Browsing by Author "Laugksch, Rudiger C"

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    An assessment of the use of the Jackass penguin as a sampler of the marine environment
    (1989) Laugksch, Rudiger C
    In this thesis the use of the jackass penguin Spheniscus demersus as a sampler of the marine environment is assessed. Between February 1987 and July 1988, 638 monthly diet samples were obtained from adult jackass penguins at west - (Marcus and Jutten Islands) and southwest-coast (Dyer Island) colonies off South Africa, supplementing data collected since 1980. Penguin diet was compared over time and between colonies in order to establish the presence or absence of qualitative changes or quantified trends in the biology of pelagic schooling fish species important to the South African purseseine fishery, viz. anchovy Engraulis capensis, pilchard Sardinops ocellatus, maasbanker Trachurus trachurus and red-eye Etrumeus whiteheadii. The principal prey of jackass penguins and major contributor to commercial catches is anchovy and, consequently, the biology of this fish species was emphasized. Monthly and annual trends in prey composition and anchovy size-range were related to the availability, abundance and distribution of the penguins' prey species in the marine environment.
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    The classroom implementation of indigenous knowledge in the science curriculum by science teachers in the Western Cape province, South Africa
    (2015) Jacobs, Keith Ronald; Rochford, Kevin; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    The South African policy document of the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) for Natural Science (Department of Education, 2002), the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Life Science (Department of Education, 2003), and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for Natural Science and Life Science (Department of Education, 2011) recognises and affirms the critical role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in science education. These policy documents expect the science teachers to integrate indigenous knowledge in their lessons. This study strove to establish how selected high school science teachers in the Western Cape Province responded to the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in their teaching. The present study employed a multi-method approach, involving different research methods used in parallel or sequence but are not integrated until inferences are made (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie & Turner, 2007). This study took place in two main sequential data collection phases, namely, the quantitative data collection phase ((QUAN) and the qualitative data collection phase (qual). This contemporary approach was employed in order to provide credible and trustworthy answers to the following research questions, namely, 1) To what extent are the science teachers in the Western Cape Province integrating scientific and indigenous knowledge, as required by the Department of Education? If not, what are their reasons for this? 2) What are the teachers' views about and understanding of the nature of science and indigenous knowledge as well as their views on how the two worldviews can be integrated in the classroom? 3) How effective was the treatment in enhancing the teachers' ability to integrate science and indigenous knowledge in the classroom? 4) To what extent can the model of Snively and Corsiglia (2001) be useful for measuring change as the teachers implement the integration of indigenous knowledge in the science classroom? For the QUAN phase, the researcher adapted a questionnaire and a new questionnaire, the Nature of Indigenous Knowledge Questionnaire (NOIKQ), was developed. The purpose of this questionnaire was to obtain a detailed description of high schools science teachers' understanding of scientific and indigenous knowledge, as well as the problems the teachers encounter in their implementation of Learning Outcome 3 of Life Sciences and Natural Science. After the pilot study of the questionnaire and subsequent modifications to it, data were collected. Convenience sampling and purposeful sampling characterised the samples of respondents and schools. This sampling strategy ensured a total sample of 370 high school science teachers in 80 public schools, represented by urban and township schools in the Western Cape Province. The results of the QUAN phase indicated that the teachers did not receive training on how to integrate science and indigenous knowledge, and that they did not have sufficient knowledge of indigenous knowledge to teach this aspect confidently to their learners. An inquiry was embarked on in order to train the science teachers in how to integrate indigenous knowledge in the science classrooms. A workshop was chosen as an intervention to improve the teaching skills of the teachers and to develop new methods of teaching. A quasi-experimental design was chosen to establish how effective the intervention was. In this quasi-experimental design, one group of five teachers was assigned to the intervention, whilst the other group of six teachers received no intervention at all. This intervention was based on the model of Snively and Corsiglia (2001) for integrating IK in the science curriculum. These teachers had participated in the survey and were selected for their particular interest in the research study. Classroom observations and three teacher and six learner interviews were used for collecting qualitative data to establish the effectiveness of the intervention. A finding from this study is that the worldviews that the teachers bring into the classroom have implications for approaches they take to include IKS in their lessons. The results of the qualitative phase indicated that, given the teachers background (i.e., cultural, political and social), teachers interpreted and implemented IKS in different ways in the curriculum. The teachers who attended the workshop and were trained to integrate indigenous knowledge in the science curriculum were more confident than those teachers who were not trained to integrate IK in the science curriculum. This increased confidence resulted from the workshop which enhanced the teachers' IK content knowledge and made them less dependent on the learners for examples of IKS. The study offers important implications and recommendations to teachers and policy- makers regarding the implementation of the integration of IKS in the science curriculum, as well as fruitful avenues for further research.
