In South Africa, there is a strong recognition of the affordances of information and communications technology (ICT) in science teaching and learning. A key indicator for the effective use of ICT is the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of teachers with TPACK-Practical (TPACK-P) being an important iteration related to teacher…

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has the potential to influence lesson planning, teaching and students' academic performance in science. Since PCK is embodied in lesson planning (as planned PCK), this study employed the multiple-case design to describe in-depth the biology teachers' profiles of planned topic-specific PCK (plTSPCK) for…

Although there is a lot of interest in the development of computational thinking (CT) and the benefits it could have for every student, integrating it into science classrooms may be more difficult than traditional teaching. This can be very challenging for South African science teachers. Thus, there is an increasing need to prepare teachers and…

This study investigated the extent to which the proposed Factory of Ideas (FOI) teaching approach impacted on students' understanding of energy based on their prior knowledge. The FOI is a didactic approach that, unlike the classic cognitive conflict approach, employs a variety of activities to offer students a scientific conception for comparison…

The purpose of this study was to assess how the Inquiry Based Learning approach supports the development of students' academic language proficiency in invertebrate systematic. The study was framed by Halliday's sociolinguistic approach to learning. A total of 50 classroom observation sessions at 10 schools were conducted: 10 before and 40 after…

This research examines the relationship between high school teachers' understanding and reported practices of inquiry-based pedagogy (IBP) in science classrooms in Nigeria. A sample of 11 science teachers from an education district in Lagos, Nigeria, was chosen for this case study. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, which…

This paper is about using a 'Two-Eyed Seeing' approach as the process of co-learning for incorporating elements of indigenous knowledge into school science teaching. Two groups of 150 Form 3 integrated science learners drawn from six high schools in Mutare, Zimbabwe, comprised the study sample. One group of learners, the control group, was taught…

The world we live in is increasingly multimodal, necessitating multiliteracy for learners to engage meaningfully with knowledge and skills. While verbal language is the primary medium for constructing, communicating and learning scientific knowledge and concepts, visuals can help learners to gain knowledge that they may not develop from verbal…

The divide between theory and practice is an enduring challenge commonly attributed to disconnection in teacher knowledge between 'knowing what to do' (planning) and 'doing what you know' (enacting in class). We re-visited this divide from the new perspective of pedagogical content knowledge with the purpose of examining the ways in which…

In an ideal instructional context, one would expect the components (teacher, content and instructional strategy) to operate in harmony, in tandem and in a complementary manner. When these components are not in harmony, they are said to be in a state of 'instructional contextual contestation'. The components compete rather than complement each…

Evidence from the literature supports the idea that a hierarchical and coherently organised curriculum fosters meaningful learning. We argue that the learning can only be realised if teaching complements the curricular coherence by allowing learners to make links during the teaching and learning process. The study reported in this paper explores…

Learners come to class with a wealth of knowledge. Working with learner prior knowledge (LPK) is the foundation upon which new concepts get their meaning. Yet some teachers find interacting with LPK complex. Reflecting on practice, particularly within a professional learning community (PLC), has resulted in improvements in teaching. The focus of…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether chemistry lesson sequences can indicate the level of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The sequencing of lessons for teaching chemical bonding is taken as the case for this study. The correct sequencing of concepts in teaching chemical bonding is key to learners' conceptual…

Children experience physical phenomena and formulate an epistemological worldview before contact with school science. School science extends thought about the same phenomena to deeper levels but does not always link with out-of-school experiences. This study explored preservice teachers' indigenous knowledge or tacit knowledge about the playground…

This paper investigates the teaching strategies used by secondary school science teachers in Swazi schools that perform well in national examinations. The performance of learners in science in these examinations is generally low, as indicated by the public examination results published by the Examinations Council of Swaziland. However, a few…