The predominant theme utilized by the Texas Centennial is the historical background Texas, which encompasses a hundred years of independence and four centuries of progress. This study aims to select and classify those buildings in the Texas Centennial Exposition containing exhibits possessing educational significance for junior high school social studies students.

The present study is an attempt to obtain, from two groups of students, useful facts with which to evaluate the most effective method of presenting educational materials to junior-high-school students. The study is an attempt to measure and evaluate the achievement made in social studies, reading comprehension, and vocabulary in 1949 and 1950. The following questions form the basis for the present study: What method is best for the purpose of presenting materials to a class? Which method helps to solve the problem of the student most effectively? By which method is greater achievement made? If the two methods prove of equal value, then how much achievement may be attributed to the use of each method?

This investigation was designed to determine if teaching vocabulary through integrating English and Social Studies curricula would provide tenth grade students who are poor readers with strategies to improve their reading comprehension. The strategies used were designed to support struggling readers and English language development students to connect denotative and connotative meanings of words found in the novel Animal Farm to their social studies class' content.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Life Sciences programme, integrating Environmental Education, on environmental endocrine disruptors, for the Further Education and Training Phase of the Outcomes Based Educational System. This programme aims at giving learners the necessary knowledge and skills to limit their exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs). The programme was evaluated by means of a quantitative study. Group-administered questionnaires were used to gather information before and after the programme had commenced. Lickert scales were used to establish the learners' knowledge, attitudes and values in connection with EDCs and the environment before and after the learners had followed the programme on EDCs. The results of the study indicated that the programme proved to be successful in increasing the knowledge of the target group in connection with EDCs. This study will contribute to the process of integrating Environmental Education in the Life Sciences curriculum. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.(Environmental Education)

This research project explores the views of secondary school Development Studies teachers on the subject in Swaziland. Development Studies as a school subject, was designed to integrate environmental education into the secondary school curricula in Swaziland. The study followed a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual grounded theory design. Face-to-face individual interviews were carried out where the respondents expressed their thoughts, concerns and feelings about Development Studies as a school subject. Eight Development Studies teachers and one curriculum designer were interviewed. Only one question, followed by relevant probes was presented to the respondents. The question asked was: What do you think of Development Studies as a school subject? This study followed Tesch's approach to data analysis. The study revealed that Development Studies teachers in Swaziland were generally not trained in environmental education. Recommendations are made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.(Environmental Ed.)

Grade 12 learners in one Namibian secondary school participated in a study of science process skills implied in their International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) physical science syllabus. The study aimed at finding out learners’ ability to identify science process skills in their physical science syllabus, criteria used to identify skills and whether any relationship existed between learners’ achievement in performing skills and learners’ ability in identifying the skills. Four physical science syllabus topics were taught. Learners performed and identified science process skills in learning and assessment tasks. A One Group Pretest-Posttest research design was used in a combined qualitative and quantitative research method. Data revealed that learners identified science process skills. Science processes performed during learning experiences were used as criteria to confirm presence of the skills. Learners’ achievement increased in performing and identifying science process skills after intervention activities. There seemed no relationship between learners’ achievement in performing and learners’ ability in identifying science process skills. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

The exploratory study investigated school related factors responsible for high matriculaion failure rates in physical science in public high schools of Alexandra Township in South Africa. The target population included all Further Education and Training (FET) science educators and learners in Alexandra Township. An extreme-case sampling method was used to select a sample of two schools. Data was collected through two different closed questionnaires, one for educators (n=10) and the other for learners (n=250). The results were analyzed using mainly descriptive tatistics. The results, according to the views and opinions of educators and learners showed that the main causes of high failure rates are poor educator qualifications, outdated teaching methods, massive workloads, high levels of absenteeism and acute deficiencies in aspects related to: resources, subject content, classroom management skills, proficiency in language of instruction and assessment, motivation and perseverance. Recommendations for practice and policy are suggested. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Not only is Quantum Mechanics (QM) conceptually rich, it is also a theory that physics students have found abstract and technically formidable. Nevertheless, compared to other classical topics of physics, university students’ understanding of QM has received minimal attention in the physics education literature. The principal purpose of this study was to characterize the variation in the ways that undergraduate physics students depict the basic concepts of QM and to extrapolate the results to scaffold possible changes to instructional practices at the university that provided the context for the study. In so doing, an adaptation of a developmental phenomenographic perspective was chosen. Empirically, the study was approached through in-depth interviews with 35 physics students from two Ethiopian governmental universities after they had been exposed to the traditional QM course for one-third of a semester. Interview responses were analyzed using phenomenographic approach where a picture of students’ depictions was established for each quantum concept by expounding the given responses. For each basic quantum concept addressed, the structure of the description categories was separately constructed, and overall, it was found that naive, quasi-classical ontology and/or variants of classical ways of visualization are dominant in students’ responses. For example, it was found that students’ depictions of the photon concept could be described with three distinct categories of description, which are (a) classical intuitive description, (b) mixed model description and (c) quasi-quantum model description. Similarly, the findings revealed that it is possible to establish three qualitatively different categories of description to picture students’ depictions of matter waves, namely, (a) classical and trajectory-based description, (b) an intricate blend of classical and quantum description and (c) incipient quantum model description. Likewise, it was found that students’ depictions of uncertainty principle can be described as: (a) uncertainty as classical ignorance, (b) uncertainty as measurement disturbance and (c) uncertainty as a quasi-quantum principle. With regard to learning QM, the categories of description made clear several issues: most students did not have enough knowledge to depict the basic concepts of QM properly; they were influenced by the perspective of classical physics and their perceptions in making explanations about QM; and they also applied mixed ideas, one based on their classical model and the other from newly introduced QM. These results are also supported by the findings of previous studies in similar domains. Findings from the study were used to guide the design of multiple representations-based instructions and interactive learning tutorials on the conceptual aspects of QM that has been shown to address specific difficulties identified in the study. Theoretical and practical implications of the study, as well as potential future considerations are drawn. / Mathematics, Science and Technology Education / D. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)

This study investigated the effects of incorporating English language teaching in Physical Sciences education. The sample was selected from Physical Sciences Grade 10 learners in a school in Mpumalanga Province and comprised an experimental group who were taught through a workbook that incorporated language teaching in science lessons and a control group who were taught via the normal textbook prescribed by the Department of Basic Education. Pre- and post-tests were administered to both groups and a sample of learners participated in a focus group interview. Two educators were also individually interviewed. The results revealed that incorporating language teaching in science lessons not only improves learners’ academic performance but also their comprehension skills, and encouraged the application of learner-centred methods of teaching. The study recommends that Physical Sciences textbooks include English language activities with the view of incorporating language teaching in Physical Sciences content lessons. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Practical work forms an integral part of physical science. Most schools in Venda have no laboratories for practical work. Teachers use the telling method. Students learn by rote. They learn without understanding science concepts. They cannot apply their knowledge to real life situations. This research investigates the use of equipment from inexpensive material in teaching physical science. Teachers trained to improvise equipment use them in classroom teaching. These help teachers to understand many science concepts and use the process approach in their teaching. The research found that when science is taught through experiments with improvised apparatus, student learning occurs at various domains of science education. The bad effects of lack of facilities for practical work are mostly eliminated. Meaningful learning leads to the understanding of science concepts. Students construct their own knowledge, apply it to any situation and enjoy learning the subject. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)