7-11 July 2014
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=16&confId=34"><font color=#0000ff>SAIP2014 Proceedings published on 17 April 2015</font></a>

Lesson planning practices of South African Physical Sciences teachers in a new curriculum

9 Jul 2014, 14:20
20m
D Les 310

D Les 310

Oral Presentation Track E - Physics Education Education

Speaker

Dr Sam Ramaila (University of Johannesburg)

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

N/A

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

No

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

N/A

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

This paper reports findings on the perceptions of South African Physical Sciences teachers on lesson planning. Significant changes to the school science curriculum require that teachers revisit how they plan lessons. We adopted a mixed method approach in collecting and analysing data from a large-scale survey of teachers through a structured questionnaire, and followed this with interviews with 10 teachers in seeking more in-depth explanations of the findings which emerged from the survey. The study revealed that when feasible, teachers work collaboratively in a community of practice when planning lessons. Apart from reducing the planning time, this strategy also leads to creative and innovative ideas that are shared. This is especially the case when teaching topics that are new in the curriculum and also lessons that are inquiry-based. Teachers also believe that writing a lesson plan does have pedagogical value because it serves as a support mechanism in planning deliberately for difficulties they encounter in addressing curriculum implementation challenges. The lesson plan therefore supports teachers in their role as reflective practitioners.

Primary author

Dr Sam Ramaila (University of Johannesburg)

Co-author

Prof. Umesh Ramnarain (University of Johannesburg)

Presentation Materials

Peer reviewing

Paper