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    Demographic profile and perceived in-service education and training needs of secondary Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province
    (2003) Rakumako, Angeline Mosenya; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    It is now generally acknowledged that effective and sustainable in-service education and training (INSET) programmes require, first, adequate information to be available on teachers' demographics and, second, for teachers' views on professional development to be taken into consideration. Neither kind of information is currently available for Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province of South Africa in a reliable manner. Consequently, this study has as its objectives 1) to determine the demographic profile of secondary Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province, 2) to establish the perceived INSET needs of these teachers, and 3) to examine possible associations between demographic profiles and perceived INSET needs of secondary Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province.
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    Describing and understanding the enacted curriculum of selected Grade 10 Life Science teachers in the Western Cape, South Africa
    (2017) Petersen, Andrew John; Laugksch, Rudiger C; Clark, Jonathan
    This study was conducted in a school in the Western Cape, South Africa situated in a community where learners came from difficult social backgrounds. Previous research has alluded to the challenges faced by teachers equipped with inadequate skills and a lack of effective modelling or mentoring to implement a formal curriculum that is outcomes-based and learner centred. The focus of the study was to uncover the enacted curriculum (and the underlying reasons for the enactment) of four Grade 10 Life Sciences Teachers. This multiple case study is based on data collection strategies that included video and audio-transcripts of the lessons as well as the use of additional relevant documents such as, for example, notes from lesson observations, and learner notebooks. These data were coded using NUDIST and then further analysed using the Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK) evidence-reporting table (PCK ERT). Interviews were conducted before the teaching events to allow for content representations (CoRes) to be developed. Overall the teachers lacked planning and the habit of reflection in and of practice. Hence video-stimulated interviews conducted after the teaching events allowed for Pedagogical and Professional experience Repertoires (PaP-eRs) to be developed in order to describe (from a teachers' perspective) what teachers did and why they did what they did. Teachers had varying backgrounds and experience and displayed very individualised and different enactments of the curriculum but they all used a consistent didactic approach in their teaching. The absence of teacher efficacy and the lack of integration of the PCK components limited the transformation of the content in any meaningful way and hence resulted in weak PCK. The relevance of PCK ERT as a descriptive framework for PCK in the context of this research is questioned on epistemic grounds. Factors identified that constrained the enacted practices of teachers included teachers' belief, orientation, poor Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK), school context and their perceptions of learners.
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    Exploring coherence of grade six students' views of the nature of science (NOS) and their views of the natural world : a South African study
    (2011) Sokolinski, Robyn; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    The study therefore comprised three parts that were related to each of these aspects. In the first part of the study (i.e., NOS), the focus was on the students’ views of the nature of scientists’ work and the role/purpose of science and, more specifically, on the students’ levels of understanding about five key aspects of NOS identified by N.G. Lederman (2007). These five aspects include the tentative, empirically-based, theory-laden, socially- and culturally-embedded, and imaginative/creative aspects of NOS.
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    The implementation of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) in Grade 8 Natural Science classrooms in the Western Cape
    (2009) Critien, Candice; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    The present study aimed to monitor the extent to which educators implement an outcomes-based environment in Grade 8 Natural Science classrooms in the Western Cape. The results from the current study in the Western Cape were compared to those collected in a matching study done by Aldridge, Laugksch, Seopa and Fraser (2006) in the Limpopo Province. The comparison is essential as it provides a general impression of the extent to which educators implement an outcomes-based learning environment in South Africa. This study is a replication study of research conducted by Aldridge, et al. (2006), and makes use ofa mixed-methods research approach. The nature of the study lent itself to large scale collection of quantitative data. Quantitative data were collected in the form of questionnaires. The questionnaires used, were developed by Aldridge, et al. (2006) and called the Outcomes-Based Learning Environment Questionnaire (OBLEQ). The OBLEQ was adapted for use in the Western Cape by translating the already existing questionnaire into Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
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    Implementation of social constructivist learning environments in grade 9 natural science in the Western Cape Province, South Africa
