The Namibian government’s language policy for schools has opted for English as the official language of education. But the use of English in Namibian schools has nevertheless presented certain challenges. Although the Ministry of Education has chosen English as the language of instruction from upper primary (Grade 4) up to the tertiary level, it has been found that English proficiency is poor among both learners and teachers. It is against this backdrop that this study sought to investigate how Grade 7 Natural Science teachers mediate learning through code-switching from English to Silozi in the Zambezi Region of Namibia. The study explored Natural Science teachers’ perceptions and experiences of code-switching, how they and their learners make sense of concepts in science classes when code-switching is applied, and lastly, how code-switching from English to Silozi enables or constrains learning in Natural Science classes. The main question is: How do Grade 7 Natural Science teachers mediate learning through code-switching from English to Silozi? A qualitative case study underpinned by an interpretive paradigm was carried out at Zebra School (pseudonym) in the Zambezi Region of Namibia with two participant teachers. My unit of analysis was mediation of learning through code-switching, and data were obtained from lesson observations, questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. A variety of data gathering technique was employed for triangulation purposes to enhance the validity and trustworthiness of the data. During the data analysis process, data were grouped into common themes and subsequently organized into analytical statements in relation to the research questions. It was found that code-switching was widely employed in Grade 7 Natural Science classes in the Zambezi Region. It was also found that teachers code-switch to help learners understand the subject content, to explain concepts, to emphasize points and to include learners’ participation in the subject. The findings also revealed that some few teachers were against code-switching because examinations are written in English and the language policy does not recommend code-switching. Notwithstanding this, since the majority of teachers do code-switch to support their learners’ understanding in science classes, I recommend that education curriculum planners should include code-switching in the curriculum guidelines, and that the practice should be officially acknowledged as a legitimate strategy for teachers.

The importance of a scientifically literate society is currently acknowledged both internationally and South Africa. The notion of scientific literacy in South Africa has emerged largely due to the government’s recognition of the role that science and technology plays in economic growth, employment creation, social redress and social development. However, in light of South Africa’s learner performance on international and national assessments such as TIMMS (2003) and PIRLS (2006), as well as the problems of teaching and learning in a second language, there appears to be a primary and pressing need to develop learners’ fundamental sense of scientific literacy (Norris & Phillips, 2003). Expanding learners’ ability to read, write and communicate in science may provide the necessary framework for engaging learners in the critical principles and foundations of the scientific endeavour (Hand, Prain, & Yore, 2001). As such, this study focuses on equipping and training grade six and seven science teachers to develop scientifically literate learners via professional development workshops with a strategy that supports reading, writing, talking and conducting (‘doing’) science through scientific investigations. The typology of triangulation and the mixed method research approach was supported by a fully mixed, concurrent, and equal status design (Leech & Onwuegbuzi, 2007). Quantitative data were collected from the baseline and post-intervention testing of learners’ problem solving skills, as well as their literacy skills in English and isiXhosa. Qualitative measures were generated through classroom observations, teacher interviews and learners’ science notebooks. The study was conducted in two different milieus in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The first setting, in the rural area of Tyumie Valley near the Hogsback Mountains, was comprised of a sample of grade six and seven (multi-grade classrooms) teachers (n=7) and learners (n=168) from five experimental schools and two comparison schools. The second setting, in the urban townships area east of Port Elizabeth, was comprised of a sample of grade six teachers (n=8) and learners (n=675) from six experimental schools and two comparison schools. Mean differences between the experimental and the comparison groups were computed for the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) and the literacy tests, and the data generated were treated with an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The data suggest that the scientific literacy strategy improved the experimental learners’ problem solving skills. Both experimental groups demonstrated greater gains than that of the comparison schools. However, statistically significant improvements were only detected in Port Elizabeth. Improvements in learners’ literacy skills in isiXhosa and English varied according to each milieu. While the teachers initially identified challenges to learners’ reading and writing abilities, the analysis of learners’ science notebooks suggested that they used writings to support their investigations. Some teachers cited difficulties with certain aspects of the model, such as problems with developing an investigable question and argumentation, yet overall, teachers found the strategy useful for developing learners’ language skills, as well for strengthening their pedagogical practices in science. Teachers’ gradual improvements in the use of the model suggest that they were able to use the scientific literacy strategy to support the cognitive and linguistic development of second-language learners.

