3.2.!Resultados de Situación: Agua Fría

By taking the stance of focusing on CK, the understanding is that science teachers’ knowledge about their learners’ socio-cultural backgrounds lays a foundation upon which teachers may understand the learners’ expectations, beliefs, attitudes, languages, systems and values that influence science teaching and the learning process (Suh, 2005). Thus, in this phase, the study’s main focus was on how the CK which teachers possessed interacted with their other knowledge domains such as SMK, PK and orientations to science teaching in order to implement situationally appropriate teaching and learning strategies and activities. This was meant to address the second research sub-question: how do Grade 9

A non-participant observation method was used to capture real classroom practices hence providing a complete picture.

At the same time, the observations helped to determine the role of teachers’ CK on their PCK as they modified their lessons to meet particular teaching conditions and constraints that arose due to interactions with learners, thereby also answering the third research sub- question: What role does contextual knowledge play in the PCK of Grade 9 NS teachers in township schools? In particular, non-participant observation was very appropriate because it allowed proper capturing of teachers’ practice without any interference from the researcher. It provided room for teachers’ autonomy as classroom managers. This is because teachers’ actions are a more accurate representation of what they know and believe than the usual array of self-report measures (van Driel et al., 2001). Teachers cannot verbalise all of their practice; therefore what they know may be uncovered better from their performances than from what they say. In addition, what teachers say does not always reflect what they do. Therefore a deeper understanding of teacher knowledge could be best achieved by observing them in teaching, as Borko and Putman (1996) observe that teaching is contextualised and embedded in teachers’ actions. This is because PCK includes what teachers actually do and the reasons for their actions as well as what they know (Baxter & Lederman, 1999).

In accordance with the above, the intention was to observe each Grade 9 NS teacher when teaching one NS topic from beginning to end to get a complete picture of the role of CK on PCK. In the process of lesson observations, the researcher realised that it was not possible to incorporate learners’ socio-cultural background meaningfully in all the content in a topic. As a result, the researcher ended up observing sectionsof four different topics in order to maximise the capturing of important and relevant data for the study.

Because it is not possible to observe everything in a lesson, a framework for observation was used to make manageable the complex reality observed (Patton, 1990). Therefore observations were made on the everyday classroom teachers’ practices using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (Sawada, Piburn, Falconer, Turley, Benford & Bloom, 2000). This protocol is an observational instrument used by mathematics and

science evaluators of professional development projects to observe classroom content implementation, classroom culture and learner participation (Sawada et al, 2000). The RTOP instrument is based on recommendations from the National Science Education Standards Project (National Academy of Science, 1996). The instrument is calibrated with five indicators from 0, which means ‘never occurred’, to 4, which means ‘very descriptive’. RTOP was an appropriate instrument to guide and analyse classroom observations where NS was taught whilst incorporating learners’ socio-cultural practices, experiences and beliefs. RTOP measures the extent to which a classroom teacher engages in teaching strategies that build learner content knowledge in a manner consistent with reformed teaching. Each RTOP subscale is described below to show how the CK was investigated.

Subscale 1: Lesson Design and Implementation

This examines how the design and application of a lesson is sufficient to support learner understanding. This determines how the teacher organises the lesson to address learners' preconceptions from other classes and everyday experiences, and to provide opportunities to explore aspects of the topic prior to formal instruction. Research indicates that some of the many preconceptions learners bring to the science classroom may be misconceptions, which the teacher should strive to address through various interventions (NRC, 2000). The subscale also recognises the role of social construction of knowledge and seeks evidence of the teacher provision for opportunities for learners to work together in groups. Such learning communities make learners feel actively involved in the learning experience and this creates positive learning environments which are critical for motivating learning (Weinstein,etal.,2006).

Subscale 2: Propositional Pedagogical Knowledge

The subscale measures what the teacher knows, and how well they are able to organise and present material in a learner-oriented setting. It addresses the nature of the content the teacher presents and the level of their subject matter knowledge. Teachers should therefore deliberately show important aspects of the content presented (NRC, 2000), so that learners

their everyday lives or other science lessons or subjects they have taken. As such, this subscale identifies how new knowledge is integrated with other disciplines and real world applications with the intention to more positive learning experiences for the learners (NCTM, 2000).

