M.Ed. (Subject Didactics) / The awareness of the necessity to protect our natural environment is increasing, which is indeed promising. Despite this encouraging fact, it is tragically evident that mere awareness is not sufficient, as our world is going from bad to worse. It is therefore imperative to try and save our world: environmental education is one of the most efficient ways being used to save our earth. 'Die Witskrif vir Omgewingsopvoeding in Suid-Afrika' was published in 1989 by the South African government stating their acceptance of Environmental Education as essential for South Africa. Thus, Environmental Education needs to be implemented successfully into the formal, educational system of government schools in South Africa. Before the succesful implementation of Environmental Education, the teacher has to be thoroughly trained and prepared for this challenging task. This research takes a look at the level of knowledge and attitudes towards the natural, biophysical environment. This study is directed at three acute environmental problems namely: population explosion, the greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer. The sample tested comprised of fifty-eight students from three Afrikaans universities in Transvaal, preparing themselves to teach Biology in the near future.

M. Ed. (Science Education) / South African Life Sciences teachers have been subjected to three policy changes during the past six years. The first new curriculum was implemented in 2006, and when it was found that this curriculum lacked sufficient botany content, a new version of the curriculum was implemented in 2009. Following this, a new curriculum was being implemented in 2012 in all subjects, leaving Life Sciences teachers fatigued as a result of all the professional development workshops they had to attend each year. One principle of the new curriculum was that teachers had to use a constructivist approach to teaching, but research had found that this was not the case in South African classrooms. Furthermore, research also showed that some South African teachers lacked the necessary content and pedagogical knowledge to teach science to grade 12 learners. The aim of this study was to see whether teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge could be improved by the use of communities of practice over a period of time. The content that was focused on was DNA, protein synthesis, meiosis and genetics, as these topics were flagged as problematic topics in the National Senior Certificate examinations in 2008. A generic qualitative design was used as this research was situated in an interpretive framework. The genre of the research was phenomenology with design based elements. Before the intervention started, teachers had to complete a questionnaire and this questionnaire had to be completed again after the intervention. Interviews and feedback tools were used to obtain teachers’ views on these communities of practice. The interviews also had a section that pertained to teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Structured classroom observations were used to see whether teachers were implementing a constructivist approach when teaching the content. It also served as a method to ascertain whether the activities done during the community of practice sessions were implemented into classroom practice. It was found that communities of practice are an effective way of developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, but that it should be continuous and would be more v effective over a longer period of time. Teachers also enjoyed these meetings, shared resources and motivated each other. Another finding of this research was that teachers did not implement a constructivist approach to their teaching as required by the new curriculum, even though they indicated that they preferred this approach to teaching. A recommendation of this research is that teachers’ professional development should take place in an informal community of practice where teachers could share ideas and resources. A keystone species is required for these communities of practice to stay sustainable. These communities of practice should be implemented on a continuous basis in order to have a positive effect on teachers’ practice.

Thesis (MPhil (Curriculum Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study investigates the degree to which Physical Science teachers (grades 10-12) are ready for the implementation of the new curriculum (NCS) and to what degree they, as well as the grade 9 Natural Science teachers, are capable of incorporating environmental issues in the curriculum. Data was collected by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