In science education the nature and value of science laboratory activities have become the subject of critical debate. Some science educators argue that a better understanding of what students do while purposefully engaged with materials would provide some answers. The intent of this study is to explore elementary students' actions and the knowledge they use while designing and conducting experiments. Four dyads each from grades 4 and 7 participated in three events. First, each pair was presented with a question (Which magnet is strongest?), two sets of magnets (one set at a time) and materials. The researcher observed and videotaped dyads' actions with materials until they made a conclusion for both magnet sets. Second, the researcher presented dyads with a selective set of materials to further explore their conceptions of magnetism. Finally, the pairs of students were interviewed while they watched the video of themselves experimenting during the first two events. The data were analyzed using an action theory perspective which emphasizes the cognitive nature of action. Students' models of magnetism were constructed from the data. Students used more than one model to explain different effects they observed. The designs of student experiments were grounded in their operational knowledge of the materials. Dyads generated data from a series of experiments whereby they manipulated different materials in a variety of ways. Dyads who obtained variable data did not repeat experiments to confirm or disconfirm results; rather they used specific strategies to make conclusions. The designs and procedures of experiments of students from both grades were similar, likely due to their common knowledge of the materials and their limited experience with open-ended tasks. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Children have prior knowledge, or mini-theories about science topics presented at school before being formally taught that is constructed from their everyday experiences. Teachers generally do not take this knowledge into consideration in the planning of science units and are often confused about why their students fail to learn. Hewson (1983) suggests that students will experience conceptual change only if it is intelligible, plausible, and fruitful and that prior knowledge, which is often an alternate conception of a scientific idea, must be challenged or clarified. Schon (1984) claims that teachers need to reflect on their actions in order to understand their own as well as their students' "constructed worlds". He suggests that teachers, when they reflect, become their own researchers. This case study examines how I, a teacher/researcher, adopted a constructlvlst perspective towards teaching a unit in magnetism and how the students responded. Vignettes of selected Incidents tell the story of the difficulties that my students had learning some of the concepts of magnetism and how I reacted to the knowledge that they were having difficulty. The unit in magnetism was taught to my class of thirty-two students (10/11 year olds) at an elementary school in a community in British Columbia using a constructivlst teaching sequence developed by Driver (1986).The lessons in magnetism were video-taped and both the students and I kept a journal. To elicit students' ideas about magnetism a diagnostic test was given at the beginning of the unit. A continuing record of students' ideas was kept throughout the study and at the end a post diagnostic test was given to see which, if any, alternate conceptions persisted. It was found that teaching with a constructivist approach had its' difficulties. Reflecting, for myself and my students, took practice and taking students' ideas Into consideration, both in the planning and teaching stages, may have taken more time than many teachers have available. However, the knowledge that I gained about my students' beliefs, through the process of reflecting, was valuable in planning lessons that both challenged and clarified the students' alternate conceptions. Teachers are recommended to take their students' ideas into consideration in lesson planning and to use activities that will encourage conceptual change. However, teachers should consider the time factor and the difficulties in reflecting before using a constructivist approach in teaching science. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to compare the results of applying conventional and Rasch item analysis approaches to a grade four science test item pool. A 76-item modified version of the pilot tests used to construct the British Columbia Grade k Science Assessment Test administered in Spring 1978 was utilized. This item pool was administered to 527 grade four students attending 15 schools located in three adjacent South Okanagan school districts. Eleven booklets were eliminated through application of criteria aimed at controlling for possible effects of speededness. Item analyses were obtained using the 516 remaining booklets. Preliminary investigations of the test data indicated that it would be best to limit item analyses to the 30-item Concepts and 32-item Processes subtests in the item pool. Coefficient alpha indices and factor analysis data were used to determine the unidimensionality of the subtests. Coefficient alpha indices indicated strong subtest homogeneity. For each of the subtests, however, more than one common factor was found on which there were salient loadings. Study of clusters of items with salient pattern coefficients, however, failed to yield unique definitions of possible different traits being measured by the subtests. It was decided that the subtests were essentially unidimensional and that application of the Rasch model was justified. The LERTAP computer program was used for conventional item analysis. Four criteria relating to item difficulty, corrected item-subtest point-biserial correlations, distractor-subtest point-biserial correlations, and distractor difficulty were applied. The BICAL computer program was used for the Rasch item analyses. Rasch criteria used related to item mean square fit, item discrimination, and item difficulty. For Rasch Approaches I and IV all criteria were used. In Rasch Approaches II and V, the item difficulty criterion was eliminated. Rasch Approaches Mi and VI used only the mean square fit criterion. For Rasch Approaches I, II, and III, Panchapakesan's correction for guessing formula was used to determine subject membership in the calibration sample. The random guessing level-formula was applied in Rasch Approaches IV, V, and VI. Eight comparisons were made on the subtests resulting from the application of the Conventional Approach and the six Rasch approaches. Four of the