La thèse présentée ici développe deux axes d'étude concernant l'enseignement des sciences physiques dans les collèges et lycées de l'Union des Comores : D'abord une analyse du curriculum prescrit dans les programmes officiels des Comores depuis 1994 à nos jours, dans le but d'identifier et de caractériser les choix effectués par les concepteurs, de soulever les contraintes et les difficultés éventuelles ; Ensuite l'étude de la façon dont les enseignants s'approprient ce curriculum. Des questionnaires révèlent ce qu'ils déclarent à propos de leurs choix pour le mettre en œuvre dans leurs classes ainsi que leurs options didactiques, épistémologiques et pédagogiques. Pour prendre en compte ces diverses dimensions, plusieurs cadres théoriques sont mobilisés : la sociologie et la didactique du curriculum ; la didactique des disciplines et les pratiques enseignantes. L'analyse du curriculum prescrit montre qu'il subit des influences parfois contradictoires : d'abord le curriculum français (dans ses versions anciennes) surtout ancré sur des connaissances de savoirs académiques à acquérir, ensuite les recommandations des grands organismes internationaux insistant principalement sur des compétences à maitriser. Même si la tendance en France est maintenant de promouvoir des approches plus constructivistes (démarche d'investigation), une tension persiste entre ces deux pôles que l'on retrouvera chez les enseignants. / The thesis presented here develops two lines of research on the teaching of physics in schools and colleges of the Union of the Comoros: First, an analysis of the curriculum prescribed in the official programs of the Comoros since 1994 to the present day, in order to identify and characterize the choices made bay the designers, lift the constraints and potential problems; Then the study of how teachers have taken over the curriculum. Questionnaires reveal what they say about their choice to implement in their classrooms and their teaching, epistemological and pedagogical and pedagogical options. To take into account the various dimensions, several theoretical frameworks mobilized sociology and educational curriculum, and the didactics and teaching practices. The analysis shows that the prescribed curriculum undergoes sometimes contradictory influences : first the French curriculum (in its older versions) mainly anchored on knowledge of academic knowledge to be acquired, then the recommendations of major international organizations focusing primarily on skills to master. Although the trend in France is now promoting more constructivist approaches (inquiry process), a continuing tension between these two poles that we find among teachers. In general objectives official is displayed the desire to promote a general rather than specialized teaching science education, but it is not visible in the contents of the program: they are indeed defined in terms of knowledge, skills and methods, but little tools are available for teachers to implement. Only very general advice is given as to promote the construction of knowledge by students or use the investigative approaches.

This thesis enquires into the role of values in the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their teaching careers. Recruitment and attrition have contributed to a shortage of these teachers in English schools (Bousted, 2016), and while recruitment has benefited from increased investment (Gov.uk, 2017), attrition has largely gone unaddressed. In belief system theory, values are considered to be intrinsically linked to the behaviours people exhibit (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). As the behaviour of interest in this thesis is the departure of these teachers from the profession, it was decided that the values informing this behaviour should be investigated. Values are also components of an organisation's culture, which is linked to job commitment and satisfaction (Branson, 2008). It is therefore possible that when the values of these teachers and those in school culture are aligned, this will contribute to reduced attrition. Based on the works of Rokeach (1973) and Schwartz (2012), an adapted value scale using Q-method was developed to measure the value systems of student teachers and those contributing to school culture as determined by secondary school department leaders. The measurement and comparison of these value systems showed: values held by these teachers in the formative years of their careers evolve, and ITT guides this; physical science and non-physical science student teacher value systems were shown in some instances to be similar, and in others to be noticeably different; one of the two physical science student teacher value systems was in most instances aligned with the value systems identified as being present in English secondary school culture; misalignment showed that physical science specialists place less emphasis on having a sense of belonging and on benevolence oriented values; when compared with the values in English secondary school culture, teachers in the formative years of their careers, regardless of their specialism, have the potential to overemphasise the importance of conformity oriented values. It is suggested that these combined factors contribute to the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their careers.