Subscale 3: Procedural Pedagogical Knowledge

In this subscale assesses how the learners are engaged in the learning process are examined. It determines the level at which learners are involved in scientific ways of thinking (predicting, estimating, hypothesising, negotiating ideas, and alternative ways of reasoning) as this is vital for developing critical thinking skills in learners. Abd-El Khalick and Lederman (2000) noted that if more opportunities are given to learners to model authentic scientific tasks, they are more likely to start thinking scientifically. In this way learners think deeply about the content, consider their own learning and reflect upon both what they learned and how they learned it, which indicates learner self-regulation of learning (Zimmerman, 2001).

Subscale 4: Learner-learner Interaction

In reformed classes, learners actively communicate with one another as they explain their ideas and evaluate the ideas of others, which develops learners’ critical thinking skills. Learner-learner interactions may increase learner understanding of key concepts (Smith et al., 2009) and problem-solving abilities (Hake, 1997).

Subscale 5: Learner-teacher Interaction

This subscale addresses the culture of respect and comfort in the classroom as supported by both learners and teacher. It examines how the teacher fosters a culture where learners are comfortable to ask questions and have control over their own learning process. The teacher is patient, listens to learners, and acts as a resource during the learning process. Research indicates that learners learn best when they actively engage in learning (Hake, 1998), but they need to feel safe and comfortable in taking risks to do so (Pekrun, 2002). Such a learning environment both empowers learners to learn and increases their overall learning gains (Weinstein et al., 2006).

From the discussion above, it shows that RTOP is sensitive to measure the role of CK on teachers’ PCK. Equal time was spent in Thuli, Peter and Nhlamulo’s science classrooms between February and August to observe certain sections of the four topics, human reproduction, circulatory system, respiratory system and healthy diet. Observations were limited to the scheduled time each teacher devoted to Grade 9 NS teaching. In order to investigate teachers’ PCK, aspects such as content-specific teaching procedures and pedagogical representations such as laboratory work and demonstrations were identified. In other words, the science teachers were observed in various roles, including teaching the scientific concepts during the lessons, demonstrating an experiment, assisting and monitoring learners during classroom activities such as group discussion, practical work and projects or any fieldwork done outside the classroom or school environment (Table 3.4).

Each teacher was observed teaching10 lessons making a total of 30 lesson observations for the three teachers. Thuli was observed teaching her three Grade 9 NS classes and Peter was observed teaching three of his seven Grade 9 classes. On the other hand, Nhlamulo’s Grade 9 classes were grouped according to their home languages. As a result, he was observed teaching all three language speaking classes out of his five Grade 9 NS classes. The selection of only three classes per teacher instead of all was meant to determine the patterns of classroom interactions from lesson to lesson as learners’ socio-cultural practices, experiences and beliefs were incorporated. If only more time was available, the ideal situation was to observe a single class for each teacher from the beginning of the study until the end. However, spreading the observations over three classes for each teacher yielded important data as different learners were engaged in the science concepts in different ways. Table 3.4 shows the different Grade 9 classes and topics taught.

Table 3.4: Summary of lessons observed

Lesson Number

Thuli Nhlamulo Peter

1 9 F: The male

reproductive structure and circumcision.

9E: The male reproductive structure and circumcision

9D: The male

reproductive structure and circumcision

2 9H: The female

reproductive system and causes of infertility in humans.

9A: The female

reproductive system and importance of reproduction.

9 G: The female reproductive system (structure and function).

3 9D: Use of science and

research in solving infertility problems.

9A: Causes of infertility in humans.

9E: Causes of infertility in humans. 4 9 H: Surrogacy and sociocultural implications. 9C: Structure of the respiratory system. 9D: Surrogacy, research and ethical considerations.

5 9 F: The menstrual cycle

and associated myths.

9C: Gaseous exchange: Use of an analogy.

9D: Twins and traditional beliefs.

6 9H: Puberty and social

roles.

9E: Structure of the circulatory system.

