A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Science. Johannesburg, March 2017. / Images in human evolution play a pivotal role in helping learners understand the nature and
characteristics of early humans which are central to understanding human ancestry and
identity. These images, like any sign systems, were created from a particular perspective
and are prone to have multiple interpretations depending on the ideological and cultural
disposition of both the creator and the reader. Therefore, there is a potential that
unintended meanings and associations with the representations could propagate
misconceptions about human evolution. This study aims to investigate how Grade 12 Life
Sciences textbooks portray human evolution through the use of a semiotic analysis based on
Barthes’ (1977) semiotic theory. Through conducting my analysis, I found out that multiple
modes of representation were used to portray human evolution. I also found that the
degree of accuracy varied with graphs being the most accurate in comparison to other
modes of representations. Furthermore, some images latently communicate race and
gender related biases as well as the idea that apes are ancestors of human beings.
The implications of this study are that there is need to make Life Sciences teachers more
aware of the multiple meanings associated with images of human evolution so that they can
articulate the multiple meanings of these images. Furthermore, there is a need for further
study regarding how teachers and learners interpret the meanings associated with human
evolution images with an aim of revising them if need be so as to enhance learning of the
relevant concepts about the broader concept of human evolution. / LG2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/23552 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nyagwaya, Martin |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (xi, 114 leaves), application/pdf |
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