Middle School represents a period of transition for the students. This transition is present not only in physical change, intellectual change, and emotional change, but also in terms of the type of reading instruction these students receive. One approach to reading instruction moves from a direct approach focusing on specific skills, to a functional approach of how to apply those skills in the content area classroom. The latter approach is process oriented, and focuses on learning the content by reading and participating in relevant learning activities. The focus of this study was to examine the interaction which takes place among textbooks, instructors, and students in the area of Social Studies within selected middle schools. Three phases were involved in this study. Phase one: Grade six Social Studies textbooks were evaluated using the Singer Reading Inventory, which evaluates the areas of organization, explication, conceptual density, metadiscourse, and instructional devices within a given textbook. Phase two: Visitations to five middle school Social Studies classrooms were conducted over an eight week period in an effort to determine the types of instructional strategies employed by teachers. Phase three: Academic achievement was measured by publisher provided examinations, teacher prepared examinations, or an aggregate of daily scores. Hypothesis one: Social Studies textbooks which are more considerate will result in greater student achievement. This hypothesis was rejected. The achievement of students was inversely related to the results of the evaluation of the textbooks as determined by the Singer Reading Inventory. The rejection of this hypothesis must be qualified in terms of the content the subareas of the Singer Reading Inventory measured, and the type of information the student had to acquire in order to perform well academically. Hypothesis two: Teachers who employ more strategies which are of a functional process approach will enhance student achievement in the content areas. This hypothesis was retained. The preceeding findings may be partially explained by considering the possibility that some classroom instructors compensate for the inadequacies of textbooks by providing more effective strategies and activities which enhance the interaction of information exchange within the classroom. / Graduation date: 1990

This research extended and refined an in-service assessment model used in Project Genethics resulting in an evaluation of Project Genethics and a test of the model's utility. The model guided analyses of the correlational relationships between (a) teacher competency measured by a written 50-item validated posttest (Teacher 50), (b) the number of teaching strategies reported by the participant teachers (Strategy 20), and (c) student competency measured by a written 25-item validated posttest (Student 25) using a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient Lr). A multiple R statistic and stepwise linear regression with an F ratio were used to determine the association of Teacher 50 and Strategy 20 with the criterion, Student 25.The model is hierarchical. Subsets of test items and teaching strategies related to core genetics concepts (Mendelian genetics, mitosis and meiosis, pedigrees and probability, polygenic inheritance, and chromosome aberrations) were analyzed in teacher posttests, student posttests, and reported teaching strategies. Stepwise linear regression was used to determine the relative impact of the predictors on the criterion, Student 25.The research population consisted of 78 secondary biology teachers and 4,920 of their students. The teachers attend one of six Project Genethics workshops conducted in the summer of 1991, . funded by the National Science Foundation, and implemented by staff of the Human Genetics and Bioethics Education Laboratory (HGABEL).The researcher employed an ex g facto design. A summative data form was designed and used with project data for testing eight null hypotheses. A significant positive linear correlation was found between teacher competency and student competency and the number of strategies used in both full and subset analyses. No significant correlation was found between the number of strategies used and student performance in both full and subset analyses. The number of strategies used did not add significantly to the predictability of student competency after teacher competency was considered.The conceptual understanding of secondary students should be the ultimate criterion by which the effectiveness of in-service programs is measured provided the assessment items are congruent with the student conceptual level of understanding. Teacher knowledge was the most highly associated predictor of student concept attainment. / Department of Biology