9E: Puberty and societal expectations.

7 9D: Contraceptives: Use

of community members and resources.

9A: Blood circulatory system: Use of an analogy.

9G: Structure of the respiratory system: Designing models.

8 9F: Health diets of

different cultures: Making posters.

9A: Circulatory and respiratory system use of videos with animations.

9G: Assessment: writing a test.

9 9D: Practical: Food tests on traditional food.

9E: Health, diseases and diets in different

populations.

9E: Diet for different communities

10 9F: Practical: Food tests on traditional food.

9C: Practical on food tests. 9D: Practical on food tests

The letters and numbers in Table 3.4 (9C to 9H) indicate the labels for the different Grade 9 classes taught by the three teachers. It is important to note that generally the same lesson topics were observed for each teacher, which enabled the researcher to identify how each teacher incorporated CK in the topics and how the teachers’ knowledge domains were transformed into PCK. This is because PCK is subject- and topic-specific knowledge; hence all views about PCK centre on subjects and on a particular topic (Grossman, 1990; Shulman, 1987; van Driel et al., 1998).

In helping teachers improve the next lesson, the researcher assisted teachers during planning to identify and select suitable learning experiences and activities and to sequence content appropriately. Because of the careful planning of these lessons teachers avoided some of the pitfalls Bryan and Abell (1999) observed on a group of science teachers who focused on classroom management instead of the intended teaching and learning process.

It should be noted that in this current study, though the researcher assisted in the identification of suitable activities or teaching strategies as mentioned above, it was up to the individual teacher to decide how to teach their lessons. As such, whether a teacher ignored important aspects of learners’ socio-cultural practices, experiences and beliefs or abandon the learners’ ideas half way through the lesson due to certain constraints, as a non- participant observer, the researcher could not influence the flow of the teaching and learning process.

The researcher’s capacity to collect as much information as possible was achieved by recording all observations in field notes and also videotaping with the teachers’ consent. Observation notes and videos were analysed soon after each observation using RTOP (Appendix H). This helped in determining important issues arising from the lessons for the purpose of improving the planning and teaching of the next lesson, and this also helped the researcher in designing questions for interviews done after the lessons. Lesson observations showed how the Grade 9 NS teachers translated their science knowledge and theory of science teaching and learning into practice which forms the core concept of PCK.

3.7.4 Interviews done after the lessons

Every lesson observation was followed by an interview. A semi-structured interview schedule (Appendix E) was used mainly to address the fourth research sub-question: How do teachers reflect on the role of CK in the teaching of NS? Important data was also obtained for the third research sub-question: What role does CK play in the PCK of Grade 9 NS teachers in township schools? In carrying out interviews done after the lessons, particular classroom episodes noted during lesson observations were used by the researcher to facilitate a process of stimulated recall, so that the teacher’s/learners’ actions could be

used as a way of revisiting the situation and therefore exploring the nature of the teaching and learning process (Loughran et al., 2004).

At this stage the teachers were forced to reflect as they elaborated and clarified practices observed when teaching. Reflection is necessary for teachers’ empowerment in general and for making sense of their teaching practices in particular (Beijaard & Verloop, 1996). It was through these interviews done after the lessons that the teachers’ reflections on the role of CK in the teaching of NS were elucidated. interviews done after the lessons were therefore meant to probe the teachers’ thinking and understanding in terms of the relationship between their knowledge domains and to reflect upon what they thought they did and why. Interviews done after the lessons formed a very rich source of data that confirmed or disconfirmed the researcher’s initial ideas during classroom observations. Ten interviews were conducted for each teacher after the lessons and each lasted approximately 30 to 45 minutes. Field notes were taken. In addition, the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim soon after each interview. All interviews were conducted in quiet places to avoid distortions of recordings and disruptions of the interview processes. Semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to ask questions in any order and as a result, the researcher’s areas of interest were pursued (Michael, Lewis-Beck, Bryman & Liao, 2004). Interviews also provided in-depth responses and allowed for thorough exploration of teachers’ thoughts, knowledge, experiences and views. Immediate follow-up and clarifications could be done easily which also provided a richer and more accurate data.