This paper reports on the use of out-of-school everyday contexts in Namibian science classrooms. This use is portrayed against the backdrop of an explicit educational philosophy of learner-centred teaching. Data were collected through audio-taped teacher-learner interactions and non-participant field notes in 29 junior and senior science classes taught by 12 teachers in six schools. An existing typology was applied to classify episodes of use of everyday contexts and identify teachers' pedagogic strategies for their use. The results show that more everyday contexts are used in junior secondary than in senior secondary classes, that only a limited range of types of everyday contexts are used at both levels, and that their use often follows theoretical exposition or teacher questioning. These findings are related to three interpretations of learnercentred teaching. Recommendations for a fuller implementation of learner-centred teaching are made.

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Incidences of prescnbed textbook usage in science classrooms in 1Vamzbia have been analysed using an approach adapted from linguistic analysis. Aspects of pedagogic purpose, text genre, and the social interaciions between teachers and learners were used to characterise teacher and Ieamer engagement with textbooks, and thus caregon' se their usage in relatioN to a national policy of learner-centred edu(anon. Results ind1cale a reacher dominated textbook use and a low Jr�qwuc_ 1' and resrncrt•d range of texrbook references per lesso11, u.1ith some 40% of the Semor Se(,mdwy dasws obsen•ed mahng no use of their uxtbook in class. The major uses of textbooks in class w.:re for diagrams and daw, and to venfy factual information Occasionall y, questwns m textbooks were used as homework to rest and/or co11solidate knowledge. Pupill-rarely mitiated a reference ro a rexrboa!?. It is suggesred that if lear11ers are ro benefit fully from the mvestment m textbooks then their teachers need to be helped to use the resource in more construaic;e ways.

Local knowledge about natural resources that may be of use to communities, including medicinal plants, is becoming increasingly important globally. This knowledge is important for the participation of indigenous peoples in the conservation and maintenance of indigenous forests (Gazzaneo, de Lucena, & de Albuquerque, 2005) in addition to the frequent use of these resources in the treatment of common ailments and diseases.Knowledge about the use of local fauna and flora, nowadays, is minimal. To ensure the preservation of indigenous knowledge, this state of affairs needs to be rectified. In fact, Teklehaymanot, Giday, Medhin and Mekonnen (2007, p. 272) note that 'traditional knowledge is rapidly eroding', hence, there is real danger that if something is not urgently done, this knowledge might be lost for good. This is due to the fact that often indigenous knowledge is passed on from older to younger generations orally, and is not documented. According to Kambizi and Afolayan (2006), it is essential to make an effort to avoid the loss of this important knowledge in order to conserve medicinal plants, especially in rural communities. There is an increasing advocacy for the integration of indigenous knowledge into mainstream science curricula.School can play an important role in ensuring this knowledge is not lost. The school is thus seen as a conduit through which this knowledge could be passed from one generation to the next. One way of doing this is to integrate indigenous

This paper presents findings on a study that was conducted at two selected secondary schools in Ohangwena educational region in Namibia. The study used a quantitative approach to investigate if using learner-centred approach improves learners' understanding of acids and bases. With a sample of 80 grade 11 learners taking Physical Science Ordinary level, a quasi-experimental design was used to collect data from two schools for two weeks (one week at each school). The Pre-test, post-test scores from the control group consisting of 40 learners from school A and an experimental group of 40 learners from school B were used to establish the cause and effect relationship between the use of Learner-Centred Approach (LCA) and learners' understanding of acids and bases based on their performance in the tests were given. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the quantitative data from the tests cores and a t-test analysis was conducted for both groups. The study results indicated that the experimental group performed better than the control group. It also emerged that using various learner-centred activities attracted learners' interests in learning and understanding acids and bases. It is therefore concluded that learner-centred approaches improved high school learners' understanding of the topic acids and bases. The study recommends that Physical Science teachers should make the teaching and learning of acids and bases more practical-based by using learner-centred approaches.