Browsing by Author "Marshall, Delia"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Analysing the professional development of teaching and learning from a political ethics of care perspective
    (Routledge, 2014) Bozalek, Vivienne; McMillan, Wendy; Marshall, Delia; November, Melvyn; Daniels, Andre; Sylvester, Toni
    This paper uses Tronto’s political ethics of care as a normative framework to evaluate a model of teaching and learning professional development. This framework identifies five integrated moral elements of care – attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness and trust. This paper explicates on each of these elements to evaluate the piloting and implementation of a teaching and learning professional development model at a South African higher education institution. The political ethics of care was found to be a useful normative framework for a group of higher educators to reflect on the process of engaging in teaching and learning professional development in that it revealed the importance of differential power relations, the importance of working collaboratively and being attentive to the needs of both caregivers and care receivers.
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    Bringing together knowledge and capabilities: a case study of engineering graduates
    (Springer Verlag, 2016) Case, Jennifer M.; Marshall, Delia
    In contemporary times there is a renewed focus on the purposes of university education in science or engineering, especially inemerging economycontexts like South Africa where the massification of higher education is in its early stages. The contributions by Muller (High Educ 70(3):409–416, 2015) and Walker (High Educ 70(3):417–425,2015) both recognise the crucial importance of expanding epistemological access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but their visions offer different emphases on howto proceed.Muller (2015) argues for the centring of disciplinary knowledge, while forWalker (2015) it is the concerns of society that should be central. In this article we argue that both of these are partial answers.We draw on a longitudinal study with ten South African engineering graduates, who were interviewed both in their third year and then approximately a decade later. Our analysis shows how the engagement with disciplinary knowledge is at the heart of the shaping of ‘graduateness’. Thus we argue for a coming together of the two perspectives in this issue towards a nuanced perspective on graduateness that recognises the significance of disciplinary knowledge but that also holds a space for the development of student agency in higher education.
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    A case study of university students' experiences of introductory physics drawn from their approaches to problem solving
    (University of the Western Cape, 2001) Alant, Busisiwe Precious; Linder, Cendric; Marshall, Delia
    This thesis explores the experience of leaming physics through a particular medium: problem-solving, which is seen by many educators as the primary medium in which physics is learnt at university. Situating itself within two theoretical perspectives: phenomenography and actor-network theory, the dissertation explores the variation in the ways of experiencing introductory physics leaming through problem-solving. phenomenography, which is the main theoretical framework, places emphasis on the variation of experience of phenomenon at a supra-individual level. Leaming is regarded as relational, which means that the act of leaming is apprehended (in terms of how the learning is done as well as what is leant) in the relation between the leamer and the phenomenon. Rather than regard the content of physics learning as the phenomenon, the study proposes the process of learning physics through problem, solving as the phenomenon under investigation. The thesis draws on insights from actor-network theory, particularly with regard to the spatiality of leaming. Learning is seen as a function of enrolment. Fifteen students were interviewed on introductory physics problems encountered in four end-of-module tests. The data were analyzed on the basis of strategy - conceived as "moments,' of problem-solving, as well as the factors (intentional and contextual) that could be seen to influence the strategy adopted. Two qualitatively distinct problem-solving strategies were identified, derived from the relative presence of reflective awareness. Further, factors influencing the strategies were identified and found to be indicative of two qualitatively distinct ways in which the students focused on the problems - either on problem content (the physics concepts) or on problem requirement (the formal requirements of the task within the test setting). These findings are seen to constitute the structural aspect of the students' experience of physics learning through problem solving. With regard to the referential aspect of the experience, the study derives two overall meanings that the students attached to their experience of physics learning through problem-solving, namely physics leaming as "reconstituting understanding', and physics learning as, confirming convention". It is argued that the variations identified in the strategies employed by the students, in the ways they focus on problems, in their perception of the problem-solving settings, in the meanings they attach to physics learning through problem-solving - call for a framework of learning that takes account of spatiotemporal intricacy. The notion of conceptual understanding in the learning of physics should be informed by the specific demands of the medium of problem-solving through which physics is learnt at undergraduate level
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    Exploring pedagogical possibilities for transformative approaches to academic literacies in undergraduate Physics
    (University of the Western Cape, 2016) Conana, Honjiswa; Marshall, Delia; Case, Jennifer M.