comparisons were aimed at the item level. These included the percentage of items rejected by each approach, the efficiency of the Rasch approaches in eliminating items illustrating problems related to conventional criteria, the percentage overlap of rejected items among pairs of different approaches, and the percentage of items rejected solely on the basis of Rasch criteria in the Rasch approaches. Four comparisons focussed on the subtests as entities. The first involved comparisons of numbers of items in each subtest, subtest means, standard deviations, and score ranges, as well as Hoyt estimates of internal consistency and subtest standard errors of measurement. A second comparison involved correlations of subjects' scores among all Concepts subtests and among all Processes subtests. In a third comparison, correlated t-tests were performed among all possible pairs of Concepts subtests and among all possible pairs of Processes subtests. The final comparison involved the fit of items in the subtests to the Concepts and Processes items used in the final version of the British Columbia Grade k Science Test. The one conventional and six Rasch approaches produced quite different Concepts and Processes subtests as regards specific items selected by each. Numbers of items in the subtests and consequently subtest characteristics, however, were more related to the stringency of the criteria applied rather than the approach--conventional or Rasch--used to build the subtests. The number of items in each subtest affected the reliability of the instrument. Use of the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula to adjust the Hoyt internal consistency estimates for the subtests yielded nearly equivalent reliabilities. The content sampling of the subtests was also a function of the stringency of the item analysis criteria used in their construction. Shorter subtests provided a poorer sampling of the content domain than did the longer subtests constructed using more lenient approaches. While there appears to be a similarity between the conventional £-value and the Rasch item difficulty index, application of Rasch criteria identified items with conventional item-subtest point-biserial problems less effectively. Rasch item analysis proved to be particularly inefficient in identifying items with conventional distractor problems. Although Rasch approaches produced subtests of equal reliability compared to those built using the conventional approach, and Rasch subtests ordered subjects in essentially the same fashion as subtests built using conventional methods, it was concluded that the conventional approach to itern analysis should remain the method of choice. The conventional approach provides information not only to identify poor items but also to improve them. Rasch approaches provide information related to item quality, but do not provide insights for improvement of poor items. Rasch approaches to item analysis should therefore only be applied to large item pools where rejection of items would not seriously affect the resulting instruments' effectiveness in sampling the content domain. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis is the result of an examination of the biological and physical science information content included in late nineteenth and early twentieth century elementary school readers and textbooks.

"It is the purpose of this paper, therefore, to show how in Florida's Program of Studies in the Elementary School science and social studies are related to each other. It will be urged that these subjects should be so related as to assist in developing those characteristics in boys and girls which will enable them to adjust creatively, within a democratic framework, to the problems and situations created through the interaction of technology and social change. In doing this it will be necessary: (1) to establish the social and psychological needs that underlie such a program; (2) to examine the Program of Studies as found in the Florida Curriculum Bulletin Series, published by the State Department of Education, relating to these two areas; (3) to work out a series of charts correlating work described in certain Florida Curriculum Bulletins; and (4) to develop one of these problem areas as a Resource Unit"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: W. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-55).

Formative assessment probes, known as Keeley probes, are one tool teachers use to reveal students' scientific misconceptions, so that they can move them closer to conceptual understanding. The purpose of this research was to document how four elementary school teachers used formative assessment probes to plan and adapt instruction to improve student learning. Specifically: How did teachers choose appropriate probes? What learning goals did teachers hope to address by using the probe?? What instructional sequences did teachers envision when planning to use a probe? What did teachers notice when analyzing student data from a probe? How did teachers use the information to modify their instructional practice? This exploratory study addresses key issues by exploring through qualitative methods how four elementary teachers used Keeley formative assessment probes in the classroom through a series of individual and group interviews. The results, reported as case studies and themes, indicate that Keeley probes may be used to help teachers strengthen their pedagogical content knowledge and as an anchor for classroom discussions. Teachers reported that students were highly engaged when considering Keeley probing questions. Teachers in this study had questions about how to analyze data collected through formative assessment, and what instructional steps they needed to take to address misconceptions. The central finding of the study is that a teacher's subject-area knowledge as well as the ability to identify students' misconceptions and make instructional decisions based on those ideas, both elements of pedagogical content knowledge, play a key role in how effectively teachers use Keeley formative assessment probes towards improving learning. Ultimately, this study showed that while the use of Keeley probes did improve opportunities for students to deepen scientific understanding, a gap still exists between the potential of formative assessment and the practical work of integrating ongoing formative assessment to improve teaching and learning. This exploratory study underlines the need for a new approach in professional development for elementary science teachers, and sheds light on what happens when teachers try Keeley probes, a promising formative assessment tool and strategy, in the real world of the classroom.