The purpose of this study was to explore the Zimbabwean physics teachers’ interpretation of the Advanced Level Physics curriculum. The study was motivated by the teachers’ lacklustre approach to adopting new practices and the poor alignment of their understanding with the practice envisaged by developers (Fullan, 2007:39; Ndawi&Maravanyika, 2011:68). Zimbabwean Advanced Level physics teachers are in this predicament, as evidenced by the low numbers of undergraduate students and the misconceptions displayed by physics learners enrolling for first year university work in physics-related disciplines (Kazembe and Musarandega, 2012:4). Having an idea of physics teachers’ perceptions, experiences and current practices with regard to the revised Advanced Level physics curriculum maybe fertile ground for intervention measures and policy decisions. To obtain a more holistic picture of the physics teachers’ practices, a mixed methods research approach using the convergent parallel research design was adopted for the study. A closed survey questionnaire was used to solicit for information from 56 physics teachers in four educational provinces. Random sampling was used to select the survey respondents. From these participants, 10 were purposively selected for face-to-face in-depth structured interviews basing on their availability and accessibility. Ten schemes of work,one from each interviewed teacher, for one school term and six past examination practical paper 4 question papers were collected and analysed using a document analysis guide. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square, whereas qualitative data was collated into themes for discussion purposes. The findings of the study reveal that the physics teachers have embraced the ideals of the physics curriculum and adapted it to their operating context through the reiterative interpretation process to construct personal meaning. The teachers are mainly utilising teacher-centred approaches to impart knowledge to the learners which is not consistent with the physics curriculum anticipations of using learner-centred approaches. The physics teachers are superficially interpreting the physics curriculum.The physics teachers need to embrace the learner centred teaching approach andbe empowered to enhance their curriculum interpretation and teaching practices through staff development. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

The study explored instructors' conceptions of teaching and their teaching practices in four Ethiopian universities in the light of the existing calls for the employment of student-centred approach to teaching in higher education in Ethiopia. The study was grounded on the assumption that instructors are unlikely to adopt student-centred approach to teaching unless their conceptions of teaching are developed and/or unless the teaching environment is supportive. To address the objective of the study, data were collected using a mixed methods research design using a sequential exploratory strategy. Based on this strategy, data were obtained first qualitatively from 20 instructors through interviews and classroom observations and then quantitatively from 160 instructors and 170 students through questionnaires. The data from the interviews and the classroom observations were analysed qualitatively using a phenomenographic approach and content analysis respectively whereas the data from the questionnaires were analysed statistically using SPSS. From this, frequencies, mean scores and percentages were computed in order to summarise and interpret responses. In addition, independent samples test and one-way ANOVA were applied to examine the differences in conceptions of and approaches to teaching among instructors. Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between instructors‟ conceptions of teaching and their teaching practices. From the results, it was found that instructors‟ conceptions of teaching in the four universities incline towards the student-centred conception of teaching though there were also instructors whose conceptions of teaching were the traditional teacher-centred. Regarding teaching practices, although the instructors claimed that their teaching practices were student-centred, the results of the study appear to suggest that meaningful instructional practices were still under the influence of the traditional conception of teaching. In addition, numerous factors were found to be impeding the proper implementation of student-centred instruction including the background of the students, the instructors‟ obsession with lecturing and lack of enabling environment. Based on the findings, teaching improvement programs that develop instructors‟ conceptions of teaching were suggested. Furthermore, a supportive environment that enables instructors to translate their changed conceptions of teaching into their teaching practices was recommended. Finally, recommendations for further studies were provided. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

The study explored instructors' conceptions of teaching and their teaching practices in four Ethiopian universities in the light of the existing calls for the employment of student-centred approach to teaching in higher education in Ethiopia. The study was grounded on the assumption that instructors are unlikely to adopt student-centred approach to teaching unless their conceptions of teaching are developed and/or unless the teaching environment is supportive. To address the objective of the study, data were collected using a mixed methods research design using a sequential exploratory strategy. Based on this strategy, data were obtained first qualitatively from 20 instructors through interviews and classroom observations and then quantitatively from 160 instructors and 170 students through questionnaires. The data from the interviews and the classroom observations were analysed qualitatively using a phenomenographic approach and content analysis respectively whereas the data from the questionnaires were analysed statistically using SPSS. From this, frequencies, mean scores and percentages were computed in order to summarise and interpret responses. In addition, independent samples test and one-way ANOVA were applied to examine the differences in conceptions of and approaches to teaching among instructors. Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between instructors‟ conceptions of teaching and their teaching practices. From the results, it was found that instructors‟ conceptions of teaching in the four universities incline towards the student-centred conception of teaching though there were also instructors whose conceptions of teaching were the traditional teacher-centred. Regarding teaching practices, although the instructors claimed that their teaching practices were student-centred, the results of the study appear to suggest that meaningful instructional practices were still under the influence of the traditional conception of teaching. In addition, numerous factors were found to be impeding the proper implementation of student-centred instruction including the background of the students, the instructors‟ obsession with lecturing and lack of enabling environment. Based on the findings, teaching improvement programs that develop instructors‟ conceptions of teaching were suggested. Furthermore, a supportive environment that enables instructors to translate their changed conceptions of teaching into their teaching practices was recommended. Finally, recommendations for further studies were provided. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)