No description available.

This study aimed at finding out junior secondary student’s attitude towards school science in a co-educational school in Hong Kong. Eleven items from the survey instrument Attitude towards School Science (AtSS) were used to collect both descriptive and explanatory data on student’s attitude towards school science. The sample consisted of 393 Form 1 to Form 3 students. Their positive AtSS were found to decline with grade level (i.e. declining from Form 1 to Form 3). The decrease in positive attitude was sharpest between Form 2 and Form 3. A remarkable decrease in positive attitude towards their science teachers was also noticed between Form 2 and Form 3 mainly due to the decrease in variety of activities during the lessons. In general, female students were less positive to school science but they were trying harder than the male students because they wanted to do well even though they were not as interested as male students in the subject. In terms of interest, female students were more favorably inclined towards biological science and male students towards physical sciences. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the curriculum and time allocation for junior secondary science, especially for Form 3, should be revised so as to help cultivate student’s interest in science. Also, peer observations can be arranged more frequently to let teachers learn from each other. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Recent curriculum reforms in Hong Kong emphasize learning how to learn, inquiry, collaboration, and similar capabilities. Problem-based learning (PBL) seems an appropriate approach for addressing these new requirements. However, little is known about the use of PBL in secondary (middle) schools, particularly in East-Asian countries in which Confucian-heritage values influence learning approaches. Therefore, the goal of this research was to provide a systematic account of an attempt to implement PBL in Form 1 (Grade 7) Integrated Science classes. The study investigated the teachers’ pedagogical actions, the aspects of the PBL environment that helped to motivate students in science learning, their pattern of discourse for science development and the possible differences of their learning outcomes compared with PBL and conventional learning conditions. A quasi-experimental and mixed-method approach was employed to gather data from two experimental classes (n = 62) and two control classes (n = 63). Data sources included field notes of classroom observations, audio recordings of students working in small groups on their PBL problems, interviews with teachers and students, and science tests administered immediately prior to each instructional unit (pre-test), at the conclusion of each unit (post-test), and before the school term ended (delayed post-test). The study has five main findings: (1) PBL teachers used different strategies to help students who were new to PBL to adapt to the new pedagogical practice, to facilitate group confrontation, and to help students become self-directed learners. (2) Choice, challenge, control and collaboration seem to have motivated students’ learning in the PBL classrooms. (3) Disagreements about the problem situations stimulated task-related cognitive activity and resulted in academic progress. (4) Students’ questions during collaboration facilitated learning by directing their’ inquiry and expanding their thinking. (5) Science test results show that the PBL group performed at least as well as the traditional learning group in knowledge acquisition, and that PBL helped the high achievers to retain information better than their peers in the traditional learning group. The study provides valuable information that shows how PBL can work in secondary school science classrooms. Implications for future research on PBL, and its practice in secondary school science, are also outlined. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Not available / text

Not available / text

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

A lot of scholars have alluded to the existence of indigenous knowledge among community elders. The purpose of this study was to explore existence of indigenous science understandings among Zulu elders and determine the impact of these understandings on the indigenous secondary school learners. A group of elders and a group of learners from a selected rural community were interviewed on three phenomena pertaining to biology and physical science. Each phenomenon was chosen according to its relevance to the traditional African practices of the rural community studied. The data from both groups was analysed to determine understandings held by each group. Findings of this study revealed that elders held indigenous science understandings that had an impact on the indigenous secondary school learners. Elders transmit these understandings as views that I chose to call indigenous conceptions and duality explanation conceptions. As a result of the impact of elders' views and school science, learners on the other hand held three types of conceptions, namely, unchanged indigenous conceptions, hybridised conceptions and duality explanation conceptions. The recommendations I made are based on the findings that elders' indigenous knowledge has an impact on learners' science understandings. This then has implications to classroom practices and science education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

I have found that as a rule of thumb, when the majority of our learners in our science classrooms respond to expectation under examination conditions, the teacher's focus is on the minority who did not succeed. However, when only a minority of learners respond expectedly, then I feel teaching approaches have to be seriously questioned. My personal studies and readings in the education field, revealed a myriad of explanations and approaches surrounding the above problem. Literature has revealed that our greatest benefits can be achieved by successfully coping with the diversity of learners found in our science classrooms. There is no doubt that the problem is large, and thus a proper understanding of the problem is paramount to its resolution. This is where my study focuses, a case study that checks for gaps in science teachers' understanding of multicultural diversity in their classrooms and the impact of such understanding on classroom practice. Approaching the problem from an interpretive viewpoint within a social-constructive paradigm, the issue of multicultural diversity, especially in the field of science, is a "relatively" new concept in the South African context. Europeans and especially the Americans have at least forty years of experience in this field, their economy, low unemployment and advanced technology being a measure of their successes in multicultural science classrooms. At a theoretical level much of the American experiences do have direct relevance in our South African setting and is thus used throughout my study as a point of reference. The study used as its tools semi-structured interviews of 5 science teachers, (respondents), observations of a single lesson of each of the respondents and analysis of documents used in the observed lesson. The study was conducted in a middle to low socio-economic suburban secondary school of Kwazulu-Natal where science teachers' understandings of multicultural diversity was found to be somewhat traditional, simplistic and parochial. The study further revealed how a poor understanding of the issues of diversity amongst learners impacted on the teachers' abilities to successfully adapt the science curriculum and their teaching approaches to meet the needs of their diverse learners, and thus create equitable learning opportunities for all learners. Recommendations proposed in this study stem from the fact that though the respondents have some knowledge of the diversity in their science classrooms, their attempts to cope with the diversity based on currently available guidelines, viz. OBE, C2005 and the RNCS, still falls short of achieving equitable learning opportunities for all learners. Thus the study recommends serious attention to issues of multicultural science education with respect to language barriers and practice of appropriate teaching and learning methods. It also recommends appropriately designed training for both pre and in-service teachers and teacher educators. The study further recommends making science more meaningful by localising the Eurocentric curriculum and lastly, diversifying our teaching force to better reflect the increasingly diverse learner bodies. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.