Browsing by Author "Rollnick, Marissa"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Characterising learning in a demonstrator community serving first-year chemistry students at a South African university
    (2010) Wallace, P Karen; Davidowitz, Bette; Rollnick, Marissa
    Teaching assistants (or demonstrators as they are called at South African universities) have become indispensable to the delivery of teaching particularly to first-year students, due mainly to the growing need in tertiary institutions to balance increasing student numbers and needs with pressure on academic staff time and institutional resources. At most universities the role of teaching assistants falls to postgraduate students who are being trained in disciplinary research. In addition to funding their own studies, their participation in teaching activities is increasingly being recognised as preparation for possible careers in tertiary teaching. This study explored learning in a community of demonstrators in the first-year laboratories of a chemistry department at a South African university.
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    Improving performance in a second year chemistry course: An evaluation of a tutorial scheme on the learning of chemistry
    (2005) Davidowitz, Bette; Rollnick, Marissa
    Throughput of students is a concern for academic departments especially since it will be the basis of a new funding formula for tertiary institutions. In order to reduce content for increased mastery, and ensure student engagement with chemical concepts, tutorials were introduced for two of the second year chemistry sub-disciplines at UCT in the place of some formal lectures. The impact of this innovation was investigated using questionnaires, interviews and a study of opportunistic data such as examination results. Analysis of the data showed that the overall pass rate increased noticeably as did the number of students achieving high marks. Student, tutor and lecturer feedback lent credence to the belief that the improvement was largely due to the introduction of the tutorial scheme. In addition, some noteworthy differences between the sub-disciplines were identified. Some of these differences were attributed to the lecturer’s understanding of his own teaching.
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    Increasing the signal to noise ratio in a chemistry laboratory. Improving a practical for academic development students
    (2003) Davidowitz, Bette; Rollnick, Marissa; Fakudze, Cynthia
    In practical sessions students lack sufficient time or opportunity for deep processing of information. If the signal to noise ratio is too low, it can obscure the ‘chemical message’ which the lecturer is trying to convey. This study reports on an action research driven attempt to improve on a Hess’s Law experiment, well known in most first year curricula. Data collected in 2000 indicated that students struggled primarily because there were too many practical demands to allow them to focus on the concepts involved. The exercise was thus divided into two sessions in 2001, the first to address the issues related to techniques required, the second, similar to the experiment in 2000. Analysis of data collected in 2001 shows that the changes made a significant impact on the effectiveness of the laboratory session.
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    Mapping the learning trajectories of physical sciences teachers' topic specific knowledge for teaching chemical bonding
    (2017) Toerien, René; Rollnick, Marissa
    Education in South Africa is a national concern and the training and professional development of teachers, especially in science and mathematics, has consequently been prioritised by the National Government. More than 60 percent of the teachers in South Africa are older than 40 years of age, which means that within the next 10-15 years many experienced teachers will exit the system, leaving a younger and less experienced cohort of teachers behind. This study aims to make explicit the learning trajectories of physical sciences teachers, specifically with respect to their knowledge for teaching chemical bonding, in order to support other teachers and thereby accelerating the route to expertise. Learning can be viewed as change, and change has a trajectory. Mapping the learning trajectories, and the significant events that influenced teachers' learning over time, can give insight into how the change had taken place. This study used a mixed methods approach within the pragmatic research paradigm to map learning trajectories for a group of 60 South African physical sciences teachers. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the unique knowledge held by teachers, was used for the theoretical framing of the study. An adapted version of the Model of Teacher Professional Knowledge and Skill, including PCK, was used as an analytical framework. A measuring instrument for topic specific knowledge for teaching chemical bonding was designed and validated using the Rasch measurement model. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the teachers' responses to the instrument and a grounded analysis of story-line interview data from ten purposively selected teachers were used to identify the factors that played a role in the development of the teachers' knowledge. A further qualitative analysis of PCK episodes from the interview data revealed how the above factors influenced the teachers' knowledge. Findings revealed that teaching the same content multiple times and at multiple grade levels, embracing changes in the curriculum as opportunities for learning, and further studies at tertiary level, especially completing post-graduate studies in education, all played a role in the teachers' perceived shifts in their topic specific knowledge for teaching (TSKFT). Three learning trajectories were identified for the teachers in this study: teachers shifted towards deeper conceptual understanding of the content and used more sophisticated explanatory frameworks; teachers shifted towards more integrated topic specific knowledge for teaching; and teachers shifted from being text book bound and teacher-focussed towards becoming more student-focussed in their approach to teaching. The findings from this study provide guidelines for professional development programmes in terms of differentiated support to teachers according to their career stages and the inclusion of content specific training programmes which makes teaching for conceptual progression explicit. A further recommendation includes encouraging teachers to embark on post-graduate studies in education as this played a pivotal role in shifting teachers' topic specific knowledge for teaching chemical bonding.
