3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions

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    Examining the interaction between in-service Physical Science teachers’ teaching orientations and Teacher Professional Knowledge (TPK) domains
    (2020) Maseko, Bob
    This doctoral thesis reports on a study that sought to examine the interaction between science teachers’ science teaching orientations and their teacher professional knowledge domains. This study took place in three schools in the Zomba Urban Education District, Malawi, from which five experienced science teachers were drawn. Specifically, the five teachers were teaching two core science subjects: Physics and Chemistry. Even though there are several definitions of science teaching orientations in the literature, for the purposes of this study, I used the Friedrichsen, Van Driel, and Abell (2011) definition of science teaching orientations. Aligned with this definition of science teaching orientations, I explored the teachers’ beliefs about goals and purposes of science teaching, teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning of science and teachers’ beliefs about the nature of science. Then I explored the extent to which STOs influence classroom enactment of content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, assessment knowledge, curriculum knowledge and knowledge of students during instruction. Since the phenomenon is tacit and elusive, I gathered data using a variety of tools. I used semi-structured interviews as well as a questionnaire to gather data on the three dimensions of teaching orientations. Specifically, I used semi-structured interviews to gather data on teachers’ beliefs about the goals and purposes of science teaching and teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning of science. I used a questionnaire to gather data on the third dimension of teaching orientations: beliefs about the nature of science. To gather data that would help me understand the interaction between science teaching orientations and teacher professional knowledge domains, I used classroom observations and teachers’ tasks–Content Representations (CoRes). CoRes and classroom observations complemented one another. I also used unstructured post-observation interviews in order to get an in-depth understanding of the reasons for teachers’ decisions that I had observed during instruction. I used two approaches to analyse the data set that I had gathered. I used a deductive analysis approach to analyse interviews, questionnaires as well as classroom observation data to determine the teaching orientations that science teachers held. This was achieved by comparing the data against predetermined categories from the literature. An inductive analysis approach was used to analyse data mainly from classroom observations, CoRes, and post-observation interviews, to determine the interactions between science teaching orientations and teacher professional knowledge domains. Deductive data analysis showed that teachers’ beliefs are complex. Teachers had multiple goals and purposes of science teaching. Further, their beliefs about the teaching and learning of science were moderately sophisticated and appeared to be compartmentalised. Their beliefs about the nature of science were sophisticated however, these could be not be made explicit during instruction. Inductive analysis, on the other hand, revealed that STOs interact with TPK domains through active engagement with the various sub-domains of TPK. This is exemplified in the three main claims:(1) that the goals and purposes of science teaching interact with teacher professional knowledge domains; (2) beliefs about teaching and learning of science interact with teachers’ professional knowledge domains, and (3) beliefs about the nature of science do not interact with teacher professional knowledge unless the teachers are teaching a topic that relates to the nature of science itself. Beyond these primary findings, I also identified the following: (1) that there is uniform interaction between STOs and TPK domains, (2) that the interaction between STOs and TPK domains is influenced by several factors (3) that there is apparent lack of interaction between the items on the beliefs about teaching and learning of science schedule. These contributions may be useful when developing PD or initial teacher programmes. I discuss these findings and their implications both on theory and teacher training in the last chapter of this research report
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    Exploring Grade 10 rural physical science teachers’ perceptions and usage of everyday words in Acornhoek science classrooms, Mpumalanga Province
    (2018) Zulu, Sphamandla Innocent
    Science is a specialized language on its own and literature has revealed that science learners face conceptual challenges when learning about science concepts and words which are used in both everyday and science classroom with different meanings according to context of use. Science as a language is composed of scientific concepts (technical words) and ordinary words (non-technical words), of which the latter is the focus of this study because of its importance in ensuring sound comprehension of the technical words for effective teaching and learning of science. As such, teachers also need to mediate the non-technical words, especially Everyday Words when used in Science (EWS) classroom context, because they serve as conveyor belts of meanings inside the classroom and if explicitly mediated it can help enhance the teaching and learning of science. The purpose of this study was to explore Grade 10 rural physical science teachers‘ perceptions and usage of everyday words in science context during teaching. The study also sought to understand teachers‘ level of awareness with EWS difficulties in learning science, while it also critically analysed factors shaping physical science teachers‘ perceptions and usage of EWS. To unearth rural teachers‘ language practices, this study used a case study design and qualitative research approach drawing from Vygotsky‘s concept of mediation, Scott, Mortimer and Ametler‘s concept of pedagogical link-making; and Mortimer and Scott‘s concept of social language of science as conceptual framework. Research data was collected through ten classroom observations of Grade 10 physical science lessons and individual interviews with the participant teachers from rural settings of Acornhoek, Mpumalanga Province. The main findings of this study illustrates that greater percentage of classroom talk was teacher talk. In their talk, teachers were explicit in explaining the technical words while either ignoring or implicitly addressing the non-technical words, especially EWS. Additionally, teachers‘ perceptions of the value of addressing non-technical words in their teaching varied. The study also established that the teachers‘ language practices were to some extent influenced by the rural contextual social realities, teacher content knowledge, teacher knowledge of EWS and the importance of science language, and other several personal and contextual constraints. The findings also shown that rural Acornhoek physical science teachers were not aware of the learners‘ difficulties instigated by the use of EWS, and more disturbingly is that some teachers also lack knowledge of the contextual meanings of EWS. The paucity of physical science education research in rural schools has not been able to offer account of teachers‘ perceptions and usage of EWS during teaching in rural schools. Hence, this study as ii introductory for other science education researchers in researching teaching and learning physical science in rural schools, more specifically the understanding of STL, influence LOLT and the LOLTS. The findings of this study demonstrates that teachers are often oblivious of the functional value of EWS due to their negative perceptions hence their lack of explicit explanation of EWS when encountered during teaching and such practice is influenced by various factors. Therefore, this study recommends research intervention intending to equip teachers with skills in noting and dealing with language demands in their classrooms.
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    Polysemy and context: teachers' classroom language for understanding physical science
    (2016) White, Regina
    A debate in South Africa on learner performance in Physical Science inevitably leads to the issue of proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). The researcher is of the opinion that general understanding of the meaning of proficiency in LoLT usually refers to the ability to read and write well in that language which happens to be English in the majority of South African high schools. As low as 7% of the South African school going population regard themselves as English speaking (Department of Basic Education, 2010). The status of English as lingua franca has caused parents and teachers to believe that it is in the interest of learners to be taught in English (Wildsmith-Cromarty & Gordon, 2009). This view resulted that the debate on proficiency includes amongst others, opinions of those who propagate home language teaching and those who call for English as the preferred medium of instruction. This research contributes to the debate on proficiency by pointing to the important contribution that the science teacher can make to enculturate learners into the language of school science. The fact that both English First Additional Language learners (EFALs) as well as English Home Language learners (EHLs) struggle to understand Physical Science (Probyn, 2015) is indicative of the important role that the science teacher can play in assisting learners to understand Physical Science. In lieu of this, teachers are encouraged to focus on vocabulary building as well as the manner in which LoLT is employed to construe science knowledge. This is a functional view of language, namely, that language is used to convey a particular meaning hence the language differs across registers. Michael Halliday (1993) is credited for the development of a systemic functional linguistic view on language. This study analysed two teachers’ classroom languages from a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective with specific emphasis on the register variables field and mode. Results show that LoLT was perceived as transparent when learners are EHLs and considered a barrier to learning Physical Science if learners are EFALs. In both cases, teachers seemed unable to enculturate learners into the language of school science when used to convey science meaning. An absence of that focus is what Bernstein called an “invisible pedagogy
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