SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.64Synthesis of (S)-3-aminoethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline (TIQ-diamine) via the Mitsunobu protocolThe determination of 11B/10B and 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios by quadrupole-based ICP-MS for the fingerprinting of South African wine índice de autoresíndice de assuntospesquisa de artigos
Home Pagelista alfabética de periódicos  

Serviços Personalizados

Artigo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

  • Em processo de indexaçãoCitado por Google
  • Em processo de indexaçãoSimilares em Google

Compartilhar


South African Journal of Chemistry

versão On-line ISSN 1996-840X
versão impressa ISSN 0379-4350

S.Afr.j.chem. (Online) vol.64  Durban  2011

 

RESEARCH ARTICLE

 

High school Physical Sciences teachers' competence in some basic cognitive skills

 

 

Mailoo Selvaratnam*

Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Mafikeng Campus, North-West University, 2735 South Africa

 

 


ABSTRACT

The successful implementation of the national high school Physical Sciences curriculum in South Africa, which places strong emphasis on critical thinking and reasoning abilities of students, would need teachers who are competent in cognitive skills and strategies. The main objectives of this study were to test South African high school Physical Sciences teachers' competence in the cognitive skills and strategies needed for studying Physical Sciences effectively and also to identify possible reasons for their difficulties and suggest methods for overcoming them. The study method used was the analysis of teachers' answers to questions that were carefully designed to test competence in explanation skills, mathematical skills, graphical skills, three-dimensional visualization skills, information-processing skills and reasoning skills. Seventy-three teachers from about 50 Dinaledi schools in the North West and Kwazulu-Natal provinces were tested. Teachers' competence was found to be poor in most of the skills tested. About 40 % (average performance in all 14 test questions) of them had difficulty in answering the questions. Teachers' lack of competence in cognitive skills and strategies would be an important limiting factor in the successful implementation of the Physical Sciences curriculum. An urgent need therefore exists for training teachers to increase their competence in the cognitive skills and strategies that are needed for studying science effectively.

Keywords: Cognitive skills, thinking skills, questions testing skills, problem solving, teacher training, high school physical science


 

 

Full text available only in pdf format.

 

 

References

1 R.J. Marzano, R.S. Brandt, C. Hughes, B.F. Jones, B.F. Presseisen, S.C. Rankin and C. Suhor, Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework of Curriculum and Instruction. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, USA, 1988.         [ Links ]

2 B.F. Jones and F. Idol, eds, Dimensions of Thinking and Cognitive Instruction, NCREL Publications, Illinois, USA, 1990.         [ Links ]

3 A.L. Costa, ed., Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, 2001.         [ Links ]

4 M. Selvaratnam and M.J. Frazer, Problem Solving in Chemistry, Heinemann Educational Publishers, London, 1982.         [ Links ]

5 B.K. Beyer, Developing a scope and sequence for thinking skills instruction, Ref. 3, pp. 248-252.         [ Links ]

6 B.Z. Presseisen, Thinking skills: meaning and models revisited, Ref. 3, pp. 47-53.         [ Links ]

7 K.H. Kelder, D.Govender and J.Govender, Physical Sciences Grade 12 Learners Book, Cambridge University Press, Cape Town, 2007, p. v.         [ Links ]

8 H.P. Drummond, Students' Competence in the Intellectual Skills and Strategies needed for Learning South African Matriculation Chemistry, Ph.D. thesis, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa, 2003.         [ Links ]

9 H.P. Drummond and M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Chem., 2009, 62, 179-184.         [ Links ]

10 H. Tuckey, M. Selvaratnam and J. Bradley, J. Chem. Educ., 1991, 68, 460-464.         [ Links ]

11 M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Sci., 2011, 107(1/2), 20-26.         [ Links ]

12 M. Selvaratnam, A Guided Approach To Learning Chemistry, Juta, Cape Town, 1998.         [ Links ]

13 W. de Vos and A.H. Verdonk, J. Chem. Educ., 1987, 64, 1010.         [ Links ]

14 P.L. Lijnse, P. Licht, W. deVos and A.J. Warloo, eds, Relating Macroscopic Phenomena to Microscopic Properties, a Central Problem in Secondary Science Education, CD-B Press, Utrecht, 1990.         [ Links ]

15 O. Oyoo, Effective teaching of science: why what matters is the teachers' classroom language. Proceedings of SAARMSTE Conference, North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011, 435-475        [ Links ]

16 R.E. Bleicher, K. Tabin and C.J. Merobbie, Res. Sci. Educ., 33(3), 319-339.         [ Links ]

17 Ref. 4, pp. 9-12.

18 P. Eggen and D. Kauchak, EducationalPsychology, Windows on Classrooms, 7th edn., Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall Publishing, New York, 2007, 202-227.         [ Links ]

19 A.H. Johnstone, J. Chem. Educ., 1997, 74, 262-268.         [ Links ]

20 M. Selvaratnam, S. Afr. J. Chem., 2011, 64, 185-189.         [ Links ]

 

 

Received 7 October 2011
Revised 4 November 2011
Accepted 8 November 2011

 

 

Submitted by invitation to celebrate 2011 the 'International Year of Chemistry'.
* E-mail: mailoo.selvaratnam@nwu.ac.za

Creative Commons License Todo o conteúdo deste periódico, exceto onde está identificado, está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons