The purpose of this study was to establish what difficulties Grade Seven educators were experiencing in the implementation of Curriculum 2005, a new national outcome-based curriculum with wide ranging aims. A qualitative approach, using a case study method, was employed and mainly in-depth interviews and observations were conducted. Six Grade Seven educators in a variety of schools were interviewed at length about the wide ranging problems they experienced in introducing C2005 into the classrooms for the first time in 2000. The interview data was supplemented by personal observations of most of these educators in their schools. The research study was undertaken in a predominantly rural district of one region of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. The findings of the study are presented and these are interpreted and discussed under two categories: these being the kinds of difficulties enunciated by the educators and the researcher's observation of identified features of problems. The key findings of this research study are the following: • Educators use inappropriate teaching styles • Educators lack a conceptual knowledge of Science • Educators lack the skill to teach practical work • Educators avoid selected aspects of C2005 • Assessment, recording and reporting is a threat to educators • Educators are not able to use learners' knowledge • Educators display a waning interest in the implementation of C2005 • Educators are stressed out • There is an increased workload on educators Educators lack qualification, training and teaching in outcomes - based approaches • Educators do not have parental support • There is a lack of guidance on what to teach • The lack of resources is a major obstacle for the implementation of C2005 • Educators lack a commitment to teach Natural Science • There is a lack of support from principals and school management teams Finally, recommendations are made for the successful implementation of C2005 as well as suggestions for further research. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

This implementation study set out to establish the impact of a constructivist-informed, / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, problem solving tends to be highly procedural, and these procedures are typically taught with general instructional text and specific worked examples. Instructional text broadly defines procedures for problem solving, and worked examples demonstrate how to apply procedures to problems. Subgoal labels have been used to help students understand the structure of worked examples, and this feature has increased problem solving performance. The present study explored using subgoal labels in instructional text to further improve learners’ problem solving performance. A factorial design examined the efficacy of subgoal labeled instructional text and worked examples for programming education. The results of the present study suggest that subgoal labels in instructional text can help learners in a different way than subgoal labels in worked examples. Subgoal labels in text helped the learner articulate the general procedure better, and subgoal labels in the example helped the learner apply those procedures better. When solving novel problems, learners who received subgoal labels in both the text and example performed better than those who received subgoal labels in only the example. Learners who received subgoal labels in only the example performed better than those who received subgoal labels in only the text and those who did not receive subgoal labels at all. The present study indicates that subgoal labeled instructional text can improve novices’ problem solving performance in programming, but subgoal labels must appear in both the text and example.

Many teachers have difficulty in implementing the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). This is particularly true of the natural science curriculum. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which natural science teachers interpret and implement the natural science curriculum in Grade Four. A further aim was to find out which factors impinge on teachers’ ability to implement the curriculum. The study is underpinned by a theory of implementation developed by Rogan and Grayson (2003) who argue that major changes in new curricula are difficult to implement and suggest that any curriculum innovation should be ahead of existing practices. Rogan and Grayson’s (2003) framework is further used to identify the levels at which teachers are located with regard to their ability to implement the curriculum. The research was conducted within the interpretive paradigm. It is a case study of four natural science teachers who teach in the Folweni cluster of the Umbumbulu district. The methods of data collection included a questionnaire, document analysis, pre- and post-semi structured interviews and class observation. The data was analysed using Rogan and Grayson’s framework. The findings indicate that teachers are at different levels with regard to their ability to implement the natural science curriculum. This is partly due to the way they interpret the curriculum and partly due to a number of factors that influence their capacity to implement a new curriculum. Teachers have different abilities with regard to their interpretation of the curriculum. These abilities were interpreted in terms of their understanding of content, outcomes and assessment, as well as their ability to teach in learner-centred ways. Teachers’ capacity to implement a new curriculum are influenced by factors such as their qualifications, the circumstances of the learners they teach; the physical resources available to them, the support they receive from the school management, as well as the ethos that prevails in the school. The study concluded that teachers be supported in different ways to improve their capacity to implement the natural science curriculum and that this can ultimately lead to an improvement in teachers ability to implement the natural science curriculum as set out in the Revised Curriculum Statement (2002). / M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

Software systems have experienced an impressive growth in the last few decades and have impacted a wide variety of areas. In this respect, two elds bene t greatly. Learning and research. In this work, we present several software systems that we have created to assist in the process of learning and to help researchers by performing complex computations and generating data. We demonstrate three web-based educational video games that we developed to teach science to middle school students. We also describe several software systems that we created for research in graph theory and model checking. Finally, we discuss our results, contributions and future directions. / Educational perspectives -- Graph algorithms and their applications -- E-learning -- Model checking. / Educational perspectives -- Graph algorithms and their applications -- E-learning -- Model checking. / Department of Computer Science

