Foundation phase teachers’ interpretation of the life skills programme with regard to the teaching of natural science

Abstract

<p>Scientific literacy should be promoted through the teaching of science from Grade R and for this to happen, teachers need to understand what science should be taught and how it should be taught. This interpretive, qualitative study explores the degree to which four foundation phase teachers interpret the life skills programme with regard to the teaching of natural science by using an adapted version of a theory of implementation. Analyses of a questionnaire, documents (Revised National Curriculum Statement and lesson plans) and interviews enabled us to build a picture of how each teacher interpreted the curriculum with regard to a number of constructs. The findings show that foundation phase teachers have great difficulty interpreting the curriculum because the foundation phase curriculum does not give clear guidance with regard to the teaching of science. Their poor content knowledge, the poor understanding of what integration of science in numeracy and literacy entails, as well as their poor understanding of the instructional methods used to teach science exacerbate the problem.</p>

Foundation phase science teacher identity: Exploring evolutionary module development to promote science teaching self-efficacy

“…The challenge is that each study area comes with its own constructs in the form of learning outcomes, content and skills and requires a robust understanding of the nature of the subject. Beni et al (2017) posit that FP teachers might not see the need, or even desire, to identify themselves as anything other than an FP specialist. Being a subject specialist entails more than one's perception of identity, it involves a certain degree of subject knowledge and a perception of one's ability to teach that subject, which is, teaching self-efficacy (Woolhouse & Cochrane 2010).…”

“…This suggests that FP teachers might not be sufficiently empowered to facilitate the development of the skills and subject knowledge required to teach science in the FP. One might reasonably expect a curriculum to support teachers, but according to Beni et al (2017), the curriculum does not provide sufficient guidance on the types of activities, neither does it provide guidance on how to integrate the science within the rest of the curriculum programme. Bosman (2009) concurs that the relevant policy documents do not provide any, or sufficient, guidance for the FP teacher on how to actually teach the prescribed topics and skills.…”

A critical analysis of CAPS for Life Skills in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3)

“…However, this is undoubtedly also true of teachers in schools who are expected to be generalists capable of teaching across the Foundation Phase curriculum (Beni, Stears, & James, 2017). Nor are we curriculum specialists with extensive knowledge of Bernstein's areas of expertise.…”

“…Krishna's (2013) research indicates that teachers are unable to do this. The Life Skills curriculum does not provide an outline or suggested sequence of the core concepts, skills, and attitudes required in each of these disciplines (see Malan's 2014 course outline for music), nor any guidance regarding teaching methods (Bernstein, 1996), a problem raised by Beni et al (2017).…”

“…This confirms the findings of Mosia (2011) who discovered that teachers find Life Skills difficult to teach because of inadequate preparation. The research of Beni et al (2017) focused on Natural Sciences. They show that teachers avoided teaching natural science, lacked specialised content knowledge, and were unable to integrate it into other subject areas.…”