A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, South Africa June, 2015 / This doctoral thesis investigates highly emotive and topical aspects of student learning in higher education namely, assessment and feedback. The study deals with the complexities and barriers to using learning-oriented assessment approaches to equip students with skills needed to thrive within the uncertainty, demands and challenges of rapidly changing societies. In the current research literature, views about assessment, and in particular formative assessment, are diverse and in some instances contradictory. The argument I make in this thesis is that assessment is situated within a local context, comprised of students and their teachers, which is regulated by disciplinary, professional and institutional traditions, expectations and needs. This research study was impelled by the realisation that most research into pedagogical views held by teachers and their students in higher education has examined them in isolation of each other. In recognition of this disparity in the literature, a more comprehensive study on teachers' and students’ views, expectations, and experiences of assessment was undertaken in the South African context. The study was conducted at a research-intensive university and investigated the aforementioned assessment aspects in students and teachers involved in second year compulsory bioscience courses. Using an exploratory, interpretative, mixed method research approach, data were collected through a combination of interviews, questionnaires and document analysis. An in-depth examination of documents from the selected courses, including students’ marked work, provided evidence of assessment and feedback practices experienced by the students registered in the courses. Teachers were interviewed about their assessment practices and their rationale for using these practices. Students' views and their reactions to assessment and feedback were ascertained through questionnaires and interviews. Interpretations that emerged from using a socio-cultural-historical theoretical lens were helpful in understanding the factors that present challenges to the implementation of learning-oriented assessment approaches. From the characterisation of assessment environments based on learning-oriented assessment principles it was apparent that there was limited active involvement of students in the process. The data highlighted a complex array of factors influencing teachers’ conceptions of assessment and subsequently their practices. Significant about the study was the identification of the effects of existing course level assessment cultures and histories on teachers’ assessment practices. Program and course factors had more influence on teachers’ practice than their subject expertise, pedagogical beliefs and values. The main highlights emerging from the study were the multiplicity of students’ and teachers’ views of assessment and feedback with a number of convergent and divergent perspectives. Notably, the cause of dissonance between academics and students stems from the tension between the competing needs of facilitating students’ independence and the desire to give them detailed corrective feedback. This dissonance translated into varied emotional responses to feedback from students. Although the focus of the study was on the comparison between students’ and teachers’ understanding of assessment, the preponderance of students’ emotional reactions to assessment feedback that emerged offered an important insight into an unpredicted social-relational dimension of assessment. My original contribution to research knowledge is the generation of the Assessment-Systems-for-Practice (ASP) framework, a reflection and methodological tool for investigating and analysing assessment practices. This framework provides a holistic way of dealing with the complex nature of assessment in higher education. The framework thus has implications for assessment design that would take into consideration cognitive, structural and social-relational dimensions, and its use could have a positive impact on teachers’ individual assessment practices.

This study is postpositivist. Adopting an ontological framework of critical realism requires the researcher to take the position of “modified” objectivist, and explore opportunities for the qualitative interpretation of quantitative data. Grounded theory is explored as the primary methodological approach, and as such the study takes on an inductive, theory-generating form in an attempt to describe and explain student performance within the context of alternative access to tertiary science studies. True to grounded theory, the researcher begins the study without a theoretical framework, this being built as the study progresses. The researcher’s experience of teaching educationally disadvantaged students Foundation Biology in the Centre for Science Access on the Pietermaritzburg campus of KwaZulu-Natal is used as a starting point, from which the initial research question emerges, namely the performance of the Access students in a first-year Life and Environmental Science stream module relative to direct entry students. Results from quantitative data analysis on students’ final marks in the first-year module pose a second research question: what factors contribute to the differing success of the student groups in the first-year module? Drawing on extant international and South African literature on factors affecting university student performance in conjunction with Regression Tree Analysis on the first-year module final mark, a theoretical framework begins to emerge. The concept of the “advantaged disadvantaged” calls for the notion of Access to be reconsidered, and curriculum responsiveness is examined in some detail. Grounded theory method of constant comparison, seeking core categories, together with efforts of triangulation prompt the third line of enquiry, specifically to establish what factors are influencing the performance of the Foundation students in their Access year. Using students’ final Foundation marks as the outcome variable, further Classification and Regression Tree analysis is conducted, including biographical, socioeconomic, school history, and academic factors as well as a measure of student motivation. In addition, literature around Access contributes to theory building. This systematic abstraction and the conceptualization of empirical data result in a substantive theory: that it is English language proficiency, above all other possible variables that can best explain Life Science (Biology) student performance. Selection into the Foundation Biology module is found to be at odds with selection into the Programme as a whole, necessitating curriculum responsiveness at