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    The story of a physiclal science curriculum: transformation or transmutation?
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Nakedi, Mpunki; Taylor, Dale; Mundalamo, Fhatuwani; Rollnick, Marissa; Mokeleche, Maebeebe
    Recently Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were introduced in South Africa in response to confusion precipitated by previous curriculum documents. The purpose of this paper is to explore that confusion in the subject 'Physical Sciences' and consider the nature of the transformation from the previous curriculum by looking at curriculum documents and examination papers. We present a two phase curriculum change model which suggests that congruency between curriculum documents and examinations is critical for effective curriculum change. We analyse the pre-CAPS curriculum, the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), on its own terms by using the stated outcomes as our reference point. Our analysis reveals that the weighting and conceptualization of the outcomes shifted through successive documents, which undermined congruency between the documents and meant that content-oriented science masqueraded as inquiry-oriented science. This led to a retreat from the original vision of weighting skills and relevance equally with content. The examinations took this retreat a step further. Evidence of the retreat is that the nature of the questions asked in the 2008 examinations on the NCS was similar to that of the 2007 examinations on the previous curriculum which had not changed since apartheid. However, in the NCS examinations there was a small shift towards contextualisation and inquiry oriented science. The retreat means the vision of transformation which was the rationale for the NCS curriculum was eroded – instead of transformation, there was transmutation back to the old apartheid curriculum. The Physical Sciences CAPS cements the retreat and creates new confusion by changing the syllabus again without signposting the change.
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    Students learning-approach profiles in relation to their university experience and success
    (Taylor & Francis, 2008) Rollnick, Marissa; Davidowitz, Bette; Keane, Moyra; Bapoo, Abdool; Magadla, Lizo
    What is the connection between student success and their approaches to learning? Do learning approaches develop with university experience? We explored these questions by constructing profiles using a specially developed fixed response instrument and administering this to students at two similar South African universities. Groups consisted of access course applicants, access course students, and first and second year mainstream chemistry students. Successful senior students showed more sophisticated approaches to learning than other groups. Unsuccessful students fell into two different categories: those using a surface approach, and predominantly first generation tertiary students who used deep approaches. We discuss possible reasons for the latter group's lack of success. These findings raise questions for academic development practitioners advocating the use of deep approaches. The instrument was found to be useful for both diagnostic and pedagogic purposes.
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    What lies at the heart of good undergraduate teaching? A case study in organic chemistry
    (The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2011) Davidowitz, Bette; Rollnick, Marissa
    Teaching organic chemistry at the undergraduate level has long been regarded as challenging and students are often alienated by the mass of detail which seems to characterise the subject. In this paper we investigate the practice of an accomplished lecturer by trying to capture and portray his pedagogical content knowledge, PCK, in order to reveal his tacit knowledge as a resource for others. Data analysed from interviews and a set of five introductory lectures showed the framing of Big Ideas designed to underpin later work in the course. Five manifestations of his practice emerged strongly from the data analysis, namely Explanations, Representations, Interaction with Students, Curricular Saliency and Topic Specific Strategies. This realisation allowed us to make inferences about his underlying knowledge and beliefs regarding how the discipline should be taught. We found that the most important aspect of his practice was his recognition of the basic underlying concepts to be mastered before starting the main part of the course, and his strong beliefs related to the learning of the discipline. The extraction and portrayal of these practices are a valuable resource for novice lecturers.