    How can research on academic literacies throw light on the challenge to widen access to undergraduate science studies? This article explores what an academic literacies approach might mean in the context of undergraduate physics. The study examines the pedagogical practices and student learning in two undergraduate Physics courses, a mainstream and an extended course, with a particular focus on the disciplinary practice of problem-solving. Concepts from the sociology of knowledge, specifically Legitimation Code Theory, offer a useful analytical framework for characterising the movement between abstract principles and concrete contexts in problem-solving and understanding how meaning is encapsulated in the dense representations of physics. The study shows that with more time and careful pedagogical attention, the extended course was able to make more explicit the literacy practices and epistemological functioning of the discipline. The study found that the extended course adopted a more explicitly normative approach to academic literacy, i.e., inducting students into the disciplinary knowledge and norms of the discipline, but elements of a transformative approach were also evident, i.e., opening up opportunities for these norms to be critiqued and contested.
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    Mind the gap: Science and engineering education at the secondary–tertiary interface
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2013) Case, Jenni; Marshall, Delia; Grayson, Diane
    In the South African higher education sector, there is increasing concern about the poor retention and throughput rates of undergraduate students. There is also concern that the participation rates in higher education, relative to population demographics, remain extremely racially skewed. With the quality of schooling unlikely to change dramatically in the short term, universities need to look for ways to improve student success, particularly in science and engineering, where graduates are needed for a range of key roles in society. Here we review the research presented at a forum held by the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2010, which sought to bring together the latest expert thinking in this area. The major focus of academic development to date has been the establishment of extended degree programmes. However, it is clear that this model has limited capacity to deal with what is, in fact, a much broader problem. We summarise existing interventions aimed at reducing the ‘gap’ between secondary and tertiary education, and describe key innovations in mainstream programmes that are possible at the levels of pedagogy, curriculum and institutional environment, some of which are also becoming established internationally in science and engineering. Driving such initiatives will demand visionary university leadership in order to effect the integrated and holistic change that is needed.
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    Multimodality and new materialism in science learning: Exploring insights from an introductory physics lesson
    (Unisa Press, 2021) Marshall, Delia; Conana, Honjiswa
    Science disciplines are inherently multimodal, involving written and spoken language, bodily gestures, symbols, diagrams, sketches, simulation and mathematical formalism. Studies have shown that explicit multimodal teaching approaches foster enhanced access to science disciplines. We examine multimodal classroom practices in a physics extended curriculum programme (ECP) through the lens of new materialism. As De Freitas and Sinclair note in their book,Mathematics and the Body, there is growing research interest in embodiment in mathematics (and science) education—that is, the role played by students’ bodies, in terms of gestures, verbalisation, diagrams and their relation to the physical objects with which they interact. Embodiment can be viewed from a range of theoretical perspectives (for example, cognitive, phenomemological, or social semiotic). However, they argue that their new materialist approach, which they term “inclusive materialism”, has the potential for framing more socially just pedagogies.In this article, we discuss a multimodal and new materialist analysis of a lesson vignette from a first-year extended curriculum physics course.
