3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Learning to teach Biology to pre-service teachers: a self-study(2020) Khoza, Hlologelo ClimantDue to the lack of formal training for those who wish to be teacher educators in South Africa and around the world, I did on-the-job training and used a self-study methodology to explore how I, as a novice teacher educator, can learn to teach biology to pre-service teachers. I viewed learning as the “coming-to know” process facilitated by constructive interactions and observations in a community of practice. I was the main participant. The other participants were my 135 pre-service teachers whom I was teaching in the course and six biology teacher educators who were working in the same department. I collected data through journaling, observations of and discussions with the experienced biology teacher educators, audio-and video-recordings of my lectures, discussions with critical friends and interviews with students. Narrative text analysis was used to draw insights. The student interviews and discussions with experienced teacher educators were analysed using both inductive and deductive approaches. This study showed that one can learn to teach pre-service teachers in systematic ways and approaches. These systematic ways include reflecting on experiences accumulated over the years, observing experienced teacher educators as they teach and discussing with them, teaching a topic for a short period with the help of the experienced teacher educators, moving from general observations and discussions to focusing on particular aspects of practice and planning and teaching a full module. In this thesis, I demonstrate how these approaches helped me learn and the knowledge and skills I gained in the process. The findings in this study showed that a novice teacher educator can learn about teaching practice by engaging in critical reflection based on their students’ feedback. I further demonstrate that, for this reflection and learning to be meaningful, the feedback has to be sought continuously from the students being taught. Using the findings from this study, I proposed a model or framework for learning that novice teacher educators can adopt not only to acquire practices of teaching biology to pre-service teachers but also to track their learning. Recommendations for future research are also highlightedItem Exploring teacher talk and its role in learner understanding of science content(2016-09-13) Khoza, Hlologelo ClimantIn order for educational researchers to make informed decisions about science education, careful attention should be given to what happens in science classrooms. What teachers do shapes the interaction and influences learner cognitive development. Classroom talk is an important part of what goes on in science classrooms. Research has shown that teacher facilitation of talk is important for learner understanding of science content. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers facilitate talk in their science classrooms for learner understanding of content. However, I looked at their views on classroom talk first. Teachers have the ability to either open up or close learner interaction through talk. The interaction triggers certain kinds of engagement which may or may not promote understanding. The participants in this study were three male science teachers from an independent school with their Grade 11 learners. Teachers were chosen based on their availability. I interviewed teachers for their views on classroom talk. The interviews were audio recorded. Teachers were also observed teaching and the observations were video-recorded and transcribed. Classroom observations were analyzed using Mortimer and Scott’s analytical framework on teacher communicative approaches. Findings suggest that although teachers value interaction and engage learners in dialogue, teachers use interactive authoritative approach more than interactive dialogic approach in their classrooms. The recommendation is that teacher education needs to find ways to make teachers aware of engaging learners in dialogic discourse in a science classroom