The study investigated how the child centred approach is applied in teaching Natural Science (NS) in Johannesburg East schools. Most attention was paid on which teaching methods were used and how they were used to teach NS. Data was collected from 5 randomly selected schools in Johannesburg East through observations of Natural Science teachers teaching, and focus group discussion with them. Data presentation and analysis revealed that NS teachers who participated in the study used a limited range of child centred teaching methods. They only used experiments, class activities, as well as question and answer method. Literature review revealed that there are numerous child centred teaching methods that NS teachers can use. Some of these methods are brainstorming, discussions, games, group/pair work, field trips, case studies and assignments, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), debates and facilitation. The majority of teachers still used the out-dated lecture method contrary to the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) 2012 documents that call for an end in the use of traditional teaching methods such as the lecture method. The study also revealed that there are certain challenges and factors that inhibit the implementation of the child centred approach in NS. These challenges among others include the teacher centred curriculum which dictates the pace and content to the child, lack of adequate NS resources, big volumes of learners in classes, different abilities, talents, interests and skills possessed by learners, learners’ lack of discipline, as well as shortage of qualified NS teachers. All these were seen as inhibiting factors in the implementation of the child centred approach in NS. The study among other recommendations recommended that, in order for the child centred approach to be implemented successfully the Ministry of Basic Education should develop a child centred curriculum that does not dictate the pace to the child. The Ministry as well should come up with a specific or customised child centred approach model that is relevant to NS as a subject, in-service all NS teachers and empower them with the child centred teaching methods, principles and strategies, capacitate all schools with all necessary resources such as qualified NS teachers as well as relevant chemicals, materials, apparatus and information and communication technology infrastructure designated for NS. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Science and technology are constantly transforming our day-to-day living. Science education has become of vital importance to prepare learners for this everchanging world. Unfortunately, science education in South Africa is hampered by under-qualified and inexperienced teachers. Textbooks of good quality can assist teachers and learners and facilitate the development of science teachers. For this reason thorough assessment of textbooks is needed to inform the selection of good textbooks. An investigation revealed that the available textbook evaluation instruments are not suitable for the evaluation of the physical science textbooks in the South African context. An instrument is needed that focusses on science education textbooks and which prescribes the criteria, weights, evaluation procedure and rating scheme that can ensure justifiable, transparent, reliable and valid evaluation results. This study utilised elements from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop such an instrument and verified the reliability and validity of the instrument’s evaluation results. Development of the Instrument for the Evaluation of Science Education Textbooks started with the formulation of criteria. Characteristics that influence the quality of textbooks were identified from literature, existing evaluation instruments and stakeholders’ concerns. In accordance with the AHP, these characteristics or criteria were divided into categories or branches to give a hierarchical structure. Subject experts verified the content validity of the hierarchy. Expert science teachers compared the importance of different criteria. The data were used to derive weights for the different criteria with the Expert Choice computer application. A rubric was formulated to act as rating-scheme and score sheet. During the textbook evaluation process the ratings were transferred to a spreadsheet that computed the scores for the quality of a textbook as a whole as well as for the different categories. The instrument was tested on small scale, adjusted and then applied on a larger scale. The results of different analysts were compared to verify the reliability of the instrument. Triangulation with the opinions of teachers who have used the textbooks confirmed the validity of the evaluation results obtained with the instrument. Future investigations on the evaluation instrument can include the use of different rating scales and limiting of criteria. / Thesis (M. Ed. (Didactics))

Science and technology are constantly transforming our day-to-day living. Science education has become of vital importance to prepare learners for this everchanging world. Unfortunately, science education in South Africa is hampered by under-qualified and inexperienced teachers. Textbooks of good quality can assist teachers and learners and facilitate the development of science teachers. For this reason thorough assessment of textbooks is needed to inform the selection of good textbooks. An investigation revealed that the available textbook evaluation instruments are not suitable for the evaluation of the physical science textbooks in the South African context. An instrument is needed that focusses on science education textbooks and which prescribes the criteria, weights, evaluation procedure and rating scheme that can ensure justifiable, transparent, reliable and valid evaluation results. This study utilised elements from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop such an instrument and verified the reliability and validity of the instrument’s evaluation results. Development of the Instrument for the Evaluation of Science Education Textbooks started with the formulation of criteria. Characteristics that influence the quality of textbooks were identified from literature, existing evaluation instruments and stakeholders’ concerns. In accordance with the AHP, these characteristics or criteria were divided into categories or branches to give a hierarchical structure. Subject experts verified the content validity of the hierarchy. Expert science teachers compared the importance of different criteria. The data were used to derive weights for the different criteria with the Expert Choice computer application. A rubric was formulated to act as rating-scheme and score sheet. During the textbook evaluation process the ratings were transferred to a spreadsheet that computed the scores for the quality of a textbook as a whole as well as for the different categories. The instrument was tested on small scale, adjusted and then applied on a larger scale. The results of different analysts were compared to verify the reliability of the instrument. Triangulation with the opinions of teachers who have used the textbooks confirmed the validity of the evaluation results obtained with the instrument. Future investigations on the evaluation instrument can include the use of different rating scales and limiting of criteria. / Thesis (M. Ed. (Didactics))

The integration of modern science and indigenous knowledge systems in the science education curriculum for South African schools represents social justice for the majority of South Africans as they determine the knowledge necessary for themselves and for future generations in the new South Africa. An exploratory research reveals tension and a dichotomous relationship between modern science and IKS, caused by false hierarchies that are influenced by factors such as colonialism, capitalism and modernisation to the exclusion of the core values held by indigenous people in their relationship with nature. The thesis demonstrates that the integration requires an epistemology that puts humanity first and a framework that accommodates both ways of knowing. This should allow for the best in the two systems of knowing to serve humanity in a dialogical manner. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

