Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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.

A Research Project submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MSc (Sci. Ed). March 2016 / This research project was a case study that investigated how two experienced science teachers, who were undertaking self-studies to improve the use of practical work in their classrooms as part of their BSc Hons research projects, actually developed their strategies for effective use of practical work. This study explored the effectiveness of practical work by analysing 6 ‘typical’ science lessons i.e. introduction, practical session and consolidation lessons in two schools around Gauteng in South African. The research design took a form of classroom observations through audio and video recordings and also interview and questionnaires schedules with the two participant teachers. Abraham and Millar (2008) argued that many science teachers do not implement practical work effectively when teaching in their classrooms and most learners fail to relate what they do in practical work to other aspects of their learning. This research project hoped to find an answer to main research question: How effective are the two participating teachers’ strategies of using practical work to promote conceptual and procedural understanding? The data analysis used a model of effectiveness on the work done by Millar, Marechal and Tiberghien (1999) and Tiberghien (2000). The two teachers focus in these observed lessons was to promote and develop conceptual and procedural understanding. This study found that practical work in some cases was effective in getting the learners to do what was intended for them to do with objects and materials e.g. apparatus, but the was less evidence of the effectiveness of practical work in getting the learners to use the intended scientific ideas from the data they collected and also little evidence of them showing the understanding of what they were intended to understand e.g. cognitive challenge of linking the observables to ideas. The study revealed that learners get more procedural understanding and less conceptual understanding in a given practical activity. The study also revealed that teachers faced a lot of challenges when implementing the use of practical work in their classroom e.g. time constraints, minimum availability of resource, less CAPS training etc. and these challenges often hinders the use of practical work as part of the learning and teaching of science. This study further recommended that the department of education do more to support the teachers in their implementations of certain teaching strategies e.g. practical work and that the use of practical work be considered at the fore-front of learning and teaching of science. / TG2016

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))

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))

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The problem of this study was to determine the emphasis placed on various science teaching practices by a random sample of high school biology, chemistry, and physics teachers in selected Texas high schools. The subproblem was to compare the emphasis placed on the practices as reported by the high school teachers with the emphasis as recommended by national science education specialists, teachers of biology, chemistry, and physics in selected Texas colleges and universities, and teachers of professional education courses in selected Texas colleges and universities.

Many school districts do not require science in the elementary school curriculum or place significantly more emphasis on the performance of students on the ELA and Math tests. With science education shifting to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there is a critical need for high quality science instruction in elementary schools. This study examines the experiences of 28 elementary teachers engaged in a science education professional development program that was comprised of 60 kindergarten through twelve grade teachers. I examine the experiences of the 28 elementary teachers as they work in vertically aligned professional learning communities with middle and high school teachers. Findings in this study indicate that the model provides a supportive environment for elementary teachers to grow and develop both personally and professionally in their science teaching practice. Evidence is presented that shows how a learning community of elementary, middle and high school teachers can provide an opportunity for elementary teachers to socially construct knowledge of how to best support student success in science. Additionally, the findings show that elementary teachers are able to socially construct knowledge about effective teaching practices in science that support core science teaching practices. The findings also indicate that the nature of these learning communities also provided many structures that can support increased efficacy amongst elementary science teachers. Finally, the experiences of elementary teachers engaged in his study were overwhelmingly positive, leading to increased trust and respect amongst peers and improved confidence and motivation to teach science at the elementary level.

Novice science teachers struggle to incorporate reform-based perspectives of teaching and learning into their planning and instruction. Some argue that this is due to a mismatch between teachers’ beliefs and the goals of reform. However, it is widely recognized that the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and science teaching is tenuous at best. Previous attempts to understand the mismatch between preservice teachers’ espoused beliefs and their classroom practices draw upon models of teacher cognition that consider beliefs and knowledge as the main drivers of their actions. In this study I use a goal-driven model of science teacher cognition as my theoretical framework. This model posits that classroom practices are an attempt to achieve particular goals. Based on this model, I conducted a cross-case analysis using qualitative methods to examine the relationship between teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, and goals and the types of learning opportunities they design. Data were collected through participant interviews and document analysis. Findings are consistent with the theoretical premises of this model, suggesting that the goals teachers pursue are influenced by their beliefs about teaching and learning science, together with the contextual characteristics of their placement. Findings suggest that the design and enactment of high cognitive demand learning tasks is facilitated by several factors. First, preservice teachers need to operationalize their beliefs into learning goals for their students, including explicit epistemic goals that seek to engage students in the use of science practices to make sense of disciplinary ideas. Second, in order to achieve their goals, preservice science teachers need to learn how to design scaffolds that bridge students’ classroom practices with the practices of the discipline to make sense of scientific ideas. Finally, the goals of the teacher education program, the school, and the personal goals that preservice teachers aim to pursue may conflict; whether and how they solve these conflicts influence the cognitive demand of the tasks they design. This study suggests that helping student teachers develop and pursuing goals that characterize high cognitive demand tasks have the potential to improve their teaching practices.