3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The development of topic specific pedagogical content knowledge in out-of-field natural sciences teachers in a rural context(2021) Vokwana, Nonkanyiso QueenIn many countries, there are instances where teachers are teaching content at a level for which they are not qualified. This phenomenon is called teaching ‘out-of-field’ (OOF). OOF teaching is a common occurrence in low socioeconomic environments, especially in rural areas. However, the practice of OOF teaching remains under-studied and under-researched. There area great number of complexities necessitating, for example, high attrition rates of qualified science graduate teachers in rural areas as a result of migration to urban areas, resource allocation, and absorption of science graduates into industries. More commonly, Junior Secondary Schools in rural areas are left with no choice but to appoint teachers out-of-their field of expertise. This study was aimed at improving the teaching of Natural Sciences teachers who were teaching OOF at Junior Secondary level in the rural Eastern Cape. The theoretical framework was based on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), which explains how teachers transform content knowledge into a teachable form. PCK can be studied at several different levels; domain, subject and topic. The level of PCK studied for this study was Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK). Validated TSPCK and content knowledge instruments in the topic of particulate nature of matter were used to test content knowledge and quality of teachers’ TSPCK before and after an intervention was carried out. The intervention was targeted at improving the quality of teachers’ TSPCK in the topic of intervention and consequently their content knowledge. The TSPCK instruments completed by teachers before and after the intervention were scored using a criterion-based rubric. The quality of enacted TSPCK (eTSPCK) before and after the intervention was measured through qualitative in-depth analysis for TSPCK episodes displayed in teachers’ video-recorded lessons. The identified teaching segments containing TSPCK episodes were then subjected to a rubric for analyzing eTSPCK. TSPCK scores generated by rubrics for both TSPCK and eTSPCK had inter-rater reliability 0.86 and 0.84 respectively. The results of this study have revealed an improvement in the CK, PCK and the ePCK of teachers in the topic of the particulate nature of matter. This finding provides a path for improving the effectiveness for teachers who face the challenge of out of field teachingItem Examining the development of topic specific PCK in stoichiometry of three practicing teachers through a lesson study(2017) Mudzatsi, TarisaiProfessional learning communities are generally regarded as having a positive impact in improving and developing teacher knowledge. Literature has shown that group planning and professional learning communities have an impact on the quality of teaching and subsequent improvement in learner performance. Practicing teachers, preservice teachers, education authorities, curriculum advisors and teacher educators all thrive to find out about the kind of teaching that brings about effective learning inside classrooms, the most appropriate approach to improve teaching and learning in class, and in particular, science classes, remains vague, though. This study examines how teacher knowledge is developed in the context of a lesson study within a specific concept of the topic stoichiometry: the ‘mole’. The case of three practicing science teachers is considered through the observation of their interactions with teacher educators during the five (5) weeks in which the participant teachers planned, taught and reflected on the mole concept together with science teacher educators and science teacher education specialists. A pretest is administered to the participant teachers at the beginning of the study; this is followed by intervention discussions based on the concept of the mole. Each of the participants then teaches the lesson to 11th grade learners in their school, each lesson is reflected upon and an iterative cycle of teaching and re-teaching the concept describes the lesson study approach used in this study. At the end of the intervention, a post-test is administered to the three participant teachers. The analysis and description of the teachers’ responses to structured test items before and after the topic specific intervention and verbal contributions during meetings are sources of qualitative data in this study. The qualitative data about topic specific pedagogy and the interaction of TSPCK components obtained in this study is used as evidence to show that topic-specific interventions assist teachers in developing pedagogical content knowledge in science education.Item Gateway: entering into a process of questioning pedagogical practice in South African education(2017) Louw, Genevieve JeanneThe purpose of this research is to critically engage with the limitations and ethical dilemmas inherent in socially engaged art practice and to closely examine the relevance of educational art practice by entering into a process of questioning the current education system offered in South Africa. This research project attempts to reveal various problems and benefits of working within the educational artistic paradigm. By working with the concept of a ‘gateway’, issues regarding access to education are investigated through the medium of poetry, which intends to question approaches to research methodologies in academic institutions. Power dynamics in educational practice is a central point that is considered in this research, with particular reference to resistance toward archaic and colonial systems of control. Collaborative projects and acts of resistance in art educational spaces are analysed closely in order to explore interdisciplinary approaches to education that reflect decolonial objectives and encourage transformative action. The research identifies a need for complex and dynamic approaches to educational practice and knowledge production by placing value on previously overlooked material that may be utilised in order to rethink approaches to curriculum development. The theory and practice