the modular level. The emergent grounded theory, and the notion of “fuzzy generalization”, seen to be appropriate to critical realist research, allows opportunities to explore remediation in the curriculum on the basis of these research findings. Attention is paid specifically to scaffolding literacy in biology through a “learning to read”, “reading to learn” approach. These measures are dicussed within the context of assisting students to achieve epistemic access that will enable them to successfully participate in the academic practice of Science. / Theses (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Teacher education in South Africa has had to be overhauled in line with the reform of the South African school curriculum since 1996. Both initial and continuous teacher qualification programmes are constantly being reviewed to improve impact on prospective and currently practising teachers. In addition, efforts are being made to scale up non-qualification continuous professional development programmes for better implementation of the curriculum. Despite these endeavours, there is evidence that continuous professional development programmes in particular, are not responding adequately to the needs of the teachers and the education system in general. This is partly due to the failure by the system to differentiate between the needs of different groups of teachers who received their initial teacher education in racially segregated teacher education institutions. This research study aims to determine what teachers of Life Sciences perceive as their development needs, and how these needs are addressed through various forms of in-service teacher education, both formal and informal. Life Sciences is the name of the subject called Biology in the pre-reform curriculum. It is offered only in the final three years of schooling, Grades 10 – 12. The Life Sciences curriculum has experienced at least three revisions in a period of six years since the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement in 2006. Data was gathered in two phases, using mixed methods approaches. During the first phase, data was collected using a teacher questionnaire. The questionnaire dealt with teachers’ content and pedagogical development needs; their participation in both qualification and nonqualification CPD programmes; their motivation (or lack of) to engage in CPD programmes; and the perceived benefits of CPD programmes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Subject Advisors dealing with similar themes. During the second phase of the study, intervention programmes in the form of teacher training workshops were conducted and data was gathered through documenting the workshop activities and by conducting evaluations. Findings revealed that whilst a large proportion of Life Sciences teachers were furthering their studies through formal qualifications, they were not necessarily choosing Biological Sciences specialisations. A considerable proportion of teachers in the study were teaching out of their field of specialisation. These limitations likely account for teachers’ low selfconfidence, articulated as a strong need for development in almost every area of the content and pedagogy. Teachers that choose Biological Sciences specialisations in formal in-service qualifications seem to be benefiting significantly. Life Sciences teachers also benefit immensely from ‘hands on’ training in practical work skills rather than using passive, demonstration methods of training. Cluster-based CPD programmes present an ideal opportunity for teachers to learn and share knowledge and expertise in content and pedagogy, yet this platform is constrained mainly to development of assessment activities. Filling vacant posts and increasing the number of Subject Advisors is critical to ensuring that teachers received adequate support from districts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

Thesis (DEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / This study aimed at examining the Life Sciences teacher educator’s perceptions and perspectives of knowledge integration in the espoused curriculum prescribed by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training through the policy of Minimum Requirements for Teacher Qualifications (MRTEQ). The qualitative research design was adopted for data collection procedures. The selection of the sampling was purposive, in the sense that the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who participated were classified into two categories. The first category consisted of three historical or traditional universities and the second category was formed by three higher education institutions that emerged after the merger of Teacher training Colleges, Technikons and universities. The study targeted lecturers, senior lecturers and professors in the field of Life Sciences Education who participated in the development of curriculum for Life Science teacher education and training. The interviews were conducted to elicit data on the experiences and perceptions that influenced the process of designing and developing the curriculum blue print which came out as a product to be adopted by the institution. The results of the empirical study were analysed by using qualitative procedures, which are; coding of data, classification of data into categories and the identification of themes and issues. The contesting views and perceptions were summarised in the results highlighted follows: The school Life Science curriculum requires teachers who are capable of integrating knowledge from various domains of scientific knowledge but the study demonstrates that the Life Science teacher educators who participated in the study had views and perceptions that are not congruent with those of the curriculum as it presently stands. This could imply that the Life Science teachers educated and trained for the school Life Science curriculum could experience problem with its implementation in classrooms. The twenty first century teacher could be expected to demonstrate competences such as; critical thinking, creative thinking, logic and independent thinkers. The study further concluded that there are academics in Science Education departments who still adhere doggedly to the traditional ways teaching their own disciplines. This study confirms the importance of breaking the artificial disciplinary boundaries to facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge construction. This study endorses the emerging trend of knowledge integration in Science Educations.Finally the study suggests that collaborative and collegial deliberations among Science teacher educators and experts in various knowledge domains could be a way of finding common ground on issues highlighted in the study.

