Browsing by Author "Sader, Mahomed Yusuf."
Item An evaluation of the impact of a life science module on teachers' scientific literacy.(2003) Naidoo, Jaqueline Theresa.; Dempster, Edith Roslyn.; Harley, Keneth Lee.; Aitchison, John Jacques William.; Sader, Mahomed Yusuf.The Advanced Certificate in Education Programme was launched in 2002 at the School of Education, Training and Development, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, in an attempt to upgrade and retrain science educators, given the drastic shortage of qualified science educators in South Africa. This research study investigated the development of scientific literacy within a group of fifteen educators during the first semester of their two-year Advanced Certificate in Education Programme. The study focused on scientific literacy and the relationship between language comprehension skills, readability and scientific literacy. This study aimed to examine whether the Natural Sciences and Biological Sciences module of the Advanced Certificate in Education Programme was effective in raising the level of scientific literacy of educators. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the collection of data. Students wrote a pre-test at the beginning of the first semester and the same test was written as the post-test at the end of the first semester. Semi-structured interviews with tutors were also conducted. Responses of students in the Student Evaluation Questionnaire, given at the end of their first year of study, were analysed to ascertain their perceptions about the tutors, their knowledge and understanding of the content and skills of the modules and the learning material. The questions used in the achievement test were adapted from the question bank of the Science Achievement Test used for Grade 8 learners in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat in 1998/1999. The same achievement test was used in the pre-test and post-test, using questions from the Life Science and Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science content areas. The results from this research study indicated that although the level of scientific literacy of educators improved, it was not statistically significant. The study also highlights that language and comprehension skills and inability of students to express their answers in writing hampered their performance in the scientific literacy test. This was demonstrated by the significant positive correlation between language comprehension and readability with scientific literacy. Specific areas of conceptual difficulty were also highlighted in this study. Implications of these findings for further research and delivery of mixed-mode programmes are discussed.Item Teacher perceptions of the process of desegregation in selected Pietermaritzburg schools.(1999) Sader, Mahomed Yusuf.; Wedekind, Volker Ralf.; Harley, Keneth Lee.This research project attempts to identify teacher perceptions of school desegregation at three schools in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. A targetted selection of schools was made to ensure that three of the former apartheid era Education Departments were represented. Data were gathered from interviews with teachers and by means of questionnaires that were completed by pupils. The study attempts to replicate a study that was carried out by Verma et al (1994) in secondary schools in Britain. The Pietermaritzburg study sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of teachers in three racially desegregated schools to deepen our understanding of the complex processes of inter-racial and inter- cultural exchange within the three schools. The Pietermaritzburg (as did the Verma et ai, 1994) study focussed on the following areas: • How well did the teachers know themselves, their students and colleagues? • What, if any, relevant policy frameworks did they operate with, and how widely were these internally known and acknowledged? • To what extent were teachers equipped by knowledge, experience, training and disposition to contribute to good inter-ethnic relationships? • What were the teachers' perceptions of the state of pupil inter ethnic relationships? • To what extent did school/community links affect the pupil inter-ethnic relationships? • see page 38. The teacher interviews were used to create a profile for each school and selected data from the pupil questionnaires were used to compare the opinions of the pupils to that of the teachers. The profiles of the three schools were compared to determine similarities and differences in terms of the research questions. The major findings of the study were that: • The teachers did not know their pupils' ethnic backgrounds. • None of the schools operated with any policy frameworks with specific reference to either the promotion of inter-ethnic relationships, or the handling of racial incidents or racism in general. None of the schools were equipped by knowledge, experience, training or disposition to contribute to good pupil inter-ethnic relations. Assimilation was the primary approach adopted in response to desegregation. Very few links existed between the schools and the communities that they served. The state of pupil inter-ethnic relationships was perceived by the teachers as being poor. The comparison of the findings of the Pietermaritzburg and Verma et al (1994) studies revealed that: • The circumstances under which school desegregation took place in the United Kingdom and South Africa were different; teachers in both the studies were ill-prepared to teach in multi-ethnic schools; insufficient INSET was identified as a problem in both studies; significantly better school-community links were identified in, the Verma study as compared to the Pietermaritzburg study and; • teachers in the Verma study were better informed about macro and micro education policies as compared to the teachers in the Pietermaritzburg study. This study recommends that mechanisms need to be established to ensure that the role players involved in education work together as it is impossible to implement any form of educational reform without the participation of all the role players. The study also recommends that research needs to begin focussing on actual classroom practice to determine how racism is addressed in lessons and how it is tackled as a problem among children.