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This research reports on the effectiveness of Polya Problem-Solving and Target-Task collaborative learning approaches in electricity amongst high school physics students. It also includes a gender focus. It was an experimental research with a pre-test post-test control group design. The experimental groups were exposed to Polya Problem-Solving approach and Target-Task collaborative learning approach while the control group were exposed to conventional teaching. A total of 180 students were selected and divided equally into three groups, 60 (male adolescent and female adolescent) each. The students were initially pre-tested, followed by teaching and learning in electricity using the treatments, and finally they were post-tested using the Performance Test in Current Electricity (PTCE). Data were analyzed quantitatively with descriptive statistics and ANCOVA, and the research hypotheses were tested at .05 alpha level of significance. The research confirmed that both the treatments, Polya Problem-Solving and Target-Task collaborative learning approaches enhanced the performance of the students based on gender and scoring abilities compared with the conventional teaching. Keywords: collaborative learning, conventional teaching, gender, performance, physics students’, Polya problem-solving, target-task.

An adequate understanding and classroom application of the Nature of Science (NOS) has become imperative for science teachers. Current research in senior high school science teachers’ understanding of NOS is extensive but junior high school natural sciences teachers’ understanding of NOS and planning of lessons requires further exploration. Six junior high school natural sciences teachers’ understandings of NOS, and how they translated their NOS understandings into lesson planning in South Africa were explored. The conceptual framework of the NOS used in this research is drawn from the seven NOS aspects of explicit and implicit teaching of NOS. Data were collected from teachers’ academic background questionnaires, Views of Nature of Science (VNOS(C)) questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and lesson planning documents of teachers. Data were analysed descriptively and interpretively. The findings revealed that junior high school teachers possessed inadequate understanding of NOS, and that their planning for teaching NOS was hardly influenced by their understanding of NOS aspects. The teachers’ work-schedules and lesson plans showed little explicit links of NOS aspects to lesson content. The research findings have implications for the preparation of lessons with NOS aspects linked to the curriculum content. Keywords: junior high school teachers, lesson planning, nature of science, natural sciences.