M. Ed. (Science Education) / South African Life Sciences teachers have been subjected to three policy changes during the past six years. The first new curriculum was implemented in 2006, and when it was found that this curriculum lacked sufficient botany content, a new version of the curriculum was implemented in 2009. Following this, a new curriculum was being implemented in 2012 in all subjects, leaving Life Sciences teachers fatigued as a result of all the professional development workshops they had to attend each year. One principle of the new curriculum was that teachers had to use a constructivist approach to teaching, but research had found that this was not the case in South African classrooms. Furthermore, research also showed that some South African teachers lacked the necessary content and pedagogical knowledge to teach science to grade 12 learners. The aim of this study was to see whether teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge could be improved by the use of communities of practice over a period of time. The content that was focused on was DNA, protein synthesis, meiosis and genetics, as these topics were flagged as problematic topics in the National Senior Certificate examinations in 2008. A generic qualitative design was used as this research was situated in an interpretive framework. The genre of the research was phenomenology with design based elements. Before the intervention started, teachers had to complete a questionnaire and this questionnaire had to be completed again after the intervention. Interviews and feedback tools were used to obtain teachers’ views on these communities of practice. The interviews also had a section that pertained to teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Structured classroom observations were used to see whether teachers were implementing a constructivist approach when teaching the content. It also served as a method to ascertain whether the activities done during the community of practice sessions were implemented into classroom practice. It was found that communities of practice are an effective way of developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, but that it should be continuous and would be more v effective over a longer period of time. Teachers also enjoyed these meetings, shared resources and motivated each other. Another finding of this research was that teachers did not implement a constructivist approach to their teaching as required by the new curriculum, even though they indicated that they preferred this approach to teaching. A recommendation of this research is that teachers’ professional development should take place in an informal community of practice where teachers could share ideas and resources. A keystone species is required for these communities of practice to stay sustainable. These communities of practice should be implemented on a continuous basis in order to have a positive effect on teachers’ practice.

M.Ed. (Science Education) / The South African current school curriculum, namely the National Curriculum Statement, is underpinned by outcomes-based education. The subject Biology (in the Nated 550 curriculum) has been changed to “Life Sciences” and the learning outcomes for Life Sciences are representative of the four themes of the Nature of Science (NOS), namely, science as a body of knowledge, science as a way of investigating, science as a way of thinking, and the interaction of science technology and society. The many changes made from the previous curriculum that accompanied the new curriculum left many teachers reliant on textbooks to plan, guide and inform their teaching and learning activities in the classroom. My study is concerned with the representation of the NOS in Grade 10 South African Life Sciences classrooms. I have conducted my study in two phases. The purpose of Phase One was to analyse three Grade 10 Biology textbooks and three Grade 10 Life Sciences textbooks for the representation of the NOS. A qualitative content analysis methodology was used in the analysis of textbooks, and my study adopted a textbook analytical tool designed by Chiappetta, Sethna and Fillman (2004), using the four broad NOS themes of the mentioned above. The purpose of Phase Two of the study was to observe how teachers use Life Sciences textbooks in their teaching in order to infuse the NOS. A qualitative interpretive case study was the selected methodology for this part of the study. Three practicing Life Sciences teacher-participants were invited to an in-depth interview and a lesson observation each. The lesson observations and the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The open-coding method was used where the predetermined codes of the NOS were assigned to extracts of the transcriptions. Qualitative data analysis techniques based on the principles of Framework Analysis (Ritchi & Spencer, 1984) were used in Phase One and Phase Two of my study. There are five steps in Framework analysis, namely, (i) familiarization, (ii) identification of a thematic framework, (iii) indexing (open-coding method), (iv) charting, and (v) mapping and interpretation.

