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Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.

This study explored how Technology teachers in medium- and well-resourced schools use commercially prepared textbooks in their classrooms. A qualitative-interpretive design was used with a purposively selected sample of four schools from a city in the Gauteng province, South Africa. Data were analysed according to the conceptual framework of didactical transposition, focusing on textbook content, activities, context and teaching strategies. It was found that teachers in well-resourced schools adapt textbooks by adding content, thus expecting a higher standard from textbook content, and preferring learners to work individually, while teachers in medium-resourced schools follow textbooks without adapting them, therefore accepting the standard set by the textbooks. It is recommended that teachers in both contexts be assisted by specialists to interpret the curriculum so as to be sure how they are expected to use textbooks to improve their classroom practices.

The work of teachers has a significant role both with regard to learners’ achievement and their opportunities in life. In the context of a developing country, particularly with respect to township and rural schools, it is a common occurrence that many practising teachers are un- or under qualified for the teaching of mathematics. What kind of professional development would be effective for upgrading the content knowledge and professional competence of such teachers? It is the aim of this article to give an overview of a professional development approach, called mentorship by master mathematics teachers, which had a positive effect both on teacher learning and their learners’ performance. Where mentorship usually focuses on the induction of beginning or student teachers, the Teacher Mentorship Programme (TMP) in this case, had as its target experienced teachers who had been teaching mathematics for years in township schools, but without the appropriate qualifications. The mentee teachers had never previously, due to no fault of their own, been exposed to excellent teaching practices as learners, student or practising teachers. The TMP was an initiative of a university’s Faculty of Engineering, that collaborated with private engineering companies and the Department of Education with the aim of preparing more and better equipped Grade 12 leavers who enrol for studies in engineering and technology related fields. The intended outcomes of the TMP were: To improve teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical competence and attitude towards mathematics and science. To broaden teachers’ knowledge of careers related to the mathematics, science and technology fields. To improve learners’ attitudes towards mathematics, science and related careers. To increase the number of learners who enrol for mathematics on the higher grade which is the equivalent of “core” mathematics in the new National Curriculum Statement. Why a mentorship programme? A common theme occurring continuously in professional development research is that ad hoc workshops do not seem to have the sustained impact required for significant teacher change and the improvement required to enhance learners’ performance. A pure workshop approach also lacks in-context follow up support and reflection on newly acquired innovations. The body of research recommends that in-service programmes need to be school-based, they need to address the learning needs as identified by teachers themselves, and, lastly, they need consistently to be subject focused. Through the latter approach, teachers are not merely cast into the role of a technical-rationalist to receive knowledge, but instead, they are perceived as knowledge producers through joint reflection with expert mentors. The article further describes the requirements and some characteristics of master mentors that were appointed in the crucial role of change facilitators. The impact of the four year programme (2003-2006) is briefly provided through statistical lenses, while the qualitative themes that emerged as the biggest learning and developmental needs as reported by teachers themselves are narrated. Teachers mostly needed support with subject conceptualisation, pedagogic content knowledge (how to teach challenging concepts) and portfolio assessment. A detailed account of results can be found in Fricke (2008). In conclusion, the article offers a possible theoretical framework for designing and negotiating an individualised professional development plan. The suggested theoretical frame departs from the Zone of Feasible Development (ZFD), analogous to Vygotsky’s ZFD which describes the “distance” between actual performance on the one hand and the idealised performance an individual can achieve under the guidance of an expert on the other.

Prospective teachers enrolling for teacher education programmes often bring with them fixed images and beliefs about the roles they see themselves fulfilling in the teaching profession. The aim of this research was to uncover, firstly, beginning student teachers’ initial perceptions of the roles that they see themselves performing, and secondly, to understand how, after authentic school‐based experiences, the student teachers have subsequently (re)arranged their perceptions of teacher roles. Interviews were conducted based on visual collages that the student teachers constructed and analysed by means of metaphorical lenses. We found that the teacher education programme with its strong focus on the teacher‐as‐self had indeed challenged some of the traditional roles that student teachers saw themselves fulfilling. One such significant change was revealed by their assertions that they cannot be sole knowledge providers but must rather be facilitators of learning, challenging students through the design of po...

