The gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in science achievement in South African secondary schools

Abstract

South Africa's education system is still deep in the throes of reform under its third Minister of Education since 1994. Poor communities, in particular those of rural Africans, bear the brunt of the past inequalities. The challenge was to explore the extent of the ''gap'' in students' scores by comparing the advantaged and disadvantaged communities in this context. The TIMSS-Repeat 1999 data were explored and 3 categories of students were ultimately identified: advantaged, semi-advantaged, and disadvantaged groups. Partial least squares analysis was applied to explore the science performance but very few factors were found that consistently predicted performance across and within these groups. However, one dominant factor emerged in these models and that was the students' performance in the locally developed English test that provided a measure of students' proficiency in English, the language in which more than 70% of the students wrote the science tests. Students who had a higher score on the English test also performed better in the science test, despite their backgrounds.

Development of a model of effectiveness in science education to explore differential science performance: A case of South Africa

“…For example, at the student level, attitudes towards science are the strongest predictors of science achievement between individuals in South Africa according to the results of multilevel analyses. This result is in agreement with previous findings reported in the literature (Shen & Pedulla, 2000;Papanastasiou & Zembylas, 2004;Chang & Cheng, 2008;Howie, Scherman & Venter, 2008;Shen & Tam, 2008).…”

“…Student ethnicity, home possession, and language at home also confirmed previous research which revealed that minority-ethnic groups fared worse than majority groups (Von Secker, 2004;Howie et al, 2008). This phenomenon is understandable as students from minority ethnic groups have to learn science knowledge in an instruction language that is different from mother tongue (Rollnick, 2000).…”

“…The poor performance of developing countries has often been attributed to poor infrastructure and teacher quality (Reddy, 2006). This is particularly true for South Africa, as the legacy of the Apartheid system has resulted in unequal distribution of resources (Howie, Scherman & Venter, 2008). Apart from the above-mentioned factors, the rich contextual data captured by TIMSS could be explored to obtain a broader view of the effectiveness of science education in the country.…”

The Impact of Student Poverty on Science Teaching and Learning

“…As a country dealing with a legacy of extreme social and political inequality, this low science performance is especially troublesome. Furthermore, the gap between high and low achievers in science is associated with the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged groups of students in South Africa (Howie, 2005; Howie & Scherman, 2008; Howie, Scherman, & Venter, 2008). Yet there is strong comparative evidence that suggests that South African primary children are highly interested in practical science concepts and learning and might even benefit from being able to develop their own relevant science curricula with their teachers’ guidance (Pell & Manganye, 2007; Stears & Malcolm, 2005).…”

Language, Literacy and Science Learning for English Language Learners: Teacher Meta Talk Vignettes from a South African Science Classroom

“…In addition to language, an important factor is the differential access to science that persists as a legacy of the apartheid era. More than twenty years after the establishment of democracy, performance in science and mathematics continues to follow racial lines (See for example, Carnoy, Chilisa, & Chisholm, 2012;Howie, Scherman, & Venter, 2008;Mji & Makgato, 2006). Most EALs, in the poorer township and rural schools continue to underachieve in mathematics and science.…”