A presente investigação privilegiou o estudo sobre a formação do educador ambiental e, para isso, objetivou identificar e analisar as relações entre representações sociais sobre educação ambiental e as práticas pedagógicas desenvolvidas por docentes de cursos de licenciatura de duas universidades federais, localizadas na região sudoeste do Paraná. Primeiramente o trabalho foi referenciado com abordagem teórica em que autores elucidam sobre o percurso histórico da educação ambiental no Brasil, desde o seu surgimento até sua manifestação nas políticas públicas brasileiras; os fundamentos da educação ambiental na vertente conservadora e na vertente crítica, trazendo uma abordagem também sobre a questão da formação do educador ambiental nas licenciaturas. Na sequência foram tratados dos procedimentos metodológicos utilizados na investigação, e discutiu-se a pertinência da teoria das representações sociais nos estudos sobre práticas pedagógicas de educação ambiental. Os dados foram coletados mediante aplicação de questionários elaborados especificamente para o estudo, sendo um destinado aos professores, composto por questões de identificação, uma questão de evocação livre mediante termo indutor Educação Ambiental e questões dissertativas nas quais os sujeitos deveriam justificar as evocações induzidas pelo termo indutor e escrever suas concepções de educação ambiental; e outro destinado aos alunos dos respectivos professores e cursos investigados, composto também de três partes, sendo a primeira parte de identificação, a segunda parte composta por duas questões de evocação livre, cujos termos indutores eram Meio Ambiente e Educação Ambiental e questões dissertativas nas quais os sujeitos deveriam justificar as evocações induzidas pelos respectivos termos indutores. Foram analisados também os Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos dos cursos de licenciatura pesquisados. Para a análise e discussão das questões de evocação livre utilizou-se a teoria do núcleo central e para as questões dissertativas as técnicas de análise de conteúdo e análise documental. Os resultados indicaram que os docentes pesquisados representam socialmente a educação ambiental como um conjunto de práticas pedagógicas cuja finalidade é o desenvolvimento de atitudes, valores e condutas em favor da preservação ambiental, tendo em vista a sustentabilidade, de modo que essas representações sociais estão diretamente relacionadas com suas práticas pedagógicas de educação ambiental, informadas por eles mesmos, ou informadas através dos relatos dos estudantes. Evidenciaram-se relações entre as representações sociais sobre educação ambiental identificadas e as práticas pedagógicas dos docentes pesquisados. / This research study focused on the preparation of environmental educators and, therefore, aimed to identify and analyze the relationships between social representations of environmental education and teaching practices developed by teachers of undergraduate courses in two federal universities, located in the southwest region of the Paraná. First the work was referenced with theoretical approach in which authors elucidate about the historical background of environmental education in Brazil, from its inception until its manifestation in Brazilian public policies; the fundamentals of environmental education in the conservative strand and critical stance, bringing an approach also about the issue of training of environmental educators in degrees. Following were treated the methodological procedures used in research, and discussed the relevance of the theory of social representations in studies on pedagogical practices of environmental education. Data were collected by means of questionnaires developed specifically for the study, one for teachers, consisting of identification issues, a matter of free recall by inducing termEnvironmental Education and essay questions in which subjects should justify induced evocations by the term inductor and write their conceptions of environmental education; and another for students of their teachers and courses surveyed, also composed of three parts, the first part of the identification, the second part consists of two issues free recall, whose terms were inducers Environment and Environmental Education and essay questions in which the subjects should justify induced by the respective inductors terms evocations. Also Political Pedagogical Project of undergraduate courses surveyed were analyzed. For analysis and discussion of the issues of free recall used the central core theory and essay questions for the techniques of content analysis and document analysis. The results indicated that teachers surveyed represent socially environmental education as a set of pedagogical practices whose purpose is the development of attitudes, values and behaviors in favor of environmental protection, with a view to sustainability, so that these social representations are directly related with their teaching environmental education, informed by themselves, or informed via reports of students. Showed up relations between the social representations of identified environmental education and the pedagogical practices of teachers surveyed.

A presente investigação privilegiou o estudo sobre a formação do educador ambiental e, para isso, objetivou identificar e analisar as relações entre representações sociais sobre educação ambiental e as práticas pedagógicas desenvolvidas por docentes de cursos de licenciatura de duas universidades federais, localizadas na região sudoeste do Paraná. Primeiramente o trabalho foi referenciado com abordagem teórica em que autores elucidam sobre o percurso histórico da educação ambiental no Brasil, desde o seu surgimento até sua manifestação nas políticas públicas brasileiras; os fundamentos da educação ambiental na vertente conservadora e na vertente crítica, trazendo uma abordagem também sobre a questão da formação do educador ambiental nas licenciaturas. Na sequência foram tratados dos procedimentos metodológicos utilizados na investigação, e discutiu-se a pertinência da teoria das representações sociais nos estudos sobre práticas pedagógicas de educação ambiental. Os dados foram coletados mediante aplicação de questionários elaborados especificamente para o estudo, sendo um destinado