I am a post graduate student at the University of South Africa working on completing a Masters degree in Natural Science Education. At the beginning of the third quarter of 2013 academic year I will be collecting data regarding my study. I will be using reading and writing strategies in the physical science classroom in one classroom while in another class teaching will continue the way it used to be. Your participation in this study is voluntary, and you may choose later that you no longer want to participate. I will understand and respect your decision whether you choose to participate or not. I will not be upset with you if you choose not to participate. The way that work is done in the classroom will not change and you will not have any extra work by choosing to participate. At the beginning of the unit, you will take a pre-test over the content of mechanics. I am not going to give you the answers right after the test. Instead, we will continue with the mechanics module. You will take the same test again at the end of the module. There will be no new information on the test. This will hopefully just help you to better understand what the questions are asking. I will compare your marks to see if once we discussed the meanings of these words, you will have scored higher marks. At the end of the mechanics module, I will randomly select some of you to participate in the focused group interview. The interview will be on what we did during the module. All learners will complete this activity as a part of our classroom activities. However, your marks on the pre and post tests will not affect your classroom marks. You are not taking any risks by participating in this study. By signing the consent form you are allowing me to include your mark in my data. I will not use your name on any of the information that I use in my dissertation, I will replace your name with a number. All of your information will be kept confidential. This means that no one will be able to tell who received what marks. If you have any questions as we are working on this, please ask me. I would be glad to explain it to you.
Regards Date
22 August2013 Mr. Hlabane AS
APPENDIX 5
(Letter to the teachers of the classes) Dear Teachers
I am a postgraduate student at the University Of South Africa. I am currently working on my masters of Education in Natural Sciences Education. I am conducting a study for my dissertation. My study will look at the effects of incorporating English language in physical sciences classroom. In the third term of 2013 academic year I will be working with Grade 10A and 10B in collecting data for my study. One of the classes will be the experimental group while other class will be the control group. While the learners seem to be excited about the topic, the curriculum is difficult. My study should enhance their learning experience. I will be using reading and comprehension strategies throughout the module in the experimental group while in the other class teaching will continue as normal. None of the learners’ Physical Sciences content will be compromised. I will be looking at a variety of ways to teach the learners to better read; understand and in turn, answer questions. At the beginning of the unit, learners will take a pre-test over content of mechanics. We will not go over these tests, I will simply examine and record the data, learner’s name will not appear on any of the materials released, and a number will be assigned. We will then continue with science class as usual. However, I will be embedding reading and comprehension strategies right in their daily lessons for the experimental group. We will work our way through the mechanics chapter using these strategies. At the end of the chapter, I will give the Learners the same test they previously took. My goal is that as we work through our current module, focusing on the reading and comprehension of the questions, the learner’s mark will improve due to the material they had used , by learning how to answer the questions. My intention is to improve their ability to show what they know, by understanding what the questions are asking. All learners will participate in the regular classroom activities. I am very excited about the findings as I truly believe that all learners are capable of improvement. All information obtained from this study will be kept confidential. Learner’s names will not be included in any of the material that I submit. Their participation is voluntary and they are free to withdraw from the study at the later stage. I encourage you to review the progress taking place in the classroom. You can contact me or the University supervisor. If you have any questions regarding the study, please contact me at [email protected] or my university supervisor Dr Nkopodi, University of South Africa, at [email protected].
Thanking you in advance for your cooperation, and as always, I look forward to working with the learners in your class.
Regards Date
15 May 2013 Mr. Hlabane AS