Using the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving African baskets as a cultural tool to mediate learning of chemical and physical changes
- Authors: Kakambi, William Mafelezo
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Ethnoscience -- Namibia , Culturally relevant pedagogy , Traditional ecological knowledge -- Namibia , Basket making -- Namibia , Dyes and dyeing -- Namibia , Pedagogical content knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177268 , vital:42805
- Description: Literature has revealed that indigenous learners, especially in many African nations are subjected to learning school science in unfamiliar contexts. Learners in Namibia where this study was conducted are no exception. In consequence, learners experience cognitive conflict between school science and the experiences learnt at home and in the community. This is exacerbated, in part, by the fact that science teachers do not seem to know how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching. As an attempt to address this problem, some scholars call for the integration of indigenous knowledge into the science curriculum to provide a much needed context for learning science. It is against this background that this study sought to use the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving baskets as a cultural tool to mediate learning of chemical and physical changes. Underpinned by the interpretivist and Ubuntu paradigms, the study employed a qualitative case study research design. The study was conducted in the Zambezi region in Namibia. Four grade 8 Physical Science teachers, an expert community member, and a critical friend were involved as participants in this study. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, workshop discussions, participatory observation, and journal reflections. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Mavhunga and Rollnick’s topic specific pedagogical content knowledge were used as theoretical and analytical frameworks, respectively. A thematic approach to data analysis was employed to come up with sub-themes and themes. The findings of the study revealed that all the participating teachers in this study had never been exposed to ideas on how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching. As a result, they all embraced and valued the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving as relevant and useful in the teaching and learning of chemical and physical changes. This study recommends that there is a need to empower science teachers on how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching in order to make science accessible and relevant to their learners’ lived worlds. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04
Exploring how Grade 9 Physical Science teachers mediate learning of the topic of chemical changes
- Authors: Likando, Orrice Munukayumbwa
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Culturally relevant pedagogy , Pedagogical content knowledge , Prior learning -- Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177918 , vital:42890
- Description: The examiners’ reports for 2013-2018 indicated that learners consistently perform poorly in questions based on chemical changes. My assumption is that the reason why learners are challenged with understanding the topic of chemical changes could be due to the way this topic is taught. It is against this background that this study explored how grade 9 Physical Science teachers mediated learning of the topic of chemical changes. The study is underpinned by an interpretive paradigm. Within the interpretive paradigm, a qualitative case study research design was employed. It was conducted at two different schools in the Otjozondjupa region with two Physical Science teachers. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, lesson observations, stimulated recall interviews, and teachers’ reflections. The study is informed by Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory together with Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge as the theoretical frameworks. A thematic approach to data analysis was adopted. That is, qualitative data were analysed inductively to come up with sub-themes to form themes. Moreover, validation and trustworthiness were completed through data triangulation, member checking, and watching videotaped lessons with the participants. The findings of this study revealed that the topic of chemical changes has many examples which can be used during mediation. Teachers seemed to be aware of integrating learners’ experiences into their lessons. Furthermore, they were aware that they should improvise resources during mediation of learning. In contrast, during lesson observations, the findings revealed an imbalance between this awareness and the actual knowledge of using easily accessible materials, and the elicitation and integration of prior knowledge throughout the science lessons. Moreover, hands-on practical activities were lacking in the mediation process and instead, traditional methods of teaching tended to dominate. Nonetheless, teachers’ reflections influenced them to analyse and strengthen their lessons. Thus, the study recommends that there is a need for teachers to have mentorships and platforms which can expose them to the knowledge of different types of easily accessible materials. This might strengthen their PCK. Teachers are also encouraged to do some reflections after very lesson as these have a potential to influence their pedagogical practices. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04
An analysis of intrasemiotic and intersemiotic relations of textual and visual modes in Namibian school science textbooks
- Authors: Mateus, Venasius
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Semiotics , Force and energy , Visual learning , Verbal learning , Functionalism (Linguistics) , Science -- Textbooks
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177203 , vital:42799
- Description: Although science education in Namibia receives much attention, learners’ performance is low in subjects such as Physical Sciences. The topic of Forces is among the topics in Physical Sciences where learners perform poorly. The provision of basic education in Namibia faces many challenges. One of these is that many teachers are not fully qualified for teaching the subjects they currently teach. Another (possibly related) challenge is that the majority of teachers in Namibian schools rely heavily on school textbooks when planning their lessons. In addition, learners use school textbooks as learning aids. The textbooks are developed and published in the private sector and based on the national curriculum statements. Quality of education has been amongst the major goals of education in Namibia. For quality assurance purposes, school science textbooks have to undergo a formal evaluation process. School textbooks, especially science textbooks, are multimodal. This means that they are designed with various modes, such as the textual and visual, often used in expressing scientific meanings. Literature reveals the textual and visual as individual modes having their own affordances, however, when integrated in school science textbooks contribute to strengthened meanings. No study published was found in Namibia or elsewhere that focused on analysing the intrasemiotic and intersemiotic sense relations of the textual and visual modes in Namibian school Physical Sciences textbooks. This study therefore aimed at contributing to filling this knowledge gap. The research is a qualitative case study and employed the interpretive paradigm. The selected Physical Sciences textbooks that constitute the data in this study were explored in depth via document analysis. Related textual and visual modes in the Physical Sciences textbooks were analysed in order to help answer the research questions of the study. Systemic Functional Linguistics was employed as the theoretical underpinning for this study. In this study, the sense relations were explored in terms of the sense relation themes which were coded and developed from common features of scientific discourse. The results reveal that scientific knowledge within the textual mode in the topic of Forces is communicated mostly through synonymy and repetition while within the visual mode it is mostly through antonymy, collocation, and synonymy. This contributed to meaning potential in the topic of Forces for the three Physical Sciences textbooks. The results further indicated that the overall cohesion within the textual and visual modes in the topic of Forces is achieved since repetition, which is the most direct form of lexical cohesion together with synonymy, collocation, and antonymy which are aspects of cohesion, occurred most frequently within these modes. This result further indicates that meaning potential in the topic of Forces in the three Physical Sciences textbooks were strengthened. While some sense relations occurred most frequently within individual modes, they were less frequent in other modes and vice versa. This indicates that different modes have different affordances. Finally, it was found that combining the textual and visual modes in the topic of Forces contributes to intersemiotic complementarity being achieved through the sense relations of collocation, hyponymy, and meronymy. , Thesis (MEd) -- Education, Education, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04