Understanding life sciences teachers' engagement with ongoing learning through continuous professional development programmes.
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Teacher education in South Africa has had to be overhauled in line with the reform of the \nSouth African school curriculum since 1996. Both initial and continuous teacher qualification \nprogrammes are constantly being reviewed to improve impact on prospective and currently \npractising teachers. In addition, efforts are being made to scale up non-qualification \ncontinuous professional development programmes for better implementation of the \ncurriculum. Despite these endeavours, there is evidence that continuous professional \ndevelopment programmes in particular, are not responding adequately to the needs of the \nteachers and the education system in general. This is partly due to the failure by the system to \ndifferentiate between the needs of different groups of teachers who received their initial \nteacher education in racially segregated teacher education institutions. This research study \naims to determine what teachers of Life Sciences perceive as their development needs, and \nhow these needs are addressed through various forms of in-service teacher education, both \nformal and informal. Life Sciences is the name of the subject called Biology in the pre-reform \ncurriculum. It is offered only in the final three years of schooling, Grades 10 – 12. The Life \nSciences curriculum has experienced at least three revisions in a period of six years since the \nimplementation of the National Curriculum Statement in 2006. \nData was gathered in two phases, using mixed methods approaches. During the first phase, \ndata was collected using a teacher questionnaire. The questionnaire dealt with teachers’ \ncontent and pedagogical development needs; their participation in both qualification and nonqualification \nCPD programmes; their motivation (or lack of) to engage in CPD programmes; \nand the perceived benefits of CPD programmes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted \nwith Subject Advisors dealing with similar themes. During the second phase of the study, intervention programmes in the form of teacher training workshops were conducted and data \nwas gathered through documenting the workshop activities and by conducting evaluations. \nFindings revealed that whilst a large proportion of Life Sciences teachers were furthering \ntheir studies through formal qualifications, they were not necessarily choosing Biological \nSciences specialisations. A considerable proportion of teachers in the study were teaching out \nof their field of specialisation. These limitations likely account for teachers’ low selfconfidence, \narticulated as a strong need for development in almost every area of the content \nand pedagogy. Teachers that choose Biological Sciences specialisations in formal in-service \nqualifications seem to be benefiting significantly. Life Sciences teachers also benefit \nimmensely from ‘hands on’ training in practical work skills rather than using passive, \ndemonstration methods of training. Cluster-based CPD programmes present an ideal \nopportunity for teachers to learn and share knowledge and expertise in content and pedagogy, \nyet this platform is constrained mainly to development of assessment activities. Filling vacant \nposts and increasing the number of Subject Advisors is critical to ensuring that teachers \nreceived adequate support from districts.
Author: Bulelwa. Keke
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2277732412