In the majority of schools gifted learners are given the same quantity and quality of academic work as their non-gifted classmates. In some cases gifted learners are left to look after themselves when they are done with class work or worse still, asked to teach their non-gifted classmates. Some educationists advocate for a differentiated curriculum between gifted and non-gifted learners. This study sought to establish the impact of enrichment programs to gifted Science learners. Forty gifted learners were identified and drawn equally into one of the two groups — experimental or control. These learners wrote a pre-test after which the twenty learners in the experimental group received enrichment. The forty learners then wrote the same post-test to assess their understanding of the concepts learnt. The cycle was repeated but with a different topic. Learners’ marks were compared and it emerged all twenty learners in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. Gifted learners should therefore be given enrichment as it deepens, broadens, and sharpens their understanding of concepts. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

This study is a meta-analysis of the transformation of the curriculum for basic education in South Africa. The integration of indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) in the curriculum is one of the reconciliatory practices adopted in an effort to deal with the rights of indigenous people globally. The study analysed cases relating to IKSs and the curriculum in Canada for a case reference in juxtaposition with South Africa, in particular. Examples of cases drawn from elsewhere in the world have also been included briefly to justify the researcher’s claims for the urgent integration of IKSs into the curriculum, which complies with the human rights course of the rights of indigenous people. Cognitive imperialism – in the form of residential schools and their assimilation policies, which functioned in the context of an informal apartheid system as was the case in South Africa with Bantu education – has been an obstacle to transformation of the curriculum in the education system in Canada. However, the Canadian government of the day has been held to account for recognising the knowledge of the indigenous people (IP) of Canada. In South Africa, the curriculum continues to be characterised by the “mute” tendencies of perpetuating a colonial-type of curriculum, which is still being European in nature and is largely excluding African interests and cultural practices. The affirmation of the United Nations Organisation’s (UNO 2007) advocacy for recognising the rights of indigenous people by means of various international forums motivated a number of scholars globally to shift their attention to a research agenda on IP issues such as their IKSs in relation to education systems that should be transforming their curricular programmes. This study forms part of that indigenous research agenda by proposing that IKSs be integrated into the curriculum for basic education in South Africa, in response to the UNO’s declaration on crucial guidance to developing societies for transforming their education systems to include relevant curricula related to IP. The aim of this study is to explore ways in which the curriculum for basic education in South Africa can be transformed by, among other things, changing the paradigm of knowledge production through emerging concepts in developmental education and using, on the way to recovery, experiences of assimilation in the education system of South Africa, with reference to experiences from Canada, in particular, and elsewhere. An in-depth literature study relating to IKS perspectives of integration in the curriculum, and its implication for transformation in the basic education curriculum in South Africa, was done. The qualitative research approach was used and a cultural phenomenological design was used. Data were collected through a desk research, including pre-meta-analysis (PMA), meta-analysis (MA), in-depth desk research (IDR), and case studies (CSs). The collected data were investigated by means of a pre-meta-analysis, which demonstrated how the transdisciplinary approach can be used to immerse IKS in such a way that it may enable indigenous people to define their own perspectives instead of relying solely on Western research concepts of anthropology and history theorists, which have relegated IKSs to something “exotic”. The synthesis of data in this study “opened a window” to the researcher, which also assisted the researcher to understand the concept of “coming to knowing”1 as an antithesis of the language of conquest that is used in the hidden agenda of assimilation in a curriculum that continues to marginalise the representation of IKSs. The transformation of the curriculum in the education system of South Africa is a political initiative driven by government, by virtue of the establishment of the South African Chairs Initiative (SAChI) which has been entrusted with the task of developing education in the country in the different disciplines. One of the driving concepts of this particular chair, the South African Chair Initiative in Development Education (SAChI-DE), is the methodology of immersion that is based on the notion of “transformation by enlargement” (TbE). Using this methodology, the emergence of new concepts in transformative education is propagated, which, according to the findings of this study, may reverse the negative situation in which the indigenous worldviews is erased for indigenous learners (IL) throughout the world. The findings were used to invoke the attention of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), for them to consider validating the newly emerging concepts of the SAChI-DE, which can make a meaningful contribution to the guidelines for a suggested, Afriko-continuum curriculum for basic education at the foundation level. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / Ph. D. (Education)

The integration of modern science and indigenous knowledge systems in the science education curriculum for South African schools represents social justice for the majority of South Africans as they determine the knowledge necessary for themselves and for future generations in the new South Africa. An exploratory research reveals tension and a dichotomous relationship between modern science and IKS, caused by false hierarchies that are influenced by factors such as colonialism, capitalism and modernisation to the exclusion of the core values held by indigenous people in their relationship with nature. The thesis demonstrates that the integration requires an epistemology that puts humanity first and a framework that accommodates both ways of knowing. This should allow for the best in the two systems of knowing to serve humanity in a dialogical manner. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

In the majority of schools gifted learners are given the same quantity and quality of academic work as their non-gifted classmates. In some cases gifted learners are left to look after themselves when they are done with class work or worse still, asked to teach their non-gifted classmates. Some educationists advocate for a differentiated curriculum between gifted and non-gifted learners. This study sought to establish the impact of enrichment programs to gifted Science learners. Forty gifted learners were identified and drawn equally into one of the two groups — experimental or control. These learners wrote a pre-test after which the twenty learners in the experimental group received enrichment. The forty learners then wrote the same post-test to assess their understanding of the concepts learnt. The cycle was repeated but with a different topic. Learners’ marks were compared and it emerged all twenty learners in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. Gifted learners should therefore be given enrichment as it deepens, broadens, and sharpens their understanding of concepts. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)