M.Ed. (Science Education) / The topic of evolutionary theory is new to the South African Life Sciences curriculum, having only been introduced in 2008 to the grade 12 cohort. A great deal of controversy and discussion surrounds the teaching and learning of evolution in many countries, and since the introduction of the topic, including South Africa. The primary source of this controversy arises from the conflict that many Christian and Muslim people experience between what their respective religions teach them about the act of Creation by God and the biological theory of evolution. As a result of its recent inception into South African school, not much research has been done to explore how this topic is experienced by Hindu secondary school learners and teachers. The aim of this study is therefore to address two gaps, firstly to add to the almost total lack of information about the Hindu perspective of the topic of evolution. Secondly, to add to the knowledge base of the teaching and learning of evolution in secondary schools since the scant information available on the teaching and learning of evolution in South Africa is mainly confined to tertiary education. Literature was reviewed on various aspects relevant to this study such as the PCK, NOS, CCC, Hinduism and the teaching and learning of evolution overseas and locally. In order to investigate the lived experiences of Hindu Life Sciences teachers and learners to the topic of evolution a qualitative study with elements of phenomenology was the chosen research design. This prompted the need to use a series of focus group and individual interviews with the various role-players as laid out by the overarching conceptual framework CHAT, the lens through which this study was viewed. Triangulation of data increased the reliability and validity of this study and was obtained by interviewing a Hindu priest as well as Hindu parents of Life Sciences learners. Interviews were transcribed, coded using the coding model by Saldana (2009) and analysed according to common themes. The main finding of this study was that Hindu teachers and learners experience no conflict with the topic of evolution thus displaying a lack of major tensions linked to the CHAT model. Many Hindus are however ignorant of their religion and scriptures but nevertheless remain accepting of the theory of evolution. Their acceptance could be attributed to three major tenets of Hinduism that link to evolutionary concepts: the cyclical concept of time; the evolution of the soul during reincarnation and the idea that during times of calamity, God manifests on Earth in the form of Avatāras. Misconceptions of evolutionary theory abound among learners and to a lesser extent the parents and teachers, particularly with respect to the notion of common ancestry. The teachers had adequate PCK but their knowledge of the NOS was limited. Recommendations emerging from these findings therefore warrant greater attention to the NOS in both PRESET and INSET teacher training courses. These courses can also use the lack of tensions between the Hindu religion and the topic of evolution as a case in point to show that religion and science can exist in harmony with each other. The concept of a nearest common ancestor (NCA) should also be emphasised in these courses – thereby helping to dispel the misconception that humans descended directly from apes.