The purpose of the study is to determine the perception or views of mathematics and science educators on performance of grade 12 learners in Mafikeng district. Little has been written about secondary school educators' views with regard to performance of learners in Mathematics and Science in developing countries like South Africa. The survey method was used to gather data. A 31 item questionnaire was used to evaluate perception of educators in the areas of: Support for educators, Educator involvement, Conditions for teaching and Educators' perception on how educational change affects performance of learners in Mathematics and Science. The subjects of the study were 89 Mathematics and Science educators in the Mafikeng district. The sample was selected from the 31 high schools including senior secondary schools in the district. The empirical investigation conducted revealed that parental involvement in their children's studies is a serious problem that needs immediate attention, in addition to educator qualifications and lack of learning support materials. The study also revealed that improving performance of learners, responsibility and involvement of educators, learners, parents, government and community is essential. The conclusions drawn from the study show that educators' perceptions on performance of learners in Mathematics and Science entail cooperative and supportive structure, regular communication among staff and monitoring of school work for both educators and learners is very important. It is also important that the findings of the research be implemented to improve learner performance. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2003

Language constitutes the dominant representational mode in science teaching, and lectures are still the most prevalent of the teaching methods in school science. In this dissertation, I investigate lectures from a multimodal and communicative perspective to better understand how teaching as a cultural-historical and social activity unfolds; that is, I am concerned with teaching as a communicative event, where a variety of signs (or semiotic resources), expressed in diverse modalities (or modes of communication) are produced and reproduced while the teacher articulates very specific conceptual meanings for the students. Within a trans-disciplinary approach that merges theoretical and methodical frameworks of social and cultural studies of human activity and interaction, communicative and gestures studies, linguistics, semiotics, pragmatics, and studies on teaching and learning science, I investigate teaching as a communicative, dynamic, multimodal, and social activity. My research questions include: What are the resources produced and reproduced in the classroom when the teacher is lecturing? How do these resources interact with each other? What meanings do they carry and how are these associated to achieve the coherence necessary to accomplish the communication of complex and abstract scientific concepts, not only within one lecture, but also within an entire unit of the curricula encompassing various lectures? My results show that, when lecturing, the communication of scientific concepts occur along trajectories driven by the dialectical relation among the various semiotic resources a lecturer makes available that together constitute a unit—the idea. Speech, gestures, and other nonverbal resources are but one-sided expressions of a higher order communicative meaning unit. The iterable nature of the signs produced and reproduced during science lectures permits, supports, and encourages the repetition, variation, and translation of ideas, themes, and languages and therefore permits, supports, and encourages conceptual development at the boundary between the mundane and discipline-specific cultures that students (have to) traverse in learning. It is only within this multimodal and dialectical communicative meaning unit that we can understand and investigate science teaching and learning as these processes naturally occur.

There is a low percentage of First Nations students participating in senior high school sciences and pursuing the field of science. This thesis describes the development of a cross-cultural science and environmental education program using traditional Kwakwaka'wakw stories as a focus for exploration. Conversational interviews with elders, resource persons and cultural teachers provided invaluable interpretations of time honored stories, their place in Kwakwaka’wakw culture, how they were passed down from generations as teaching stories, and how they tied Aboriginal students to the land and to each other. Lessons were pilot tested in grade 6/7 at the T'lisalagil'akw Band School in Alert Bay, BC. Observations and a range of evaluative techniques all combined to show that the students understood the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the people, they understood a range of western science concepts, they practiced mayaxala (respect for the people and land), and they understood what it means to be Kwakwaka'wakw.

