ERIC Number: EJ1147895
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1029-8457
EISSN: N/A
The Development and Use of an Instrument to Investigate Science Teachers' Views on Indigenous Knowledge
Cronje, Annelize; de Beer, Josef; Ankiewicz, Piet
African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, v19 n3 p319-332 2015
Science teachers in South Africa and globally experience difficulties with the integration of indigenous knowledge into their science lessons--a requirement of many science curricula. One of the reasons for this may relate to the views teachers hold about indigenous knowledge. Such views can form a barrier against successful inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the science classroom. It was, therefore, deemed useful to investigate teachers' views on indigenous knowledge. This article reports on the development of a theoretical framework, and a questionnaire derived from it, to investigate teachers' views on indigenous knowledge. The researchers were informed by the framework developed by Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell and Schwartz regarding the nature of science (NOS) and their views-on-the-NOS questionnaire. A qualitative study was done to develop and validate the views-on-the-nature-of-indigenous-knowledge instrument (VNOIK). The findings indicate that the VNOIK instrument is suitable to determine a wide range of views of science teachers on the nature of indigenous knowledge. We found that South African science teachers held mainly a partially informed view on the nature of indigenous knowledge. The new instrument can be used to measure the effect of a short learning programme and to identify further development needs of science teachers in addressing the tenets of science and indigenous knowledge effectively in the classroom.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Indigenous Knowledge, Science Instruction, Science Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Culturally Relevant Education, Questionnaires, Qualitative Research, Test Construction, Test Validity, Secondary School Teachers, Pretests Posttests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A