This research study involves two Grade 9 Natural Sciences teachers from two schools in the Lady Frere District of the Eastern Cape. The reason for selecting these two teachers is that in 2009 they, like me, obtained an Advanced Certificate in Education (Science and Maths) from Rhodes University. As a result, we have a good working relationship. Furthermore, both teachers are actively involved in the Natural Sciences curriculum in the District and their schools are not far from the District Office where I work. The principal objective of this study was to investigate how Natural Sciences teachers mediated learning in order to enhance conceptual development and understanding of chemical reactions in Grade 9. It was triggered by the transformation in curriculum in South Africa as well as by my experience of working with Natural Sciences teachers in our rural district. The study is informed by an interpretive paradigm using a qualitative case study approach. The data was gathered by administering analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, observations, field notes and journals. During the data analysis process, patterns and themes were illuminated using the inductive analysis method. Rich data sets in relation to the main research question on how Natural Sciences teachers mediated learning in order to enhance conceptual development and understanding of chemical reactions in Grade 9 emerged from the analysed data. The conclusions that can be drawn from the study indicate that when teaching chemical reactions, teachers should have adequate content knowledge as well as pedagogical content knowledge. It is thus recommended that teachers consider the prior knowledge of learners, use a variety of teaching and learning approaches including practical activities, to make learning meaningful. The major limitation of this study is that the two selected teachers do not represent the whole population of Grade 9 teachers in the Lady Frere District. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to represent the larger population. It is recognised, however, that within the qualitative inquiry, reliability and generalizability play a minor role.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Quality, Durban University of Technology, 2017. / The emergence of a highly competitive and integrated international economy, rapid technological innovation, and a growing knowledge base will continue to have a profound impact on the lives of communities. In recent years there has been an international movement towards educational reform, particularly in science education, to meet the need for a sustainable environment, economy, and society. Science education is a key element in developing scientific literacy among today’s and tomorrow’s youth. Recent decades have seen an exponential growth in scientific applications, and one would expect an accompanied increase in science interests in the classroom, as well as an increased understanding of basic science ideas and ways of thinking will follow. However, research has shown that this is not the case. In this study, the researcher, through the research methodology, took an in-depth look at whether the curriculum reform in the Life Science curriculum was forthcoming to lifelong learning. The key questions guiding this study are as follows: (a) What are the perceptions and expectations of grade 12 learners regarding the quality of the Life Sciences curriculum in respect of lifelong learning; (b) What are the perceptions and expectations of grade 12 learners regarding the their Life Sciences educators; (c) What are the perceptions of the grade 12 Life Sciences educators of the relevance of the grade 12 Life Sciences curriculum with a view to lifelong learning; (d) How does the grade 12 Life Sciences curriculum impact on lifelong learning of learners. This study falls within the realm of mixed methods study. Mixed methods encompass both a quantitative and a qualitative study. The study was conducted in the district of Pinetown because in 2013 this district produced the best results in Kwa-Zulu Natal in the National Senior Certificate Life Sciences examination. This study used simple random sampling to obtain the learner participants. The researcher conducted the study in 16 schools and 25 learners from each school were randomly selected. The educator sample comprised 75 grade 12 Life Sciences educators. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was administered to the 400 learners that were randomly selected while; the educator questionnaire was administered to the sample of 75 educators. The findings of the research revealed that educators experienced many challenges which hindered the successful implementation of the Life Sciences curriculum effectively. The quality of the Life Sciences curriculum itself did not that hinge on lifelong learning. It did not have very much relevance to the lives of the learners and as such the learners were learning about things that were abstract to them. Another finding was that educators found it challenging to relate the grade 12 Life Sciences curriculum to the everyday experiences of the learners because time was a limiting factor. The exam driven nature of Life Sciences had resulted in rote memorisation of scientific facts by the students without any or very little attention being paid to analysis and application of knowledge. The inability to evaluate the process of curriculum implementation by curriculum developers could have serious consequences for the learners and communities at large. For any qualitative change to occur in Life Sciences education, the curriculum must undergo a paradigm shift. To encourage schools and teachers to implement this paradigm shift, fundamentally there needs to be an overarching reform of teacher empowerment. In essence, what is needed from the national educational policy makers is a shift towards more evolutionary policy planning which aims to improve the fit between the intention of the curriculum and the conditions on the ground, to blend top-down policy initiative and bottom-up participation and to promote continuous interaction between all policy actors. / D

Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The numerous changes to the South African education system since January 1998 have had far reaching effects on schools and the training of educators (Government Gazette, 31 May 2002:13). Changes in subject content have occurred in various subjects, and the General Science (now Natural Science) syllabus is no exception. The General Science syllabus previously catered mainly for Chemistry, Physics and Biology, but the Curriculum 2005 (C2005) Natural Science syllabus includes subject matter on Physical Geography (Climatology, Astronomy, and Geomorphology) (Department of Education, 2002b:6). The problem with this is that educators that previously taught General Science are not necessarily qualified to present the Physical Geography component of the new syllabus. This study investigates the impact of the changes in the new curriculum. The review of existing literature on curriculum development in Natural Science education in South Africa emphasises key changes made in the development and implementation of C2005 and the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). It also explores the characteristic features of misconceptions, before considering specific misconceptions in Natural Sciences. The first part of the two-tiered empirical investigation is based on the results of questionnaires and interviews completed by different groups of Natural Sciences educators. The questionnaires, which drew in part on existing questionnaires used in similar studies, were based on information used for the literature review. The second part of the empirical investigation consisted of interviews conducted with Natural Sciences Departmental Heads at randomly selected schools. An attempt was made to determine how these senior educators experienced the implementation of C2005 and RNCS and what their attitude to the new curriculum were. The data obtained from the questionnaires and the subsequent interviews were categorised, interpreted and coded for statistical processing.