aos professores, composto por questões de identificação, uma questão de evocação livre mediante termo indutor Educação Ambiental e questões dissertativas nas quais os sujeitos deveriam justificar as evocações induzidas pelo termo indutor e escrever suas concepções de educação ambiental; e outro destinado aos alunos dos respectivos professores e cursos investigados, composto também de três partes, sendo a primeira parte de identificação, a segunda parte composta por duas questões de evocação livre, cujos termos indutores eram Meio Ambiente e Educação Ambiental e questões dissertativas nas quais os sujeitos deveriam justificar as evocações induzidas pelos respectivos termos indutores. Foram analisados também os Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos dos cursos de licenciatura pesquisados. Para a análise e discussão das questões de evocação livre utilizou-se a teoria do núcleo central e para as questões dissertativas as técnicas de análise de conteúdo e análise documental. Os resultados indicaram que os docentes pesquisados representam socialmente a educação ambiental como um conjunto de práticas pedagógicas cuja finalidade é o desenvolvimento de atitudes, valores e condutas em favor da preservação ambiental, tendo em vista a sustentabilidade, de modo que essas representações sociais estão diretamente relacionadas com suas práticas pedagógicas de educação ambiental, informadas por eles mesmos, ou informadas através dos relatos dos estudantes. Evidenciaram-se relações entre as representações sociais sobre educação ambiental identificadas e as práticas pedagógicas dos docentes pesquisados. / This research study focused on the preparation of environmental educators and, therefore, aimed to identify and analyze the relationships between social representations of environmental education and teaching practices developed by teachers of undergraduate courses in two federal universities, located in the southwest region of the Paraná. First the work was referenced with theoretical approach in which authors elucidate about the historical background of environmental education in Brazil, from its inception until its manifestation in Brazilian public policies; the fundamentals of environmental education in the conservative strand and critical stance, bringing an approach also about the issue of training of environmental educators in degrees. Following were treated the methodological procedures used in research, and discussed the relevance of the theory of social representations in studies on pedagogical practices of environmental education. Data were collected by means of questionnaires developed specifically for the study, one for teachers, consisting of identification issues, a matter of free recall by inducing termEnvironmental Education and essay questions in which subjects should justify induced evocations by the term inductor and write their conceptions of environmental education; and another for students of their teachers and courses surveyed, also composed of three parts, the first part of the identification, the second part consists of two issues free recall, whose terms were inducers Environment and Environmental Education and essay questions in which the subjects should justify induced by the respective inductors terms evocations. Also Political Pedagogical Project of undergraduate courses surveyed were analyzed. For analysis and discussion of the issues of free recall used the central core theory and essay questions for the techniques of content analysis and document analysis. The results indicated that teachers surveyed represent socially environmental education as a set of pedagogical practices whose purpose is the development of attitudes, values and behaviors in favor of environmental protection, with a view to sustainability, so that these social representations are directly related with their teaching environmental education, informed by themselves, or informed via reports of students. Showed up relations between the social representations of identified environmental education and the pedagogical practices of teachers surveyed.

M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The investigation aimed at identifying the factors that accounted for the teacher trainees’ low understanding of basic scientific concepts and the appropriate strategies needed to rectify these obstacles. In this investigation thirty open ended questions were administered to test three hundred teacher trainees’ understanding of science concepts. Also, observations were conducted during science lessons to monitor the participation of trainees. The teacher trainees’ poor background in science was identified. Inflexible teaching methods such as lecturing and provision of pointers to correct answers by teachers contributed. Teacher trainees lacked the necessary conceptual, logical and linguistic background, and the vocabulary to express themselves in English. Most science lessons did not consider media integration, but were conducted through verbal communication. Teacher trainees employed ineffective study techniques in learning science. Recommendations included reading assignments, laboratory work, media integration and the employment of effective study techniques in the teaching and learning of science. / Teacher Education / Thesis (M. Ed. (Didactics))

