Magister Educationis - MEd (Mathematics and Science Education)

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Browsing by Author "Hartley, M S"

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    Teaching electrical circuits in grade 10 physical science using a conceptual change approach
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Fuzani, Nomfundo Cynthea; Hartley, M S
    The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the teaching of electric circuits in Grade 10 Physical Sciences using a conceptual change approach would enhance learners' understanding of the concept. The conceptual change approach is a process whereby concepts and relationships between concepts change over the course of an individual's lifetime. The process whereby conceptual change occurs is of central interest in helping to understand the process of learning, and is also important when considering the design of instruction. The study was conducted at a secondary school in a small town in the Karoo. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample of a Physical Science Grade 10 class. A mixed method approach was used to observe the effectiveness of the conceptual change approach - four conditions must exist before a conceptual change is likely to occur: (1) assess learners' dissatisfaction with their existing concepts; (2) the new concept must become intelligible; (3) the new concept must appear plausible; and (4) the new concept must be fruitful. All learners' total scores for the pre-test and post-test were calculated and recorded and total scores were statistically analyzed. This study could provide means to improve science teaching and learning. The learners were assisted to discover what was not clear to them, they were encouraged towards deeper understanding and to use their own knowledge to make sense of new concepts. The conceptual change approach could be used effectively by the teachers as it will assist to remove misconceptions learners have prior to the learning of new science concepts.
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    The application of cooperative learning to enhance the teaching of Nature of Science for scientific literacy advancement in secondary school physical science students
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Spellman, Nomonde; Hartley, M S
    The purpose of this study was to explore, demonstrate and apply cooperative learning when explicitly exposing Nature of Science (NoS) to physical science secondary students aiming at advancing scientific literacy. Secondary school physical science teachers with less than five years' physical science teaching experience participated in the workshop which demonstrated the understanding of NoS and how it can be used to uncover the students' likely misconceptions through classroom interactions and Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK). It was found that the knowledge of both components of PCK depended on one another and was interlinked with the understanding of NoS. The findings showed that the majority of the teachers who attended the workshop did not explicitly teach NoS and had problems with how it can be taught. Teachers rely on the telling method and hope to achieve concept mastery and scientific literacy. Driel et al. (1998) argued that good understanding of content knowledge is a prerequisite to the development of PCK. Teachers do not possess adequate PCK as they gave incorrect scientific answers. Though students enjoyed working in cooperative groups to advance scientific literacy, their teachers were less likely to uncover pupils' likely misconceptions. This was shown by the way they explained variations to student's scientific perceptions. Acknowledging the limitations posed by the number of participant and continuity of the administered treatment, the collected data were used to deduce that: teaching NoS explicitly and skillful application of cooperative learning can lead to improved scientific literacy and the need for skills to design classroom instructions with intent to explicitly expose NoS to the senior secondary students.