Science Education and Curriculum in South Africa

Science Education and Curriculum in South Africa
Author: Oscar Koopman
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2018-06-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9783319821771

This book explores the impact of the socio-historical, political, and economic environment in South Africa, both during and after Apartheid. During this time, the South African education system demonstrated an interest in a specific type of knowledge, which Koopman refers to as ‘a science of government’. This ‘science of government’ leaves the learners with a blurred understanding of science that is disconnected from external nature and human nature, and is presented as a series of abstract concepts and definitions. The book also investigates the dialectical tensions between the science curriculum and the role of the teacher as an active implementer of the curriculum. The book draws on the work of various phenomenological scholars, namely Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Max van Manen to discuss these tensions.

Science Education and Curriculum in South Africa

Science Education and Curriculum in South Africa
Author: Oscar Koopman
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2016-11-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 331940766X

This book explores the impact of the socio-historical, political, and economic environment in South Africa, both during and after Apartheid. During this time, the South African education system demonstrated an interest in a specific type of knowledge, which Koopman refers to as ‘a science of government’. This ‘science of government’ leaves the learners with a blurred understanding of science that is disconnected from external nature and human nature, and is presented as a series of abstract concepts and definitions. The book also investigates the dialectical tensions between the science curriculum and the role of the teacher as an active implementer of the curriculum. The book draws on the work of various phenomenological scholars, namely Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Max van Manen to discuss these tensions.

Remapping Africa in the Global Space

Remapping Africa in the Global Space
Author: Edward Shizha
Publisher: Brill
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2014
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 9789462098350

What are the benefits and risks for Africa's participation in the globalisation nexus? Remapping Africa in the Global Spaceis a visionary and interdisciplinary volume that restores Africa's image using a multidisciplinary lens. It incorporates disciplines such as sociology, education, global studies, economics, development studies, political science and philosophy to explore and theorise Africa's reality in the global space and to deconstruct the misperceptions and narratives that often infantilise Africa's internal and international relations. The contributions to this volume are a hybrid of both 'outsider' and 'insider' perspectives that create a balanced critical discourse that can provide 'standard' paradigms that can adequately explain, predict, or prevent Africa's current misperceptions and myths about the African 'crisis' and 'failure'status. The authors provide a holistic, and perhaps, anticolonial and anti-hegemonic perspective that can benefit a wide spectrum of academics, scholars, students, development agents, policy makers in both governmental and non-governmental organisations and engage some alternative analyses and possibilities for socio-politico and economic advancement in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa.

School Science Practical Work in Africa

School Science Practical Work in Africa
Author: Umesh Ramnarain
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2020-06-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0429536259

School Science Practical Work in Africa presents the scope of research and practice of science practical work in African schools. It brings together prominent science educators and researchers from Africa to share their experience and findings on pedagogical innovations and research-informed practices on school science practical work. The book highlights trends and patterns in the enactment and role of practical work across African countries. Practical work is regarded as intrinsic to science teaching and learning and the form of practical work that is strongly advocated is inquiry-based learning, which signals a definite paradigm shift from the traditional teacher-dominated to a learner-centered approach. The book provides empirical research on approaches to practical work, contextual factors in the enactment of practical work, and professional development in teaching practical work. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of science education and educational policy.

Global Developments in Literacy Research for Science Education

Global Developments in Literacy Research for Science Education
Author: Kok-Sing Tang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2018-01-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331969197X

This book highlights recent developments in literacy research in science teaching and learning from countries such as Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States. It includes multiple topics and perspectives on the role of literacy in enhancing science teaching and learning, such as the struggles faced by students in science literacy learning, case studies and evaluations of classroom-based interventions, and the challenges encountered in the science classrooms. It offers a critical and comprehensive investigation on numerous emerging themes in the area of literacy and science education, including disciplinary literacy, scientific literacy, classroom discourse, multimodality, language and representations of science, and content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The diversity of views and research contexts in this volume presents a useful introductory handbook for academics, researchers, and graduate students working in this specialized niche area. With a wealth of instructional ideas and innovations, it is also highly relevant for teachers and teacher educators seeking to improve science teaching and learning through the use of literacy.