The Science Curriculum Statements of Curriculum 2005 in South Africa emphasise experimentation and problem solving—that is ‘doing science’. Data on the implementation of the science component of the new curriculum were obtained from a sample of Mpumalanga secondary schools. This article focuses on one aspect of implementation—the use made of practical work in the teaching of natural science. It describes the quality of the practical work implemented by science teachers, and then goes on to isolate school capacity factors that may influence and predict learner-centred, inquiry types of practical work in science teaching. The most prominent factor appears to be the teachers' perceptions of their learners. Also important, but to a lesser extent, is the attitude of teachers towards innovation. A well functioning school also appears to be an important factor.

The study was conducted to gain insight into the pegagogical approaches and practices of physical science teachers who used cultural and indigenous knowledge in some way in semirural schools. All the schools were situated in environments with a low socioeconomic index and none of the schools had a science laboratory or equipment available for teaching physical science. The theoretical frame emanates from constructs as described in cultural border-crossing and culturally relevant pedagogy. Four cases were identified and the narrative data analysed, using the Banks Topology which describes four levels of indigenous knowledge integration. The implication of the four categorised cases is that they may be critically unpacked during the professional development and preservice preparation of teachers who have to teach physical science to multicultural learners.

This essay suggests a way for creating a curriculum for the future amidst the challenges of post‐modern uncertainty. Curriculum discourse in the past has been dominated by widely‐accepted key questions, which produce and maintain curricula that are essentially fragmented and reductionistic, and directly opposed to the essential demands of the holistic nature of life. The essay proposes a contemporary curriculum philosophy that is fundamentally heuristic, with a radically eclectic, contingent character.

The second phase of the Mpumalanga Secondary Science Initiative (MSSI) was launched in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa in 2003. The MSSI seeks to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in all secondary schools in the province over a period of three years. To achieve this goal an in-service system has been developed. The long-term research of the MSSI is aimed at examining the effect of the intervention on the three science learning outcomes as defined by the new curriculum. Tests were developed to assess 10 learners in each of Grades 8 and 9 in 40 schools, representing a 6% sample. This paper reports on the methodology of the baseline assessments undertaken and the extent of learners' attainment levels in the three Natural Science outcomes. It then looks at the results in terms of learners' socio-economic backgrounds. Finally it discusses some of the dilemmas encountered in this research, such as the issue of validity in the light of possible misalignments between the instr...

For the African Virtual University and its consortium of African universities the implementation of quality promoting initiatives are not without challenges and scepticisms. To be discussed in this article is the case of a teacher education qualification in ten different African countries. Seven countries were sampled and visited in 2006 with the aim of understanding quality assurance cultures and practices used for promoting quality. Findings showed that quality assurance processes manifest at various levels of readiness and maturity. The uneven quality assurance landscape led me to propose a ten-tiered differentiated Quality Assurance Framework. In analogy to Vygotsky’s theory of the ‘zone of feasible development’ I suggest the presence of do-able next steps where an institution can set their own priorities and timelines for reform towards quality. Self-paced planning I contend, will not be branded as technobureaucratic control, but will serve a developmental purpose towards inculcation and ownership of quality milestones.

Within a constructivist approach to learning physics, prior knowledge had been found to underpin learning in a significant way – either as a hindering or helping factor. One key issue that accounts for effective learning of science in Africa has been the controversial status of prior knowledge that learners bring into the classroom. This article aims to continue the discussion along these lines but with the express objective to illustrate how physics teachers/lectures can draw on indigenous African knowledge as they teach concepts and introduce terminology and nomenclature in the physics curriculum. Keywords: Constructive approach, relevant, physics curriculum, indigenous African knowledge systems, terminology and nomenclatureIndilinga Vol. 7 (2) 2008: pp. 223-236

How do PhD students become socialised into the professional world of academic work? This article pays attention to a ‘networked’ support pathway towards a PhD. The network constitutes an international research collaboration through a programme called Productive Learning Cultures (PLC) (2002-2011) between Norway and seven countries, developing or in transition, in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this article is to describe how researchers within PLC have over the years developed a support structure for PhD students. PLC has had intended and unintended outcomes. While the education of PhD students was an intended outcome, unintended outcomes include the establishment of a peer-reviewed journal, and the development of a networked doctoral school. Special attention will also be paid to the programme design structures that assist female PhD students from partner universities and promote sustainability once PLC donor funding terminates.