of intersectionality is a key component in the theoretical and practical elements of the project as it suggests a complex approach to problems in educational practice by focusing on the importance of individual positionality. The importance of selfreflexive methods and approaches to educational research practice is addressed in relation to various failures that occur in participatory projects that often have negative associations but hold inestimable pedagogical significance.Item The development of preservice teachers topics specific pedagogical content knowledge using seleced components of the construct(2018) Sekhibane, Thandiwe LeratoThis study was concerned with assisting pre service teachers who were in the beginning stages of their Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) programme. This development was focused on content knowledge (CK) on the topic of chemical bonding making use of the Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge model which enables transformation of science CK using five components. These are learner prior knowledge, representations, curricular saliency, what makes the topic easy or difficult to teach and conceptual teaching strategies. The students referred were a sample of 30 early pre service teachers (EPT) registered in the second year Natural Sciences Methodology II course. CK and TSPCK development was fostered through the use of three components during a 6-week intervention. I adopted a Mixed Methods research design (MM) and gathered both qualitative (written tasks and semi structured interviews) and quantitative (CK and TSPCK tests) data. The results in the study show: (1) that there was general improvement in CK in pre and post-tests (2) that there was evidence of general improvement in TSPCK components used in the intervention; (3) that there was evidence of general improvement across the three components; (4) that there was interaction of TSPCK components observed, including those in those components that were not covered in the course; (5) that pre service teachers were observed to be using their knowledge of the topic of chemical bonding to draw on similarities and differences between the concepts imbedded in the topic of intervention, (6) that pre service teachers at their beginning stages of teacher training display, in planning, that they ‘miss’ the important aspects of teaching chemical bonding and (7) pre service teachers in their beginning stages of their teacher education programme developed explicit ways of thinking about their teacher knowledge. It was recommended that further research is needed regarding the nature and development of the interaction among preservice teachers' PCK components, and regarding how various contexts can stimulate the development and strengthen the interaction of these components. Furthermore, it has been suggested that more focus should be on the four aspects highlighted as the core problems in the learning of chemical bonding. The four problems were (1) EPT’s showed no mention of the electrostatic nature of chemical bonding, (2) EPT’s used macroscopic levels of representations to explain and describe bonding (3) EPT’s in the study over emphasized the rule of the octet to explain chemical bonds (4) EPT’s struggle with the idea of delocalized electrons in metals and since EPTs have shown that ii they prefer the macroscopic representations, rather teacher educators focus on developing this preference to enhance their learning. Key words Topic specific pedagogical content knowledge, content knowledge, early pre service teachers, chemical bonding, transformationItem Examining pre-service teachers' reflections on their classroom teaching in order to identify topic specific pedagogical content knowledge in their practice(2017) Van der Merwe, DeniseThe gap between theory and practice in education remains a persistent problem identified by some researchers as today’s “Achilles heel of teacher education”. The experience in science education is no different. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has emerged as a theoretical construct that offers science education practitioners a framework to bridge the theory-practice divide because of its ability to transform content knowledge. However, little is known about how the complexity of classroom practice influences PCK acquired by pre-service teachers from structured courses. The purpose of this study was to illuminate pre-service teachers’ PCK as it develops from a point of reasoning about teaching a specific topic into classroom delivery. This study was performed as a qualitative case study of 23 final year pre-service science teachers. It was located in a methodology class that had a specific objective to develop PCK in core topics of science. The students were exposed to an explict intervention on developing PCK in teaching stochiometry then placed in various High Schools around Johannesburg during teaching experience. Data collected was largely during their placement in schools. It consisted of qualitative data such as lesson plans, audio recordings of classroom teaching and self - analysis reports submitted after the teaching experience. Analysis was based on a qualitative in-depth method for identification of evidence of teaching segments illustrating pedagogical transformation. These are segments where there is evidence of two or more topic specific components of PCK defined as Topic Specific Content Knowledge (TSPCK). These were called TSPCK episodes. The TSPCK episodes identified in lessons plans and in recorded lessons were analysed for identificaton of components present and the nature of interactions. These were turned into pictorial TSPCK MAPS. The analysis of pre-service teachers’ views on TSPCK were analysed through a combination of open statements and a science teacher belief tool. The findings indicated that TSPCK episodes identified in lessons plans experience an authentic expansion, blossoming into a cluster of episodes which still carried out the original intention. In some cases the intention could be seen through a similar TSPCK episode in some cases the component sequence and identity had changed. Furthermore, pre-service teachers showed positive awareness of their own level of teacher development and credited their development