The shortage of scientists in South Africa today can be attributed to poor teacher development especially in Natural Sciences. Educator interpretation and integration of assessment standards when conducting scientific investigations in Natural Sciences in the Intermediate Phase, is what this study sought to explore. The National Curriculum Statement (NCS) policy outlines the seven roles to be fulfilled by educators in the Norms and Standards for educators. However, this investigation focused mainly on the two roles for educators: · Interpreters and designers of learning programmes and materials (LO 1: Scientific Investigations) · Scholars, researchers and lifelong learners (DoE, 2002:3) The five schools sampled are from Mankweng area, situated in the Capricorn district in Limpopo province of South Africa. The data was qualitatively collected using the interviews, observations and document analysis as strategies. Before the investigation starts, all participants were told that the investigation was on how they (educators) design (plan), present and assess learners when conducting Learning Outcome 1: Scientific Investigations and how they integrate the assessment standards. The observation and interview schedules were clarified during the meeting. The study revealed that most educators do not know different types of scientific investigations, their lessons designed showed little understanding of LO 1: Scientific Investigations and the integration of assessment standards which are: 1. Planning investigation 2. Conducting scientific investigation and collecting data. 3. Evaluating data and communicate findings. Data analysed revealed that most educators have little understanding and follow a direct teaching style, and thus Construct Scientific Knowledge (LO 2). Only one educator of the 13 observed and interviewed was able to integrate assessment standards 1 and 2. There is a relationship between the level of qualification and better understanding of NCS implementation because the educator above is a scholar, researcher and lifelong learner. I recommend that educators teaching Natural Sciences be work shopped by knowledgeable curriculum advisors (teacher development) on how to teach Scientific Investigations LO 1. And in addition, support should be given to educators on implementing new curricula such as NCS and CAPS ensuring that teacher development is priority. Finally, to ensure that LO 1 can be effectively taught in schools, science kits should be made available to all schools whereas the importance of laboratories cannot be overemphasised. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lk2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / unrestricted

xvii, 289 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This thesis provides a design and development of a software architecture and programming framework that enables domain-oriented scientific investigations to be more easily developed and productively applied. The key research concept is the representation and automation of scientific studies by capturing common methods for experimentation, analysis and evaluation used in simulation science. Such methods include parameter studies, optimization, uncertainty analysis, and sensitivity analysis. While the framework provides a generic way to conduct investigation on an arbitrary simulation, its intended use is to be extended to develop a domain computational environment. The framework hides the access to distributed system resources and the multithreaded execution. A prototype of such a framework called ODESSI (Open Domain-oriented Environment for Simulation-based Scientific Investigation, pronounced odyssey) is developed and evaluated on realistic problems in human neuroscience and computational chemistry domains. ODESSI was inspired by our domain problems encountered in the computational modeling of human head electromagnetic for conductivity analysis and source localization. In this thesis we provide tools and methods to solve state of the art problems in head modeling. In particular, we developed an efficient and robust HPC solver for the forward problem and a generic robust HPC solver for bEIT (bounded Electrical Impedance Tomography) inverse problem to estimate the head tissue conductivities. Also we formulated a method to include skull inhomogeneity and other skull variation in the head model based on information obtained from experimental studies. ODESSI as a framework is used to demonstrate the research ideas in this neuroscience domain and the domain investigations results are discussed in this thesis. ODESSI supports both the processing of investigation activities as well as manage its evolving record of information, results, and provenance. / Committee in charge: Allen Malony, Chairperson, Computer & Information Science; John Conery, Member, Computer & Information Science; Dejing Dou, Member, Computer & Information Science; Don Tucker, Outside Member, Psychology

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The study describes the teaching of scientific investigations by Life and Natural Sciences educators in the Bushbuckridge Region in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. A quantitative survey method was exploited using a Cluster sampling method. The study was conducted a year after the introduction of the National Curriculum Statement in Grade 10, in South African schools. The study found that most educators use teacher-centred teaching methodologies rather than open inquiry in teaching scientific investigations. Schools still have a shortage of infrastructure, teaching resources and references, which make it difficult for the educators to shift towards the expected new system of teaching. Teachers are confronted with language barriers, heavy workload and insufficient retraining in the new curriculum. / Science and Technology Education / M.Ed.

The study describes the teaching of scientific investigations by Life and Natural Sciences educators in the Bushbuckridge Region in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. A quantitative survey method was exploited using a Cluster sampling method. The study was conducted a year after the introduction of the National Curriculum Statement in Grade 10, in South African schools. The study found that most educators use teacher-centred teaching methodologies rather than open inquiry in teaching scientific investigations. Schools still have a shortage of infrastructure, teaching resources and references, which make it difficult for the educators to shift towards the expected new system of teaching. Teachers are confronted with language barriers, heavy workload and insufficient retraining in the new curriculum. / Science and Technology Education / M.Ed.