    (2010) Luckay, Melanie B; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    This study monitored the transformation of Grade 9 Natural Science classrooms toward social constructivist learning environments in three contexts described by socio-economic status (SES) (i.e., high, medium and low SES). The study further assessed the influence of social constructivist learning environments on three key student outcomes, namely, students' attitude toward science, achievement and gender equity. The present study employed a mixed-method approach, which took place in two main sequential data collection phases, namely, the quantitative data collection phase (QUAN) and the qualitative data collection phase (qual). This contemporary approach was employed to triangulate the quantitative data with the qualitative data, in order to provide credible and trustworthy answers to the following research questions, namely, 1) To what extent do teachers implement social constructivist-based learning environments, required by the revised National Curriculum Statement, in Grade 9 Natural Science classes? 2) Do different levels of congruence of students' experienced (i.e., actual) and preferred learning environments in selected Grade 9 classrooms occur and, if so, why? 3) Does the students' background, described in terms of their socio-economic status, influence their perceptions of their learning environment? 4) What is the influence of social constructivist-based learning environments in promoting student outcomes of attitude toward science, achievement, and gender equity in three socio-economic contexts? For the QUAN phase, a newly developed instrument, the'Social Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (SCLES)'was developed. The questionnaire assessed students' perceptions of six aspects of the learning environment. Four of the aspects were assessed using dimensions that were adopted and adapted from past learning environment questionnaires (namely, Scientific Investigations, Personal Relevance, Collaboration, Critical Voice and Uncertainty in Science). Two dimensions were developed specifically for the present study in order to contextualize the questionnaire to the requirements of the new curriculum (namely, Metacognition and Respect for Difference). The student outcome, Attitude toward Science, was taken directly from one of the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA), and an achievement test was developed to assess the skills related to the drawing of straight line graphs, as well as predicting from and interpreting information from a straight line graph. iii After the pilot study of the questionnaire and subsequent modifications to it, data were collected from a random sample meticulously chosen to reflect the heterogenous nature of schools in the Western Cape Province. The sample was stratified according to the education districts that the schools were located in, and the SES of the schools. This method of selecting the sample'as recommended by Creswell (2003)'ensured a total random stratified sample of 1955 Grade 9 Natural Science students in one class in 52 schools representative of urban and public schools in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The results show, first, that SCLES and the Attitude toward Science scale were valid and reliable, suggesting that SCLES can be used with confidence in Grade 9 Natural Science classes. Second, in order to describe the 52 classes using SCLES, a one-way MANOVA and effect sizes showed that students preferred a more positive learning environment than the one that they presently perceived on all six SCLES scales. These results highlight educationally important differences between students' perceptions of the actual and preferred learning environments in classrooms. Third, students' perceptions were compared by SES using a one-way MANOVA, as well as a Tukey HSD post hoc test. These results highlight that SES is a factor that is influential in describing differences between students' actual and preferred learning environment, as well as Attitude toward Science and achievement. Fourth, associations between SCLES, and the three student outcomes were examined. The scale Attitudes toward Science and the achievement test were examined using simple correlation and multiple regression analyses, while gender equity was examined using one-way MANOVA for repeated measures. These results crucially suggest that in order for teachers to maximize the student outcomes, they should be sensitive to dimensions perceived as important by students in different SES contexts, as there is no 'one size fits all' approach to teaching in a social constructivist learning environment. The study offers important implications and recommendations to teachers and policy-makers regarding social constructivist learning environments, as well as fruitful avenues for further research.
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    Standards of South African Senior Certificate Biology examinations : 1994 to 2007. Volume 1 : Chapters and references.
    (2012) Crowe, Anna Aletta; Laugksch, Rudiger C; Dunne, Tim
    Public examinations, such as the South African Senior Certificate (SC) examinations at the end of Grade 12, signal two messages to the society in which they operate: first, the competencies that are valued, that is, its standards; second, the required level of mastery in these competencies that are construed as indicators of success. The SC examinations certified successful students as competent to enter the workforce and, if they obtained a matriculation exemption, qualified them for admission to tertiary study. The SC was not a part of an explicit standards-based curriculum, and there is thus little understanding, but much public speculation, about the relationship between student achievement in the SC examinations, competency and standards. In an attempt to understand this relationship - with a particular focus on the role of standards - in the SC Biology examinations over a period of time, the answer to the following research question was sought: What did the SC Biology examinations in South Africa assess; did their focus change during the period 1994 to 2007; and, if so, what did this change mean?. Both in South Africa and internationally, "standards" is an often-used educational term, the meaning of which has become confused in the literature and by public use. In this study, a methodology to make explicit the standards inherent within the SC Biology examinations - and the relationship between standards and student achievement - was developed, described and applied.
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    A study of life sciences projects in science talent quest competitions in the Western Cape, South Africa, with special reference to scientific skills and knowledge
    (2011) Molefe, Musetsi Leonard; Laugksch, Rudiger C
    In 2003, the South African Department of Education released its National Curriculum Statement for Schools, Grades 10–12 (General), for Life Sciences. The curriculum emphasises that scientific skills are best developed within the context of an expanding framework of knowledge. ESKOM Expos for Young Scientists (i.e., science talent quest competitions) provide such a context. The present study focuses on educational outcomes of selected 2007 Expo participants, namely, scientific skills (that is, process skills, scientific inquiry, problem solving and critical thinking skills) and Life Sciences knowledge, as well as on the opportunities the Expos provided for the students to develop such educational outcomes.