3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Examining the interaction between in-service Physical Science teachers’ teaching orientations and Teacher Professional Knowledge (TPK) domains(2020) Maseko, BobThis 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 reportItem Exploring Grade 10 rural physical science teachers’ perceptions and usage of everyday words in Acornhoek science classrooms, Mpumalanga Province(2018) Zulu, Sphamandla InnocentScience 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.Item The B.E.D. science programme and how it prepares student teachers to teach practical work in schools during teaching experience(2017) Choonara, YasmeenThis study seeks to investigate how the B.Ed Physical Science laboratory work program prepares student teachers to handle laboratory work in schools during teaching experience. Experimentation is what separates the scientific disciplines from other disciplines in the school curriculum, yet research has shown that in many schools teachers are not carrying out laboratory work (Wilkinson & Ward, 1997). The few practical’s that are carried out are demonstrations that are targeted at meeting the basic science curriculum requirements. While some researchers (Dillon, 2008; Langley, 2014; Toplis, 2011; Wilkinson & Ward, 1997) have argued that teachers in schools have little time and resources available for meaningful laboratory work, due to unwieldy and rigid curriculum, other researchers (Hodson, 2007; Staer et al., 1995; Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000) point out that the problem could equally be that the teachers lack the practical skills themselves, to carry out laboratory practical work, let alone, training their students to do the same. This study, will therefore investigate how well B. Ed 4th year Physical Sciences students have been prepared to run practical’s as pedagogical tools for motivation, modeling scientific practice, teaching about the nature of science and acquiring manipulative skills necessary for the handling and usage of scientific equipmentItem South African physical science teachers’ classroom language for enhanced understanding of science concepts(2016) Kurwa, Govero MemoryThe study reported in this research report was motivated by the continuous poor performance by South African learners in physical sciences. This poor performance is evidenced by the below expectations year in, year out grade 12 physical science final examinations results. Several factors may be contributing to this poor performance such as lack of resources (both financial and human resources), overcrowding, ineffective teaching methods, and the language of teaching and learning. The assertion for this study was that teacher’s oral classroom instructional language impacts on learning of classroom science. The study, hence investigated how South African physical science teachers use their oral instructional language to enhance the understanding of science concepts. The raw data was gathered through naturalistic observation and video recording of physical science lessons by two participant South African physical science teachers drawn from two different high schools located in the Gauteng Province. The two school were chosen on the basis of their matric results that are also below average. Follow up educator interviews were also conducted and video recorded. The videos of the lesson observations and educator interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The study revealed that the participant educators were not explaining the meanings of all technical and non-technical words that were used in the observed lessons. Teachers did not distinguish between the everyday meanings and scientific meanings of non-technical words used. Participant educators did not seek and make use of the participant learners’ pre-instructional meanings of non-technical words to help learners understand better the new scientific meanings of these words. One of the participant educators did not engage learners in the ongoing lesson talk. The findings of this study will sensitise physical science teachers to important role of their oral instructional language to successful learning of science concepts in the classroom. This might help in ensuring science teachers use their oral instructional language effectively to enhance understanding of science concepts, by adopting teaching approaches that facilitate shared meanings of vocabulary used in science classrooms. Key words: technical and non-technical words, instructional language, science language.