Browsing by Author "Siseho, Simasiku Charles"

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    The effect of an argumentation instructional model on pre-service teachers' ability to implement a science-IK curriculum
    (University of the Western Cape, 2013) Siseho, Simasiku Charles; Ogunniyi, Meshach B.; NULL
    This study investigated the effect of an Argumentation Instructional Model (AIM) on the preservice teachers‘ ability to implement a Science-IK Curriculum in selected South African schools. I examined what instructional practices the pre-service teachers engage in when they introduce scientific explanation and whether those practices influence learners‘ ability to construct scientific explanations during a natural science unit of a South African school curriculum. My study began with a pilot study of 16 pre-service science teachers who completed a B.Ed university module, Science for Teaching, which included an IK component. Data collection for main study took place from 2010 to 2011, and used questionnaires, face-to-face and reflective interview protocols, case studies, lesson plans and classroom observation schedules. I took videos and audios of each of the pre-service teacher‘s enactment of the focal lesson on argumentation and then coded the videotape for different instructional practices. The study investigated firstly, what currently informed teachers‘ thinking, knowledge and action of IK. Secondly, the research questioned how teachers interpreted and implemented IK in the science classroom. A sample of the three pre-service teachers were followed into their classrooms to investigate how they specifically implemented Learning Outcome Three using argumentation instruction as a mode of instruction and what approaches relevant to the inclusion of IK were developed. The study found that the three pre-service teachers used three very different approaches through which IK was brought in the science curriculum. An assimilationist approach, that brings IK into science by seeking how best IK fits into science. A segregationist approach that holds IK side-by-side with scientific knowledge. Lastly, an integrationist approach makes connections between IK and science. The approaches developed by the pre-service teachers were found to be informed by their biographies, values, cultural backgrounds and worldviews. Meticulously, the study explored how shifts were being made from a theoretical phase at the university where the pre-service teachers engaged IK to an actual phase of implementation in their school science classrooms. Finally, I attempted to explain why the pre-service teachers interpreted and implemented IK in the way they did.
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    The effects of an instructional strategy on grade 11 learners' understanding of genetics
    (University of the Western Cape, 2004) Siseho, Simasiku Charles; Ogunniyi, Meshach Bolaji
    Research into learning genetics has largely focused on issues such as problem solving and the process of meiosis. The central concept of genetics, however, has received very little attention despite the fact that it is one of the concepts that learners find difficult (Ogunniyi, 1999; Bahar, Johnstone and Hansell, 1999; Collins and Stewart, 1989). In view of this, the specific purpose of this study was to investigate: (l) concepts of genetics that grade I I learners hold before and after a period of instruction in genetics (2) the differences in the understanding of genetics held by learners exposed to an instructional model and those not so exposed; and (3) possible influences of gender, age, and language on grade I I leamers' understanding of genetics. The method adopted for this study was a multidimensional approach in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to complement each other. The role of the researcher in this study was that of the participant-as-observer. An induction workshop was conducted for both the combined instructional teacher (i.e. experimental teacher) and the traditional instructional teacher (i.e. control teacher) to help them explore and reflect on their practice with the view to create in them an appreciation for multiple teaching strategies or traditional teaching strategies to teaching and learning respectively.