Thesis ((M.Ed. (Science Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / The new curriculum introduced in the Further Education and Training phase has had a great impact on the teaching and learning of Physical Sciences in the classrooms. The policy documents for Physical Sciences emphasis that practical work to be integrated with the teaching of Science. However, much remains desired on how teachers use their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to conduct practical work in their classrooms. This study explored teachers’ perceptions of practical work in the context of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement. PCK was used as the theoretical framelens to understand teachers’ perceptions of practical work. Data in the study were collected through interviews and observations from four Grade 11 teachers. It was also collected by scrutinising teachers’ portfolios. Observations were used to discover the teachers’ actual classroom conduct of practical work. The sample of the study was drawn from Mankweng Circuit, in the Limpopo province. The findings of the study revealed that teachers conduct demonstrations which were structured and inquiry based practical work was not conducted. It was also found that they conduct practical work for promotional marks only. Furthermore, it was revealed that teachers appreciate the value of practical work in the teaching and learning of Physical Sciences but lack of resources and time constraints hinder them from conducting good practical work. It was also found that teachers do not have practical work lesson plans in their portfolios except those for reporting. However, apparatus in some instances were limiting teachers to conduct good practical work. Large classes, lack of time table for practical work and pressure to complete the curriculum were also mentioned by the teachers as limitations. It is recommended that subject specialists should help in developing teachers’ knowledge to conduct inquiry based practical work.

Unanimement considéré comme l’astronome le plus influent de l’entre-deux guerres, Arthur S. Eddington (1882-1944) a aussi investi le champ philosophique avec deux ouvrages majeurs, The Nature of the Physical World (1928) et The Philosophy of Physical Science (1939), mais également d’innombrables remarques au long de son œuvre considérable. Cette étude propose, à partir de l’ensemble des écrits d’Eddington, un portrait de sa philosophie. Envisagée dans son développement progressif d’abord, mettant tour à tour l’accent sur la synthèse, le symbole et la structure, dans ses interactions ensuite, dans ses racines philosophiques enfin. Se déploie peu à peu une conception originale de la nature et de la portée de la science physique, parfois déroutante mais non sans cohérence, à condition de la reconduire à ses intuitions originaires. / Arthur S. Eddington (1882-1944) certainly was the world’s most famous astronomer during the interwar period. He also plunged into philosophy and published a couple of major books,The Nature of the Physical World (1928) et The Philosophy of Physical Science (1939), as well as numerous remarks scattered along his works. Grounding its claims on the entirety of his writings, this study intends to sketch Eddington’s own philosophy. Its progressive development is firstly addressed, highlighting three essential themes, i. e. synthesis, symboland structure. Then are explored its interactions with both science and religion, and its rootsin terms of philosophical authors. An original conception of the nature and the scope of physical science slowly merges, sometimes upsetting but never without some kind of unity,provided its originating intuitions are finally discovered.

The aim of the study was to compare the effects of the use of interactive computer simulations for cognitive load change of grade 11 learners in the acquisition of knowledge and a science process skill in geometrical optics. Both the use of computer simulations and traditional teaching was teacher centred. The study was done in a rural area in South Africa, in the Limpopo Province in the district of Vhembe. The theoretical framework was based on the information processing model. Within the non-equivalent quasi experimental design a switching replications design study was used whereby 105 learners in four schools took part. This study found that in terms of the acquisition of knowledge, female learners gained more by the use of simulations than their male counterparts. No significant effect was found in the acquisition of the skill when computer simulations were used. Initial reduction of cognitive load was found when simulations were used and with time this increased. Experienced educators reduced the cognitive load through use of their knowledge and expertise and their role needs to be highlighted. Further studies are suggested to study the effect of a learner centred approach on decreasing the cognitive load and its effect on the acquisition of knowledge and skills. / Mathematics, Science and Technology Education / D. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education with specialisation in Physics Education)

This research study investigates how English First Additional Language learners respond to animation in Physical Science learning in a rural Further Education and Training (FET) Grade 10 class. A study was implemented to find answers to the main question: “How do learners respond to animation in the learning environment?” The sub questions are: In an interactive learning environment with animations … 1. what learning takes place from a cognitive, affective and psychomotor perspective and how? 2. what language problems do the learners experience and how do they deal with them? The study employed a computer program with which learners engaged for an average of 40 - 45 minutes. The animation elicited numerous cognitive, affective and psychomotor behaviours in the learners. The observations describe cognitive activities, such as a progressive decrease in times taken to complete games successfully, a controlled display of information for brief periods, patterns of buttons pressed varied amongst the groups, and the learners’ proficiency as game playing increased. Results pointing to affective activities included the learners’ perseverance to master the game and a wide range of emotions that were displayed during the execution of the animation. The results showed the following: <ul> <li>little time was spent on reading instructions with learners merely giving them a cursory glance;</li> <li>learners interacted with the learning activity in different ways both during the learning phase and the assessment phase;</li> <li>learners managed to reach the objective of the learning activity irrespective of how they approached the activity; and</li> <li>a wide range of other psychomotor activities were displayed during the course of the animation.</li> </ul> The study recommends minor changes to the program in order to improve it, and concludes that learners do respond positively to animation in a learning environment. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not my practice of implementing Interactive Science Notebooks (ISN) impacts 4th grade students writing in science. Through this action research, students' writing was analyzed to determine whether the use of ISN affected students' use of details, support claims and justifications in their written responses. Also through the use of the Interactive Science Notebook, students' use of science vocabulary in their writing was also analyzed. Finally, students' reflective writing practices were examined in order to determine how students understood and explored physical science. A triangulation of data gathered consisted of the use of rubrics, focus groups and one-on-one conferencing. The data collected from this action research implied that the Interactive Science Notebooks did indeed have an impact on students' scientific writing. Students writing reflections demonstrated an increase in the use of claims and evidence, and meaningful questions related to the science topic investigated.

