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 Lesotho high school learners' understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry in relation to classroom experiences.(2012-02-09) Lematla, Lieketseng JustinahThis study investigates learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) in relation to their classroom experiences. Using the constructs of nature of scientific inquiry; inquiry-based teaching and learning; and principles of scientific inquiry as theoretical lenses, the study empirically explored learners‟ (n = 120) understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry which were captured through a questionnaire called Learners‟ understanding of science and scientific inquiry (LUSSI) and interviews and their perceptions of classroom inquiry (their experiences of inquiry were elicited through a questionnaire called Principles of scientific inquiry- student (PSI-S) and interviews). The participants were one hundred and twenty learners, 60 from each of two schools in an Education District in Lesotho. Eight learners, four from each school participated in the interviews. At the centre, the investigation sought to understand whether there was any relationship between learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry and their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. As a result, this study was guided by the following questions: what are learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry? What are learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry? Are learners‟ understandings of NOSI in any way related to their experiences of scientific inquiry? Typological approach was used to analyse the qualitative data and descriptive statistics for analysing the quantitative data. The results of this study suggest that learners hold less informed understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry and that learners are experiencing closed-inquiry in their science classroom. The results also show that other learners‟ experiences of scientific inquiry are not related to their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. It was recommended that teachers should engage learners in inquiry activities rather than always carrying out teacher-demonstrations. It is also recommended that further studies should be done in Lesotho to examine the relationship between learners‟ understandings of NOSI and their perceptions of their classroom experiences.Item A case study of South Africa's teachers' understandings of the nature of science and classroom instructional practices.(2011-05-27) Beauchamp, Nondyebo JuliaThis study investigated South Africa’s secondary school teachers’ understandings of the nature of science (NOS) in relation to their instructional practices. The participants were three Grade 10 Physical Science teachers conveniently selected from three schools in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Teacher understandings of the nature of science were elicited through semi-structured interviews. The core questions for the interviews were adapted from the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS) – Form C developed by Abd-El-Khalick, Lederman, Bell and Schwartz (2002). The nature of science tenets explored were: what is science?: the role and purpose of experiments in science: the difference between scientific theories and laws in science and how scientists settle scientific disputes. Teacher instructional practices were ascertained through semi-structured interviews and lesson observations. The results were analyzed using a combination of typological analysis and interpretive analysis. These results show that on the selected NOS tenets, the sampled teachers hold a mixture of naïve and sophisticated understandings. These understandings are, however, largely naïve. It was found that the teachers only teach about NOS implicitly. None of the teachers was found to explicitly teach about the NOS. It also came out that the teachers were experiencing difficulties in both interpreting and implementation of Learning Outcome 3 of South Africa’s new science curriculum. It is concluded that the interaction between teachers’ NOS understandings and their instructional practices occurs without the teachers being aware of it, i.e. unconsciously. Recommendations for teaching, curriculum implementation and future research are suggested.