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This paper examines the influence of teachers' learning styles on their classroom teaching and learning practices. The reported mixed method study was conducted in various school districts in a large province in South Africa. The data was collected with the use of questionnaires administered to primary school natural science teachers and classroom observations made during a science lesson. The study examined the preferred learning styles of primary school science teachers. It then investigated how they taught natural science and attempted to establish if their learning styles influenced teaching and learning in their classrooms. Findings from the questionnaires showed that most teachers preferred or learned better partly through visual, active, sequential and intuitive learning styles. However, analyses of classroom observations revealed a contradiction as the teachers' proclaimed learning styles were not emulated, translated into or visible in their classroom teaching practices. The researcher argues and concludes that the teachers' learning styles do not necessary shape or influence their classroom teaching practices.

This study is based on an analysis of the Sesotho folktale Kgubetswana le Talane. The folktale is analysed using the theory of binary opposition. This theory is also consolidated with Vladimir Propp’s approach to folktales, which is used to analyse the meanings of symbols and character roles in the story. The implications of the differences and similarities of Kgubetswana le Talane with other folktales are discussed. Efforts to interpret the meanings of symbols in the story were also made by analysing the animal characters and examining these animal symbols through the understanding of the Basotho culture. The paradox between the protagonist and the antagonist is essential in the creation of the story and its themes.

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