Exploring grades 11 learners' scientific and indigenous worldviews of selected phenomena relative to traditional expository and argumentation instruction

Abstract

In response to the emerging multicultural classrooms in South Africa, the amended National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for grades R–12, in the light of current curriculum policy and the NCS (Grades 10–12), has proposed the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the school science curriculum. Interfacing the two knowledge systems namely, science and IKS have implications for curriculum planning and instructional practices. This is more so if one considers the fact that both systems of thought are based on distinctively different ontological, epistemological, metaphysical and axiological assumptions. In pursuance of the demand to integrate the two knowledge corpuses, this study sought to explore school science and indigenous worldviews of grades 11 and 12 learners exposed to Dialogical Argumentation Instruction (DAI) as well the Traditional Expository Instruction (TEI) on selected natural phenomena. The aim was to explore the scientific nature of the learners’ indigenous knowledge (IK) presupposition in relation to those of school science and to determine their level of compatibility in terms of the content and pedagogical practices. The rationale for the choice of selected phenomena across different school science topics was to interrogate to what extent IK was amenable to certain school science topics. Furthermore, the variation of the selected phenomena was also to determine how the learners’ cognitive stances shifted as a result of the nature of a particular concept. The instructional materials have been designed to reflect as much as possible the learners’ life-world experiences so as to elicit areas of commonality and differences between school science and their IK.