Published Article / An exploratory study was conducted to investigate firstly, the contextual problems first-year university students experienced at their respective schools and secondly, the subject related-problems that they could be bringing to science classes and which could later affect their understanding of science concepts. The study is grounded in constructivism. A questionnaire was administered to all the 2007 First-year B.Ed (FET) Natural Science students at the Central University of Technology, Free State. The contextual problems identified by respondents included school, educator, examiner and student-related problems. Subject specific problem areas were identified in biology, chemistry and physics. The paper also reports on the preliminary results of some teaching interventions implemented in the three subjects. A Force Concept Inventory (FCI) test was administered to the physics students, and a concept test for chemistry group. Concept mapping as a teaching and learning strategy has been introduced in biology classes. Further research continues on the effectiveness of these interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cut/oai:ir.cut.ac.za:11462/392 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Matoti, S.N., Lekhu, M.A. |
| Contributors | Central University of Technology Free State Bloemfontein |
| Publisher | Interim : Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol 7, Issue 2: Central University of Technology Free State Bloemfontein |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Format | 151 721 bytes, 1 file, Application/PDF |
| Rights | Central University of Technology Free State Bloemfontein |
| Relation | Interim : Interdisciplinary Journal;Vol 7, Issue 2 |
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