An investigation of how a lecturer uses discussion to promote meaning making during the teaching of the topic of Excretion to 3rd year preservice Life Sciences teachers

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate how a lecturer uses discussion to promote meaning making during the teaching of the topic of Excretion to 3rd year preservice Life Sciences teacher. The process of meaning making includes how people understand and make sense of the content. Qualitative research was conducted to investigate how a lecturer uses discussion to promote meaning making. In this study, I used an interview and observations of video-recorded lectures on Excretion. The participant in this study is a Life Sciences lecturer at the university of the Witwatersrand. Data analysis involved watching the video-recorded lectures, transcribing them and coding transcripts to identify how discussion was used to promote meaning making and having a semi-structured interview with the lecturer responsible for teaching Excretion to 3rd year preservice teachers. The findings from this study shows that discussion promotes meaning making when students engage with the lecturer, the teaching and learning materials and with other students, which allows them to share ideas and make meaning of the intended knowledge.