Speaker
Dr
Mark Herbert
(University of the Western Cape)
Description
Since the mid-nineties, South Africa schools have been in a state of education reform. At the centre of the reform was the establishment of the comprehensive curriculum project named Curriculum 2005. Deficiency in the Curriculum 2005 resulted in the establishment of the National Curriculum Statement in 2008. Curriculum reform as required by the National Curriculum Statement for grade 10-12 physical sciences teachers implied that teachers have a deep understanding of the highly structured content knowledge as well as the pedagogical content knowledge to transform the content for effective teaching. How every research has indicated that teachers found the curriculum challenging and that they were concerned that they did not have the necessary skills to deal with the content.
The South Africa Institute of Physics (SAIP) in its draft document “Strategic Plan on the enhancement of Physics Training in South Africa” recommended that Physics Departments at South Africa Universities plays a more active role in teacher training. This paper reports on the University of the Western Cape, Department of Physics and Astronomy’s teachers’ program to help address the curriculum challenges teachers faces in terms of content and pedagogical content knowledge. An overview of the program as well as teachers experiences of the program will be presented and discussed.
Primary author
Dr
Mark Herbert
(University of the Western Cape)