Science Education in Countries Along the Belt & Road

Science Education in Countries Along the Belt & Road
Author: Ronghuai Huang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2022-01-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811669554

This book aims to highlight science education in countries along the Belt and Road. It consists of 30 chapters divided into three main parts, namely Arab and African countries, Asian countries and European countries,. We invited science education experts from 29 “Belt and Road” countries to introduce the current status of science education in their countries and the new requirements with the rapid evolution of Information Technology. The major contributions of this book include: 1) Provide the current status of science education in countries along the Belt and Road as well as the requirement for developing and improving science education in these countries; 2) Discuss new insights of science education in future years; 3) Inspire stakeholders to take effective initiatives to develop science education in countries along the Belt and Road.

Self-directed learning research: An imperative for transforming the educational landscape

Self-directed learning research: An imperative for transforming the educational landscape
Author: Elsa Mentz
Publisher: AOSIS
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2016-12-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1928396011

This book will benefit specialists in the field of the education sciences. It represents significant progress in knowledge production. Self-directed learning has become increasingly important, not only for education in South Africa but also for education sciences in the international arena. This is a result of the changing education landscape, caused by the demands of the 21st century as well as the rapid change in knowledge production. Learners should be equipped with skills to take responsibility for their own learning. New innovative strategies should be incorporated into teaching and learning in order to meet the changing demands in education. Traditional teacher-centred practices are still the norm in most South African schools and higher-education institutions and do not adequately prepare students for lifelong learning in the 21st century. The content focuses on the theory behind self-directed learning, explores strategies such as cooperative learning, problembased learning, case-based teaching and large-group teaching that enhance self-directed learning and the use of blended learning in a self-directed learning environment. The book demonstrates how self-directed learning can be enhanced in mathematics, computer-science and life-science education and through the use of student tutors for geography. Digital technology could, for example, also be used in innovative ways for education in isiZulu folk poetry. The findings are based on original empirical research and a sound theoretical-conceptual framework. In an environment of rapidly changing knowledge production, this book responds to the challenge of how to equip learners with the necessary skills to take responsibility for their own learning. The book presents innovative teaching and learning strategies for meeting the changing demands in education. Group activities, the responsibilities of learners and the obstacles that hinder their learning are analysed, and the way in which educators can support them is discussed. Educational values such as mutual trust are discussed, and self-directed assessment is explored. This is a timely collective work authored by experts who subscribe to the approach of self-directed learning. Educators should discover new teaching and learning strategies and value the integration of self-directed learning in the classroom.

The World of Science Education

The World of Science Education
Author: Femi S. Otulaja
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9463510893

Each volume in the 7-volume series The World of Science Education reviews research in a key region of the world. These regions include North America, South and Latin America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and Israel, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of this Handbook is on research in science education in mostly former British colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa and the scholarship that most closely support this program. The reviews of the research situate what has been accomplished within a given field in Sub-Saharan Africa rather than an international context. The purpose therefore is to articulate and exhibit regional networks and trends that produced specific forms of science education. The thrust lies in identifying the roots of research programs and sketching trajectories – focusing the changing façade of problems and solutions within regional contexts. The approach allows readers to review what has been done and accomplished, what is missing and what might be done next.

Rethinking Scientific Literacy

Rethinking Scientific Literacy
Author: Wolff-Michael Roth
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2004
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780415948432

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Handbook of Research on Science Education

Handbook of Research on Science Education
Author: Sandra K. Abell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1345
Release: 2013-03-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136781218

This state-of-the art research Handbook provides a comprehensive, coherent, current synthesis of the empirical and theoretical research concerning teaching and learning in science and lays down a foundation upon which future research can be built. The contributors, all leading experts in their research areas, represent the international and gender diversity that exists in the science education research community. As a whole, the Handbook of Research on Science Education demonstrates that science education is alive and well and illustrates its vitality. It is an essential resource for the entire science education community, including veteran and emerging researchers, university faculty, graduate students, practitioners in the schools, and science education professionals outside of universities. The National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) endorses the Handbook of Research on Science Education as an important and valuable synthesis of the current knowledge in the field of science education by leading individuals in the field. For more information on NARST, please visit: http://www.narst.org/.