Artificial Intelligence is a fuzzy concept. My role, as I see it, is to put down a working definition, a criterion, and a set of assumptions to set up equations for a workable methodology. This research introduces the notion of Artificial Intelligent Agency, denoting the application of Artificial General Intelligence. The problem being handled by mathematics and logic, and only thereafter semantics, is Self-Supervised Machine Learning (SSML) towards Intuitive Vehicle Health Management, in the domain of cybernetic-physical science. The present work stems from a broader engagement with a major multinational automotive OEM, where Intelligent Vehicle Health Management will dynamically choose suitable variants only to realise predefined variation points. Physics-based models infer properties of a model of the system, not properties of the implemented system itself. The validity of their inference depends on the models’ degree of fidelity, which is always an approximate localised engineering abstraction. In sum, people are not very good at establishing causality. To deduce new truths from implicit patterns in the data about the physical processes that generate the data, the kernel of this transformative technology is the intersystem architecture, occurring in-between and involving the physical and engineered system and the construct thereof, through the communication core at their interface. In this thesis it is shown that the most practicable way to establish causality is by transforming application models into actual implementation. The hypothesis being that the ideal source of training data for SSML, is an isomorphic monoid of indexical facts, trace-preserving events of natural kind.

School physical science is a prerequisite for science courses at institutions of higher education. Science graduates are an important link in a nation's scientific and technological development which often shapes a country's economic development. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological and social factors influencing physical science achievement and attitude of black secondary school students in South Africa. The first part of the literature study which was concerned with physical science education in South Africa revealed that few black students chose to study science after standard seven, that failure rates were high and that science education was generally in a state of crisis. The second part of the literature study identified psychological and social factors related to science achievement and attitude. These were home environment variables, teacher and school related variables, personal variables (self-concept, motivation, gender, ethnicity) and students' abilities. The third part was the construction of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) specifying the relationships among the psychological and social factors and their effects on physical science achievement and attitude. The theoretical SEM fit the data reasonably well. The best fitting model, however, was a revised model in which several paths were constrained. The latter accounted for a substantial variance in attitude towards physical science (70.3%) and a meagre 17.7% in physical science achievement. The variables ability, home environment and self-concept had the greatest total effects on physical science achievement. Self-concept, home environment and motivation made the greatest total contributions to physical science attitude. Teacher characteristics and school environment had non-significant effects on physical science achievement and attitude. Multiple-group structural equation modelling analyses found no significant difference in the structural parameters of boys and girls. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings were discussed and specific recommendations for improving educational practice in general and physical science achievement and attitude in particular, were made. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

School physical science is a prerequisite for science courses at institutions of higher education. Science graduates are an important link in a nation's scientific and technological development which often shapes a country's economic development. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological and social factors influencing physical science achievement and attitude of black secondary school students in South Africa. The first part of the literature study which was concerned with physical science education in South Africa revealed that few black students chose to study science after standard seven, that failure rates were high and that science education was generally in a state of crisis. The second part of the literature study identified psychological and social factors related to science achievement and attitude. These were home environment variables, teacher and school related variables, personal variables (self-concept, motivation, gender, ethnicity) and students' abilities. The third part was the construction of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) specifying the relationships among the psychological and social factors and their effects on physical science achievement and attitude. The theoretical SEM fit the data reasonably well. The best fitting model, however, was a revised model in which several paths were constrained. The latter accounted for a substantial variance in attitude towards physical science (70.3%) and a meagre 17.7% in physical science achievement. The variables ability, home environment and self-concept had the greatest total effects on physical science achievement. Self-concept, home environment and motivation made the greatest total contributions to physical science attitude. Teacher characteristics and school environment had non-significant effects on physical science achievement and attitude. Multiple-group structural equation modelling analyses found no significant difference in the structural parameters of boys and girls. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings were discussed and specific recommendations for improving educational practice in general and physical science achievement and attitude in particular, were made. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)