Thesis (MEd (Curriculum Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This investigation reports on the extent to which teachers became curriculum developers while participating in a collaborative research project with a university based researcher as facilitator. The aim of this study was to examine teacher’s interaction with learning support materials, fostered by a process of professional development, to gain insight into their potential to engage in the activity of curriculum development. To support this whole process, the research strategy of Action Research was employed. Teachers were introduced to the learning support materials during initial workshops, and links were established with the RNCS and the three learning outcomes for the learning area of Natural Science. They were then requested to draft a lesson plan, and following the implementation of the materials, observation of the teachers engaging with the materials, and a process of reflection, they were once again requested to re-draft the initial lesson plan. Three frameworks for analysis, situated within the interpretive paradigm, were employed to ascertain to which extent both professional and curriculum development was evident at the conclusion of the program. The analytical framework used to ascertain the measure of professional development was the model proposed by Bell and Gilbert (1994), consisting of three aspects namely, personal, professional and social development. The two frameworks employed for the analysis of possible curriculum development were firstly, a model adapted from the research by Boomer (1992) consisting of five stages for mapping the curriculum, and secondly the model proposed by Remillard (1999) that includes three arenas of curriculum development, namely curriculum design, construction and mapping. The conclusions of this investigation were that teachers partially engaged with the activity of curriculum development, and that a certain measure of professional development was achieved by the participating teachers. Recommendations for further research was that a more sustainable effort over a longer period of time constituting the aspects of action research, and even added different learning support materials should be engaged in. Also that could be conducted on a larger scale involving more schools, and also closer links to be established with the educational structures and authorities.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa is in the midst of a mathematics and science education crisis that challenges all key role-players. The Institute for Mathematics and Science Teaching at the University of Stellenbosch (IMSTUS), was involved in several university-school partnership (systemic intervention) projects that sought to provide continuing professional development to mathematics and science teachers and to help them make a greater impact on the learners that they teach. One of these intervention projects was the Sciences and Mathematics Initiative for Learners and EducatorS (SMILES) that targeted mathematics and science teachers and learners in under-resourced schools in the Western Cape. The effects of an intervention aimed at supporting and enhancing teacher professional development will only be seen in the learners once teachers have accepted and mastered the pedagogies proposed. Professional development that does not “enthuse, support, train and renew, and encourage” will probably fail. When considering this, the question that must be asked is whether the SMILES project was in fact enthusing, supporting, training, renewing and encouraging. The purposes and aims of the SMILES project with specific reference to professional development of science teachers were to enhance teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and address the critical issues confronting science education of which three are: constructivist teaching, understanding the nature of science, and scientific argumentation. The characteristics of effective professional development, the core features of professional development and the theoretical constructs to evaluate professional development of teachers were used in this study to evaluate the effectiveness of the model used in the SMILES project. A concurrent version of the mixed method approach was adopted for the collection and analysis of the data. Although causality is always difficult to prove in a school setting because of the many variables that affect student performance, improved student achievement is the ultimate litmus test for teacher professional development effectiveness. Analysis of the National Senior Certificate results of the project schools compared with the National and Provincial results indicated that the project schools on the whole fared better than the National results. The project schools outperformed the national and provincial results for Life Sciences in 2011, 2012 and 2013 by at least four percentage points. The highest result achieved was 85,5% in 2011. In 2012 and 2013 these results were 82,7% and 83,0% respectively. In Physical Sciences the project schools started with results below that achieved nationally (34,7%) and then ended up with a pass percentage within half a percentage point of the provincial result (72,1%). The Mathematics results were not as positive. The project schools started by achieving a 63,4% pass rate and ended with a percentage pass rate of 63,3% having initially taking a dip down to 51,3%. At the end of the intervention the Mathematics results were better than the national results but were 10% lower than the Provincial average. Although it is difficult to pin down the results solely to the effects of the intervention, the comparison with provincial and national results reasonably controls for most of the extraneous variables including variations in enrolments in these subjects. On the affective side it is almost certain that the attitude of the learners and the teachers toward their respective subjects improved during the tenure of the project. This could have had a positive effect on the National Senior Certificate results achieved by the project schools. