Pedagogical Issues of Senior Phase Teachers When Teaching the Matter and Materials Strand of Natural Sciences

Autor/inn/en	Ntuli, Thuli G.; Mudau, Awelani V.
Titel	Pedagogical Issues of Senior Phase Teachers When Teaching the Matter and Materials Strand of Natural Sciences
Quelle	In: South African Journal of Education, 43 (2023) 2, Artikel 2194 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Ntuli, Thuli G.) ORCID (Mudau, Awelani V.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0256-0100
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Science Instruction; Science Teachers; Natural Sciences; Teaching Methods; STEM Education; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Qualifications; Expertise; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Teacher Workshops; South Africa + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Science; Teacher; Teachers; Science teacher; Wissenschaft; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Naturwissenschaften; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; STEM; Lehrerverhalten; Lehrqualifikation; Expert appraisal; Pädagogische Kompetenz; Südafrika; Süd-Afrika; Republik Südafrika; Südafrikanische Republik
Abstract	The study reported on here was a qualitative interpretative case study. We explored the pedagogical issues of Senior Phase natural sciences teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand in some of the schools in the Siyabuswa circuit. This study was motivated by the concerted focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in developing countries with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, fast-tracked by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The following question guided the study: What are the classroom practices of teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand in the Senior Phase? Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to collect data from 2 purposefully sampled participants. The findings show that some natural sciences teachers are frustrated with the teaching of natural sciences as they are teaching out of their fields of expertise. Furthermore, they are not qualified to teach the subject and the workshops presented are not capacitating them to teach the strand. Their limited content knowledge (CK) and weak subject matter knowledge (SMK) result in misconceptions, which could be transferred to their learners. Moreover, the lack of CK and SMK also impacts on their choice of instructional strategies as they still prefer traditional methods of teaching, which promotes memorisation. In the study, even the teacher who was qualified to teach the subject still lacked content knowledge and instructional strategies like the unqualified one. The challenge is that the core resource in increasing interest and uptake in the STEM subjects, the teacher, is lacking knowledge and instructional strategies. It is, therefore, prudent to recommend tailor-made content enrichment workshops on the matter and materials strand. These workshops should also be intertwined with pedagogical issues. We also recommend studies on specific topics in the matter and materials strand as this study focused only on a broad overview of the strand. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Education Association of South Africa. University of Pretoria, Centre for the Study of Resilience, Level 3, Groenkloof Student Centre, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, George Storrar Road and Lleyds Street, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Web site: http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.za/index.php/saje/index
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01