This research focused on an investigation of the pedagogy and strategies used by Grade 11 Life Sciences teachers when mediating Biodiversity concepts with English second language learners. My interest in this investigation was triggered by the Examiners’ Reports for Life Sciences from 2009 to 2012 which consistently noted learner challenges in answering, interpreting and analysing questions during exams. The reports highlighted learners’ lack of understanding of the questions which led to them providing irrelevant information in their exam scripts. These reports claimed that challenges experienced by these learners could be attributed to language issues experienced by English second language learners. Influenced by these reports, a qualitative case study of two Senior Secondary schools in East London, Eastern Cape South Africa was conducted. Underpinned by an interpretive paradigm and driven by the desire to achieve an in-depth understanding of the case under study, three phases of information gathering were followed. The first phase was that of gathering information through document analysis. Documents were analysed to gain insights and understanding of the issue before conducting interviews. The next phase was that of gathering information through semi-structured interviews followed by classroom observations. Findings from these observations were verified through stimulated recall interviews which provided clarity on the intentionality of choosing a certain method and strategy over another when assisting learners in making meaning of biodiversity concepts. The main findings of this study are that factors which limit learner understanding of biodiversity concepts are a result of a combination of factors such as failure to interpret questions, spelling problems which alter meaning of concepts and an inability to make distinctions among closely related concepts within the topic of Biodiversity. Responding to these factors, teachers demonstrated knowledge of a variety of teaching strategies to support learners. The choice of teaching strategies seemed to be guided by their experiences as well as the challenges they often encounter. Furthermore, teachers’ reflections on their practice provided opportunities for them to identify strengths and limitations of their choice of strategies and possibilities for improvement. It was also noted that factors such as large class sizes, gaps in content knowledge and a lack of detail in chalkboard summary limited the effectiveness of their teaching strategies. The study recommends that: • Teacher-learner ratio needs to be considered for effective support; • There is still a need to capacitate educators in environmental education. In-service training should focus on developing teacher understanding of foundational knowledge in life sciences; and • Teachers need to improve their chalkboard summary skills to increase the level of support that could be provided by comprehensive chalkboard summary through the elaboration of ideas

Following Independence in 1991 Namibia embarked on a major reform of the entire education system. The reform was perceived as a way of redressing the apartheid legacy and bringing about a democratic learner centred education for all. At the same time the reform was also seen as a prime vehicle to bring about sustainable development through incorporating relevant environmental education into various carrier subjects. One such carrier has been the subject Life Science, which is compulsory from Grade 8 to Grade 10. The Life Science Project was a joint venture between the Ministry of Education and Ibis, a Danish Development NGO, established to develop and support the implementation of Life Science in junior secondary schools. This half-thesis is an evaluation of the Life Science Project through an analysis of the central assumptions on which the Life Science curriculum is based and by investigating different stakeholders’ perceptions and understanding of the learner centred approach adopted by the curriculum. Three questions have guided this research: 1. Are there curriculum models that are more conducive for reform and change than others? 2. Do stakeholders and curriculum developers in Namibia understand the theory of social constructivism, and the systemic implications such an approach has for the education system? 3. Which approach to environmental education complements a transformative curriculum and the changes outlined in policy? From the research carried out in this half-thesis, it would appear that the Namibian education system and the Life Science curriculum suffers from what could be termed “ideological confusion”. Confusion in the sense that there are marked inconsistencies between policy and praxis, between the stated goals and aims of the reform and the curriculum designed to achieve these. This confusion is further exacerbated by various stakeholders’ different interpretations of both policy and the systemic implications the reform policy has on education. In this half-thesis I argue that embarking on an objectives driven model of curriculum cannot bring about change and transformation of the Namibian education system. I further argue that, by not having considered and implemented the necessary systemic changes to the education system, Namibia has, in fact, developed a child centred education system which is fundamentally different from a learner centred education system. Finally, I argue that environmental education, through the subject Life Science, set within an objectives driven, Child Centred Education system is inappropriate for and unable to address the need for developing an environmentally literate citizenry who are able to take informed decisions in order to address the environmental crisis and bring forth a more sustainable future.

It is important to find strategies to assist learners who are taught in English especially as learners show different levels of English proficiency. English is taught as an Additional Language in many South African schools. Code switching is a well documented and researched strategy that teachers use in multilingual classrooms where the language of teaching and learning is not the learners’ home language. The study is concerned with and seeks to investigate the teaching strategies that Life Science teachers use in multilingual classes in addition to code switching. A case study of two Grade 11 Life Science teachers was conducted. The study adopts classroom observations and face-to-face interviews as qualitative data – gathering methods. The findings of this study, among other issues, reveal that in addition to code switching teachers use a variety of teaching strategies that include the use of textbooks, preparing notes for students, etc. Evidence available further suggests that the choice of teaching strategies is examination oriented rather than based on an understanding of current thinking on the ways of learning Life Sciences.