A research project submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, .Johannesburg, in part fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg 1993. / This study aims at providing some evaluation of the impact of the Transvaal Senior Certificate, Higher Grade, Biology Examination on Biology teaching in the Transvaal, It also looks. at the effectiveness of this exarnlnatlon as an assessment/evaluation instrument. A questlonnalre is used to secure the views qf practising Biology teachers, and teacher trainers, about the stated objectives of Biology teaching at senior high school level in terms of:- - their relative merit and importance. - their attainment through current teachinq practices. - their evaluation by the examination Board, The views of 63 teachers and 9 teacher trainers are analysed and the views of Transvaal and Natal teachers are compared to those of Teacher Trainers. Much consensus is found in the responses of all three groups of educators. They are well aware of modern trends and methodologies in the field of Biology Education but are pessimistic about the current achievement of many of the objectives they identify as being Important for effective Biology Teaching. They see the examination as one which focuses mainly on the assessment of Recall of Knowledge, The implications of these findings are discussed and several recommendations are made. / AC2017

The problem of this study was to compare the achievement and attitude of students in an individualized biology program, modeled after parts of the Proposed Texas Science Framework, with the achievement and attitude of students in conventional biology classes. The subjects used for the study were tenth grade, first year biology students in three high schools in a large North Central Texas city. Each of the three high schools was selected to represent a particular category of high schools. The categories were based upon the mean achievement scores for the students within a school. The categories of schools were above average, medium low, and very low. In each of the schools the classes and teachers in the experimental group and the control group were matched as closely as possible.