Acompanha: Contextualizando a matemática por meio de projetos de trabalho em uma perspectiva interdisciplinar: foco na deficiência intelectual / O processo educacional da pessoa com deficiência intelectual foi marcado por uma história de segregação. Contudo, vários movimentos, como o de inclusão social, têm buscado defender e discutir as condições necessárias para sua aprendizagem, incentivando a elaboração de políticas públicas condizentes com suas necessidades educativas. Dessa forma, a pessoa com deficiência tem o direito a uma educação de qualidade, a qual considere as suas especificidades de aprendizagem a fim de promover sua autonomia. Neste contexto os saberes de matemática e de ciências tornam-se indispensáveis para a formação integral do cidadão devendo, portanto, ser trabalhados na escola em uma abordagem dinâmica e prazerosa, a qual desperte a motivação em aprender. Assim, cabe ao professor propor intervenções pedagógicas, as quais procurem inserir o educando com deficiência intelectual no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, evidenciando a importância e a utilidade do conhecimento matemático e científico em seu cotidiano. Para tal, optou-se fundamentar as intervenções pedagógicas na metodologia de projetos de trabalho em abordagem contextualizada e interdisciplinar, a qual busca dar sentido a tudo que é aprendido, sendo o aluno participante ativo. Dessa maneira, essa pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar os resultados verificados no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de matemática e ciências de alunos deficientes intelectuais ao aplicar um projeto contextualizado e interdisciplinar. As intervenções pedagógicas foram desenvolvidas na APAE - Escola de Educação Básica na Modalidade Educação Especial na Área Intelectual e Múltiplas, do município de Ponta Grossa, Paraná, junto a seis discentes do 2° ano do Ensino Fundamental. Desse modo, a obtenção dos dados resultantes da aplicação das intervenções pedagógicas se deu por meio de uma pesquisa qualitativa de cunho interpretativo. Durante a aplicação do projeto de trabalho, observou-se que os alunos mostraram-se motivados em aprender, assumindo a posição de ativo perante o conhecimento. Os resultados demostram que a proposta favoreceu a construção de conceitos de matemática e ciências alicerçados em situações do cotidiano, bem como a acessibilidade desses conhecimentos para alunos deficientes intelectuais. Além disso, verificou-se em todas as etapas do desenvolvimento do projeto que os educandos demonstravam confiantes em expor suas ideias, o que propiciou um clima encorajador, de forma que se mostravam capazes em aprender. A partir das atividades realizadas com os alunos, foi elaborado um produto educacional, o qual é organizado em forma de caderno pedagógico para o desenvolvimento de um projeto de trabalho interdisciplinar, abrangendo a disciplina de matemática e de ciências com o tema “Preparação de uma Refeição”. O objetivo desse caderno é propor ao professor uma estratégia metodológica para o ensino de matemática embasada por meio do tripé curiosidade, investigação e descoberta em uma abordagem contextualizada e interdisciplinar com ciências. / The educational process of the person with intellectual disability was marked by a history of segregation. However, several movements, such as social inclusion, have sought to defend and discuss the necessary conditions for their learning by encouraging the development of public policies consistent with their educational needs. Thus, the person with disabilities has a right to a quality education, which considers their specific learning in order to promote their autonomy. In this context the knowledge of mathematics and science become indispensable to the integral formation of the citizen must therefore be worked at the school in a dynamic and exciting approach, which arouses the motivation to learn. Thus, the teacher proposing pedagogical interventions that seek to enter the student with intellectual disabilities in learning and teaching process, highlighting the importance and usefulness of mathematical and scientific knowledge in their daily lives. To this end, we chose to support the pedagogical interventions in the methodology of projects working on contextualized and interdisciplinary approach, which seeks to make sense of everything that is learned, and the student an active participant. Thus, this research aims to analyze the results obtained in the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science in intellectual disabled students process by applying a contextualized and interdisciplinary project. The educational interventions were developed in APAE - School of Basic Education in Special Education Mode in Intellectual and Multiple Area, the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná, with six students from the 2nd year of elementary school. Thereby obtaining the data resulting from application of pedagogical interventions occurred through an interpretive nature of qualitative research. During the implementation of the project work, it was observed that students were motivated to learn, taking the position before the knowledge asset. The results show that the proposal favored the construction of math and science concepts grounded in everyday situations as well as the accessibility of this knowledge for intellectual disabled students. Furthermore, it was found in all stages of project development that students showed confidence to expose their ideas, which led to an encouraging atmosphere, so that showed themselves capable of learning. From activities with the students, an educational product, which is organized in a pedagogical notebook for the development of an interdisciplinary project work covering the discipline of mathematics and science with the theme "Preparing of a meal ". The aim of this book is to propose a methodology for teacher teaching mathematics grounded through the tripod curiosity, research and discovery in a contextualized and interdisciplinary approach to science.

This research project, using a qualitative case study methodology, reports on the appropriateness and implications of using group work in promoting cooperative learning in science. In this study, group work is seen as providing a social support mechanism for learning through interactive "hands-on" activities, designed to give learners opportunities to discuss and share ideas so that they can grasp science concepts. The Science Olympiad Project class composed of approximately thirty-six (36) learners formed the case study for this unit. The Science Olympiad Project is a project concerned with the promotion of science in the primary schools in Grahamstown. From this group, twenty two (22) learners (12 girls and 10 boys) were interviewed and kept journals. The Science Olympiad facilitator (a science teacher from one of the schools involved in the project) and two teachers who attended the science classes and whose learners are part of the project were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews, journals kept by the learners and the researcher (who was a participant observer and a co-facilitator), observations and discussions constituted sources of data for the research project. The analysis of data indicated that the learners found science during the Science Olympiad Project classes interesting and challenging. There were many benefits reported by the learners including the use of group work, the effect of "hands-on" activities, their attitudes and perceptions towards science and the role of excursions. Teachers found the learner-centred approaches adopted helped to encourage the learners to be actively involved in their own learning. One concern raised by the teachers was what would happen to those learners who have been identified as enthusiastic in science when they go to secondary schools. The implications of the results to improve and sustain the project are discussed.