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika is midde in 'n wiskunde en wetenskap onderwyskrisis wat alle sleutelrolspelers uitdaag. Die Instituut vir Wiskunde en Wetenskaponderwys aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch (IWWOUS), was betrokke by verskeie universiteit-skool vennootskapsprojekte (sistemiese intervensie) wat gepoog het om voortgesette professionele ontwikkeling te bied aan wiskunde en wetenskap onderwysers en hulle te help om 'n groter impak op die leerders wat hulle onderrig, te maak. Een van hierdie intervensie-projekte was die Wetenskappe en Wiskunde-inisiatief vir leerders en opvoeders (SMILES) wat wiskunde en wetenskap onderwysers en leerders, in hulpbronarm skole in die Wes-Kaap, geteiken het. Die impak van 'n intervensie wat daarop gemik is om onderwyser professionele ontwikkeling te ondersteun en bevorder, sal eers in die leerders waargeneem kan word, wanneer onderwysers die voorgestelde pedagogieë aanvaar en bemeester. Professionele ontwikkeling wat nie "begeester, ondersteun, oplei en vernuwe asook aanmoedig” nie, sal waarskynlik misluk. Hierdie stelling in ag genome, is die vraag wat gevra moet word, of die SMILES-projek werklik onderwysers begeester, ondersteun, opgelei, vernuwe en aangemoedig het. Die doelstellings en doelwitte van die SMILES projek, met spesifieke verwysing na die professionele ontwikkeling van Wetenskap-onderwysers, was om onderwysers se pedagogiese inhoudelike kennis te versterk en om kritieke kwessies waarmee wetenskap-onderwys gekonfronteer word, aan te spreek. Drie van hierdie kwessies is, konstruktivistiese onderrig, begrip van die aard van wetenskap en wetenskaplike argumentering. Die eienskappe van effektiewe professionele ontwikkeling, die kern kenmerke van die professionele ontwikkeling en die teoretiese konstrukte om professionele ontwikkeling van onderwysers te evalueer, is in hierdie studie gebruik om die doeltreffendheid van die model wat in die SMILES-projek gevolg is, te evalueer. 'n Gelyklopend gemengde-metode benadering is gevolg vir die insameling en ontleding van die data. Hoewel oorsaaklikheid altyd moeilik is om in 'n skoolopset te bewys, as gevolg van die baie veranderlikes wat studente se prestasie beïnvloed, is verbeterde studente prestasie die uiteindelike lakmoestoets vir doeltreffendheid van professionele onderwyser-ontwikkeling. Ontleding van die Nasionale Senior Sertifikaat-uitslae van die projek-skole, in vergelyking met die nasionale en provinsiale resultate, dui daarop dat die projek-skole oor die algemeen beter gevaar het as die nasionale uitslae. Die projek-skole het die nasionale en provinsiale skole se resultate vir Lewenswetenskappe in 2011, 2012 en 2013 met ten minste vier persentasie punte oortref. Die hoogste resultaat behaal was 85,5% in 2011. In 2012 en 2013 was hierdie uitslae onderskeidelik 82,7% en 83,0%. In Fisiese Wetenskappe het die projek-skole met resultate onder wat nasionaal behaal was (34,7%) begin, en geëindig met ʼn uiteindelike slaagpersentasie binne 'n halwe persentasiepunt van die provinsiale resultate (72,1%). Die wiskunde-uitslae was nie so positief nie. Die projek-skole het begin met 'n 63,4% slaagsyfer en geëindig met 'n slaagpersentasie van 63,3% na ʼn aanvanklike insinking na 51,3%. Aan die einde van die intervensie was hul Wiskunde-resultate beter as die nasionale resultate, maar 10% laer as die provinsiale gemiddelde. Alhoewel dit moeilik is om die resultate slegs vas te pen aan die gevolg van die intervensie, dien die vergelyking met provinsiale en nasionale resultate as redelike kontroles vir meeste van die eksterne veranderlikes insluitend variasies in inskrywings in hierdie vakke. Op die affektiewe vlak is dit byna seker dat die gesindheid van die leerders en die onderwysers ten opsigte van hul onderskeie vakke verbeter het tydens die projek. Dit kon moontlik 'n positiewe uitwerking op die projek-skole se Nasionale Senior Sertifikaat resultate gehad het.

This study reports and discusses the impact of technical barriers on the effectiveness of professional development as related to a distance education system based course: a case study of the web world wonders environmental science learning community in Florida. The project involved 4th through 12th grade public school teachers learning how to use GPS readers, digital cameras, and Arc View software for the purpose of utilizing a Website that enabled remote Internet camera access in Florida State Parks. Under the supervision of Florida State University and the Florida Department of Education those teachers received professional development in techniques for developing lesson plans utilizing the equipment and software as stated above. Using the Concept Based Adoption Model, a description of the teacher's demographics, Levels of Use and Stages of Concern with relation to gender, age, teaching experience, and technological experience was examined. Technical barriers were identified and an explanation of how they were overcome in the process of receiving the professional development is reported.