Effective pedagogical strategies for enhancing high school Learners’ understanding of newton’s laws of motion in the Amathole District.

Abstract

Many studies have identified the decline in the number of students entering tertiary institutions to pursue their studies in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, internationally, nationally and locally. It was found that this poor production of competent learners to pursue STEM education is caused by inadequate training and poor supply of knowledgeable and skilled teachers for science and mathematics, poor developmental programs for educators and poor teacher lesson preparation of high school educators to effectively teach mathematics and physical sciences. These identified factors lead to poor understanding of the content and thus lead to poor performance in science education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore pedagogical instructional strategies that can be used to enhance learners' understanding of Newton’s Laws of Motion in Physical Sciences among High School learners in the Amathole District. A qualitative research approach was undertaken and the data was collected through observations, in-depth face-to-face interviews with physical sciences’ teachers and learners and the review of documents such as the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and the South African School Administration and Management System (SA-SAMS) marks schedules. The study used a case study method of research design, and an interpretivist paradigm was used to offer a broad approach to data analysis. The findings from this study reveal that teachers use direct teaching methods and drill learners with previous examination question papers with the reason that they are rushing to finish the syllabus and that the schools do not have a proper teaching environment that supports the use of learner-centred methods as it requires more teacher readiness in terms of resources and lesson planning. It was found that teachers teach learners to pass and not to understand, and this leads to the production of poor results for learners. Another fact was that teachers failed to integrate mathematics and physical science knowledge to enhance learners’ understanding of the topic Newton’s Laws of Motion. Hence, the study recommends the use of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) as a suitable strategy for enhancing learners’ understanding of Newton’s laws under the working conditions of the environment in which teachers are working as identified in the four selected high schools. It was also recommended that all relevant stakeholders of the Department of Education should play a crucial role and intervene in the development of programs to support the teaching and learning of physical sciences as a whole, and provide proper teaching and learning materials in order to enhance learners’ understanding and thus improve learners’ performance.