (the language of science) and context which entailed Discourse strategies, interaction patterns, teacher Discourse moves, and multimodal representations. This study drew on literature and research from the fields of Discourse analysis, language, teacher talk, science teaching, and classroom Discourse to develop a complex picture of the classroom. A case study was conducted in three high schools in Johannesburg, South Africa. Data was collected from four teachers each of whom was observed three times, and video recorded while teaching basic genetics concepts to grade 12 learners. A follow-up interview was conducted with each teacher. These post-observation interviews together with field notes were added for data triangulation purposes. The interviews helped me to access teachers’ rationale for taking certain actions during the observed lessons. Moreover, the interviews enhanced the trustworthiness of my analysis. The lesson observation transcripts were analysed using Lemke’s Thematic Analysis merged with Mortimer and Scott’s Communicative Approaches and Discourse patterns. This study unveiled two major types of Discourse of teachers who followed an examination based approach and teachers whose Discourse followed a conceptual approach. This led to the development of a Discourse Teaching Strategy Model which portrays teachers as being either conceptually or assessment focused. My Discourse Teaching Strategy Model shows that amongst other characteristics, conceptually focused teachers used higher-order questions to build conceptual understanding and logical exposition for consolidation. Further, the model shows that logical exposition was sometimes replaced by selective summary where the teachers justified the curriculum. Teachers adopting a conceptual focused strategy used controlling pacing and marking importance as pedagogical measures and admonition for maintaining discipline. This study contributes to the effective teaching of genetics by offering the Discourse Teaching Strategy Model as a model to guide thinking about the planning and development of science teaching as well as a tool for reflection upon one’s teaching strategies. Thus, this model can be used to expand self-development or in-service development especially if one is to teach for ii conceptual understanding. Researchers can use the model as an analytical tool for identifying a particular teacher’s Discourse practices.