Features and consequences of two School science curricula
Year: 2008
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: With the political change in 1994, South Africa entered a period of dramatic educational change. The former \npositivist school curriculum was replaced with an outcomes-based curriculum. In outcomes-based education \n(OBE) the process of learning is considered as important as the content, and both are aligned with the outcomes to \nbe achieved at the end of the process. The new approach attends to deficiencies of the positivist approach, such as \nsocial and environmental aspects and responsibilities. This article reports on an analysis of the differences \nbetween the old and new natural sciences curricula in terms of instructional paradigms. The implementation of \nthese curricula in natural sciences textbooks from both systems are investigated and compared. The results are \ncomplemented by an empirical study of the conceptual understanding of energy of 1211 Grade 9 and 10 learners \nand their science educators from 33 schools in the North-West province of South Africa. The results show a \nfundamental difference between the approaches, outcomes, teaching and assessment strategies of the two curricula \nbefore and after the educational reform. These differences give rise to inherently different results in terms of \nscience knowledge learning. Contrary to the stated outcome of scientific literacy in the OBE curriculum, the \nlearners' conceptual understanding of fundamental concepts of science is inadequate.
Author: Miriam Lemmer
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2796901932