The Nature of Science—Do teachers have the understandings they are expected to teach?

Abstract

South Africa is introducing Outcomes Based Education as an approach to teach the new Curriculum 2005 (C2005). The new curriculum contains exciting new aspects for the Natural Sciences. For example, in addition to learning traditional science subject matter, children are expected to develop also an understanding of the 'changing and contested nature of knowledge in the natural sciences', i.e. of the 'Nature of Science' (NOS). Since curriculum reform depends crucially on the teachers, it is important to find out whether their understandings of the NOS are in accordance with what they are required to teach. We explored existing understandings of the NOS among participants in several teacher professional development programmes through an internationally validated questionnaire backed up by semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was expanded to elicit possible culturally and socially determined aspects of understandings of the NOS. We compare the teachers' understandings of the NOS with the understandings delineated in C2005. Teachers' understandings differ from those advocated in C2005 but match international research findings. Culturally determined views are found on the status of different knowledge systems. As a follow-up to this study, an exploration is under way into the impact of an in-service teacher-training programme directed at bringing teachers' understandings in line with the requirements of Curriculum 2005.

The nature of science and indigenous knowledge systems in South Africa, 2000–2007: A critical review of the research in science education

“…This is in spite of the fact that many of the school teachers in South Africa, as some of the studies clearly show (e.g. Dekkers & Mnisi, 2003), are not equipped with the requisite content and pedagogical knowledge to explicitly teach about the NOS. Our assertion is that, there appears to be an uncritical and sheepish legitimisation of the superiority of so-called explicit approaches.…”

“…All the reviewed empirical studies (Dekkers & Mnisi, 2003;Linneman et al, 2003;Dekkers, 2006;Ogunniyi, 2004Ogunniyi, , 2006Webb et al, 2005;Ramsuran, 2005) done on the NOS and IKS; have used, largely qualitative methodological approaches. This is not a surprising observation.…”

“…This is evidenced by the adaptation and modification of research instruments developed in the West (e.g. Dekkers & Mnisi, 2003;Dekkers, 2006) and the deliberate attempts to inform the implementation of South Africa's new science curricula (e.g. Ogunniyi, 2006;Onwu & Mosimege, 2004;Webb, Cross, Linneman & Malone, 2005).…”

Critical Friendship, Collaboration and Trust as a Basis for Self-Determined Professional Development: A case of science teaching

“…For example, a South African study by Dekkers and Mnisi (2003) in the Limpopo Province, which investigated teachers' understanding of the nature of science that is an integral component of multidimensional scientific literacy, found that the majority of teachers surveyed through a questionnaire had an inadequate understanding of the nature of science. In fact many of these teachers who were interviewed expressed common myths on the nature of science identified by McComas (1998).…”

Identifying Demographic Variables Influencing the Nature of Science (NOS) Conceptions of Teachers

“…Postmodernists delineate science as one of the ways of knowing, which is influenced by the social and cultural values of the society, and emphasize the multiple methods used by scientists. In a nutshell, the unsettled academic discussions about science indicate that there is no single NOS to be endorsed by all scholars [1,17]. Some even go to say that there simply is no such thing as NOS [19].…”