A reflective study of the factors that influence learner performance in physical sciences in an education district of the Eastern Cape Province
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Date
2019
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This study was conducted in three rural high schools in the province of the Eastern Cape,
South Africa whose physical sciences results were not consistent. The main issue in the
research was that when schools’ results improve it becomes a challenge to keep it
consistent. It is therefore important to reflect and assess what were the good practices
that resulted in the results improving. Practices by both teachers and learners need
reflection in order to keep what works and get rid of all the bad influences that affect the
achievement of physical sciences results. The physical sciences performance for the past
three years (2011-2013) for the whole country (excluding 2014) had shown steady
improvement, but this could not readily mean that all was well in our schools. There is
more to be done because the physical sciences results are not highly rated against those
of other countries. The research itself was an attempt to highlight the importance of always
looking back at what has been influencing the teaching and learning in the classroom,
whether good or bad results were achieved, to see what practices could still be improved,
while also looking at or reflecting on the strategies used by educators in delivering the
subject matter. The study used reflective practice theory which was related by several
authors. The physical sciences learners and physical sciences teachers were the
participants where interviews were conducted to obtain reflections by the participants. The
data was collected at three different schools whose learners had passed grade 12 in
physical sciences to reflect on their own experiences in the teaching and learning of
physical sciences. The study identified a number of factors affecting the performance in
physical sciences, particularly in the three schools sampled in the district of the Eastern
Cape. The factors include the lack of resources, lack of time to complete the syllabus,
exclusion of practical work, learner participation, inability of learners to explain or present
what was taught in the physical science classes and teacher confidence. The study
contributes to identifying the factors that contributed to the poor performance in physical
sciences and demonstrates that reflection is a key strategy that teachers could employ to
ensure that the teaching and learning environment receive the value-addition it deserves.
Description
Magister Educationis - MEd
Keywords
Learner, Performance, Physical sciences, Eastern Cape Province, Education district