to the TSPCK framework. Recommendations in this report include promotion of the implementation of the TSPCK framework in Initial Teacher Education, particularly in the methodology courses with reference to classroom complexity.Item Examining the development of topic specific pedagogical content knowledge in stoichiometry in pre-service teachers(2017) Ndlovu, Bongani PrinceOver the past three years, National Senior Certificate diagnostic reports reported that learner performance in key chemistry topics remains an aspect for concern. In these reports, poor understanding of stoichiometry is identified as an underlying factor. On the other hand, the status of mathematics and science teaching has been under critique by several education researchers, pointing to poor teacher training in the subjects. One possible way to respond to the challenge in science education is to introduce and emphasize the development of Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) as the professional knowledge for teaching science topics in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme. TSPCK is renowned for enabling teachers to pedagogically transform difficult content of specific science topics into forms best understandable by learners. This study examined the impact on the quality of TSPCK following an intervention that explicitly targeted the development of the competence to transform content knowledge using stoichiometry as a topic of learning. This examination happened as teacher plan to teach the topic. The study followed a Mixed Method research design and a case study as a research strategy. It was located in the methodology class of physical science IV. The participants were 10 pre-service teachers who were in their final year of Bachelor study in education (B. Ed). They were bound by the requirements of the course and their common choice of physical science as their major subject. These pre-service teachers were exposed to a TSPCK based intervention that explicitly targeted the development of TSPCK component interaction. More evidence of component interactions was comprehended as developing quality of TSPCK. Quantitative data was collected as a set of pre- and post-intervention TSPCK tests using existing, specially designed tools that were developed and validated in a separate study. Five (5) of the then pre-service were followed a year later after the intervention to measure the quality of TSPCK in the topic of intervention in order to determine the extent of retention of the quality of TSPCK since the intervention. Qualitative data was collected through face to face interviews to confirm observed patterns of retention. The findings in this study indicated that pre-service teachers experienced a visible improvement in the quality of their TSPCK in stoichiometry as a direct result of the intervention. Pre-service teachers showed more evidence of component interactions post the intervention. The results further indicated that pre-service teachers experienced the components of TSPCK to have different levels of difficulty when using them to transform the content in stoichiometry during planning. The component of ―conceptual teaching strategies‖ was found to be the most difficult. A year later, the quality of TSPCK in planning to teach the topic of the intervention was found to have been retained by the then pre-service teachers. Recommendations about the implementation of TSPCK in core topics in ITE are made. Firstly, for initial teacher education, it is recommended that courses such as methodology for teaching chemistry be structured as TSPCK based intervention. Secondly, more work need to be done in the examination of retention span of TSPCK. Thus, similar studies must be conducted in an effort to increase empirical evidence about the extent at which TSPCK is retained by beginning teachers.Item Pre-service teachers' development of topic specific PCK in kinematics and transferability of PCK competence to a new physics topic(2016-09-13) Akinyemi, Olutosin SolomonThere have been indications of inadequate content knowledge of South African physical science teachers and poor pedagogical content knowledge in making the concepts accessible to students. With this, the pre-service teachers are considered a part of the science education foremost links to schools and young science learners. Empirically, it has been reported that this unique teacher knowledge could be developed particularly in pre-service teachers in a planning context and that the new technique of developing pre-service teachers’ PCK within a topic helps in their good mastery of teaching concepts and thus making them specialists in topics. The Topic Specific PCK (TSPCK) construct focuses on the transformation of the understanding of content of a particular topic. This study investigated the extent to which focus on kinematics improves pre-service teachers’ PCK in the topic and possible transferability of the learnt pedagogical competence to a new physics topic – electric circuits. Guiding this study were two research questions: What is the impact of the intervention on the quality of pre-service teachers’ Topic Specific PCK in Kinematics? To what extent is the preservice teachers’ learnt pedagogical transformation competence transferrable to their planning of a new topic in physics topic – Electric circuits? This study used mixed methods to investigate TSPCK in pre-service teachers. It was located in the methodology class of Twenty-three (23) 4th year physical science majors. The study included an intervention where the theoretical framework for TSPCK was used to introduce the construct in Kinematics. The intervention explains each of the five components of Topic Specific PCK using the knowledge concepts of Kinematics. Data were collected using three instruments: an instrument measuring content knowledge in kinematics; an instrument measuring the quality of Topic Specific PCK in kinematics administered as a set of pre/post intervention tests; and an instrument measuring transferability of learnt competence in planning for teaching a new topic electricity. The pre-service teachers’ written responses to the TSPCK kinematics tool were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Both methods of analysis revealed that the pre-service