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    Physics graduate preparedness for work and society
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Audu, Bako Nyikun; Marshall, Delia
    Both internationally and in South Africa, there have been renewed debates about the purposes of higher education and the attributes that should be developed in graduates. In the field of physics, many studies have reported that the preparation of physics graduates in the 21st century needs to be broader, to prepare graduates for a range of careers and roles in society. This case-study aims to understand the formation of graduate preparedness and the development of graduate attributes in a Physics Department at a South African university. A framework of physics graduate attributes was developed, drawing on skills and attributes benchmarked by several international physics bodies, as well as the South African Institute of Physics; the national SAQA critical cross-field outcomes and the UWC Charter of Graduate Attributes were also drawn on. The study adopted a range of research methods: document analysis of physics module descriptors was used to examine the embeddedness of graduate attributes in the physics curriculum; a questionnaire was developed to gauge students’ perceptions of their preparedness for work and society; focus group discussions with students, and interviews with graduates, were used to understand the structural and institutional arrangements that enabled or hindered the development of physics graduate attributes. The theoretical framework for this study is the capability approach, as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. It offers an enlarged view of the purposes of higher education beyond the development of human capital; it also enabled an analysis of the structural challenges that students faced, while at the same time foregrounding student agency, and the strengths and resources that students bring to higher education. The findings revealed that the physics graduate attributes were unevenly and mostly scantily embedded as learning outcomes in the physics module descriptors; attributes least embedded in the curriculum were social and environmental awareness, ethical behaviour, and teamwork. Analysis of questionnaire and focus group discussion data showed that students felt that more could be done in the Physics programme to explicitly develop a wider set of physics graduate attributes to enhance their sense of graduate preparedness. In particular, the development of ICT skills, communication skills, practical skills and social awareness was found to be lacking. Concepts from the capability approach, including conversion factors, well-being and agency, were used to understand the ways in which the development of students’ graduate preparedness and their attainment of academic success and well-being were enabled or hindered by various structural and institutional factors.
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    Using semantic profiling to characterize pedagogical practices and student learning : a case study in two introductory physics courses
    (University of the Western Cape, 2016) Conana, Christiana Honjiswa; Marshall, Delia; Case, Jenni; Holtman, Lorna
    Framed by the South African imperative of widening epistemological access to undergraduate science studies, this research takes the form of a case study to investigate the educational affordances of an extended introductory physics course. Using theoretical tools from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) (Maton, 2014a) – in particular, semantic gravity and semantic density – the study characterizes the pedagogical practices and student learning in this Extended course, in relation to a Mainstream course in the same Physics Department. Data was collected through classroom observations, observations of student groups working on Mechanics physics tasks, and interviews with students. Two external languages of description were developed in order to translate between the LCT concepts of semantic gravity and semantic density and the empirical data from the physics context. The first language of description was used to characterize the semantic shifts in pedagogical practices, using a Concrete-Linking-Abstract continuum. The second language of description drew on physics education research on representations (Knight, 2007; Van Heuvelen, 1991a) tasks. Semantic profiles (Maton, 2013) were then constructed to show the semantic shifts in the pedagogical practices and in lecturers’ and students’ approaches to physics tasks. The study has shown that the extra curriculum time enabled different pedagogical practices. The Extended course showed a steady progression in pacing, initially with a less compressed semantic profile, while the Mainstream course showed a consistent compression. The Extended course showed a greater prevalence of the Linking level, with more time spent at the Concrete level and greater semantic flow. The courses also exhibited different communicative approaches, with students in the Extended course more engaged in making the semantic shifts together with the lecturer. The Extended course used more real-life illustrations as a starting point, whereas the Mainstream course tended to use verbal problem statements. Looking particularly at how problem tasks were dealt with, the study suggested that the lecturers’ pedagogical practices in dealing with physics tasks influenced the way in which the students tackled these tasks. The semantic profiles showed a more rapid shift up the semantic continuum in the Mainstream pedagogy and student work, while in the Extended pedagogy and student work, the semantic profiles indicated that more time was spent initially unpacking the concrete problem situation and explicitly shifting up and down the semantic continuum. In terms of methodological contribution, this study has demonstrated the usefulness of LCT tools for characterizing pedagogical practices and student learning in a physics context. Furthermore, the study has linked LCT to physics education literature and to research on epistemological access and academic literacies in a novel way. It has modified Maton’s form of semantic profiling, through introducing the following: a more detailed time scale, gradations of semantic strength on the semantic continuum, and coding for interactive engagement in pedagogical practices. The study thus has important implications for how curriculum and pedagogical practices might better support epistemological access to disciplinary knowledge in the field of physics, not only at the Extended course level but for introductory physics courses more generally.