Mathematics and science teacher education in South Africa: A review of research, policy and practice in times of change

Critical Friendship, Collaboration and Trust as a Basis for Self-Determined Professional Development: A case of science teaching

“…In South Africa, a further demand on the conceptual literacy of the Life Sciences teacher is the new content foci such as HIV/AIDS, evolution, environmental education, cloning and genetically modified products. In a review of research on science teacher education in this country Adler, Pournara, Taylor, Thorne, and Moletsane (2009) observe that due to the knowledge growth in these fields, teachers need to engage with scientific literature in order to keep abreast of new developments. Teachers also need to transform their new knowledge 'into useful forms of representations of ideas' such as 'powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations and demonstrations', which will allow for easier comprehension by learners (Shulman, 1986, p. 9).…”

South African rural teachers’ reflections on their problems of practice: taking modest steps in professional development

“…Teachers' time was taken up by demands to attend training workshops for revisions to the school curriculum. What and how teachers are learning in the context of the many curriculum reforms is one of the trends identified by Adler et al (2009) in their survey of science and mathematics teacher education research in South Africa. This research study aims to contribute more understanding to how the teachers who were reskilling to teach a new school subject (ML) were coping with the demands of teaching.…”

“…Many research studies point out the importance of teachers' conceptual knowledge in developing students' understanding (e.g., Ball and Bass 2000;Peressini et al 2004;Adler et al 2009;Kriek and Grayson 2009). In South Africa, some studies have reported that teachers have a poor conceptual understanding of mathematics which limits their interpretation of C2005 and their attempts to develop conceptual understanding in their learners (Taylor and Vinjevold 1999).…”

“…The vision for a democratic and competent society aligns well with curricula from first world countries. In South Africa it has to be mapped onto the context of deep inequality (outlined above), which is exacerbated in mathematics, science and technology education because of the apartheid policy of deliberate under-education and neglect in the sciences (Adler et al 2009). A new school subject ("learning area" as subjects are called in C2005) Mathematical Literacy (ML), was introduced in 2006 to all learners who did not qualify or who did not elect to take core academic mathematics from Grade 10-12.…”

Using School Mathematics to Understand Cultural Activities: How Far Can We Go?

“…Such professional learning communities are largely linked to teacher learning in and from practice. Adler (2009) has suggested that such models should consider "a range of orientations… all of which cohere with the conception of teaching as knowing-in-action-in-context: learning to teach requires the study of the act of teaching". Effective teacher professional development has been characterised as being long-term, collaborative, school-based and focused on student learning (Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler, 2002).…”