teachers improved in their quality of TSPCK in kinematics following the intervention. It was also found out that the pre-service teachers’ improvement in the quality of TSPCK in kinematics was as result of rigorous engagement with the TSPCK components at varying degrees. Similarly, on the topic of transfer, electricity which was not discussed during the intervention, TSPCK tool in electric circuits was administered to the pre-service teachers and few records of their actual classroom teaching were analyzed. This was done to examine possible transferability of learnt pedagogical transformation competence to the new physics topic of electricity. The findings revealed that the pre-service teachers had ‘developing level’ of TSPCK in the topic of transfer similar to the finding in the topic of kinematics. The study demonstrated that focus on a single topic in a methodology course will enable transfer to another topic provided the teachers have the pre-requisite content knowledge. The findings of this study would contribute to the training of the Physical science student teachers and specifically improve their planning of other physics topics to enhance effective teaching and learning process.Item Learner performance disparities between former white and former black schools in Gauteng Province of South Africa after more than a decade of democracy.(2011-05-19) Baloyi, Hlengani GoldwinA Five-pillar conceptual framework -good social environment, focused instruction, well-trained and regularly supervised teachers, family background and language of learning and teaching- is used in this dissertation as a theoretical construct through which to make sense of persistent learner performance disparities between former white and former black schools in the South African public education system. This is a largely qualitative research project which employs a case study approach within a study area comprised of four purposive sample schools. The study is exploratory in nature in that it seeks to investigate why former white schools continue to perform better than former black schools despite massive educational changes made since 1994. I argue in this dissertation that teaching and learning processes between former white and former black schools are still fraught with huge inequalities, hence learner performance disparities. In other words, despite the investment, inputs and strategies since 1994, the education system in historically black schools is not working largely because of issues of classroom practice. A multi-method approach for data collection purposes was used in this study: testing, interviews, observations, intensive literature review and documentary analysis. Learner focus groups, maths teachers, teacher union representatives and school principals formed the backbone of research respondents in this project. The results show immense and unrelenting prevalence of inequalities and variations between former white and former black schools in terms of almost all aspects of teaching and learning processes. The essence of the results is that for the South African education system to achieve equitable learner performance across all schools, it must first achieve equity in terms of teaching and learning processes and needs.Item A case study of South African township teachers' use of pedagogical content knowledge.(2009-03-24T07:57:01Z) Ndlovu, Thandi BrendaMost South African township science teachers’ subject matter knowledge is not sufficient when compared to their counterparts in well developed countries. This disadvantages many Physical Science learners because teachers find it difficult to use their subject matter knowledge flexibly so that learners can understand basic concepts within the learning area. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is a term used to label the knowledge that is used by teachers to make learning concepts easier. This study sought to investigate teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of the mole in two high school township schools of teachers in Gauteng. This was done by interviewing two high school teachers in Katlehong, a township south of Gauteng near Johannesburg, and observing their classroom practice and thus analyzing the role played by their content knowledge in developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The teachers were also exposed to a three hour workshop in conceptual approaches to teaching the mole. The study drew on the literature on PCK which helped to (1) analyse the responses obtained from the teachers, and (2) develop Professional and Pedagogical Representations (PaPe-Rs) and Content Representation (CoRe) of the two teachers who participated in the study. The CoRe is about representing the educators’ understanding of PCK, namely, the different aspects that educators consider when preparing and presenting a particular content in their field of teaching, whilst PaPeRs are like a window into a teaching and learning situation wherein it is the content iii that shapes the pedagogy. This was achieved by employing a case study approach. Findings in this study indicate that both teachers preferred to use prescribed and study manuals that are examination orientated which promote algorithmic approach; both teachers’ subject knowledge of the mole was insufficient and described the mole as a number; that they preferred methods that promote memorization of definition and to use algorithmic rather than conceptual approach when teaching the mole. Some traces of elements of PCK could be identified although not well developed. One of teachers attempted to teach for conceptual understanding, a strategy that was suggested in a workshop, but was unable to link it to algorithmic approach, an approach that she was comfortable to use. The findings of this study imply that algorithmic approaches to the teaching of chemistry abound in South African schools. There is a need to move from algorithmic to conceptual approach. However, moves to conceptual approaches will involve far more than short presentation of packages using conceptual approaches. Teachers need to come to understand the importance of conceptual approaches to a meaningful understanding of chemistry and this can be achieved by long term exposure of teachers to such practices.