- Title
- Enhancing Grade 12 physical sciences teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge to teach work, energy, and power bilingually in the Eastern Cape
- Creator
- Mapfumo, Alfred Khumbulani
- ThesisAdvisor
- Ngcoza, K.
- ThesisAdvisor
- Nkomo, D.
- Subject
- Uncatalogued
- Date
- 2025-04-03
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480073
- Identifier
- vital:78394
- Identifier
- DOI 10.21504/10962/480073
- Description
- South Africa has been performing very poorly in consecutive Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in Science and Mathematics, where it has been ranked last among all participating countries. Similarly, in the recent National Senior Certificate examinations (2017–2023), the percentage of candidates who scored at least 40% in Physical Sciences ranged from 39% to 51%. This points to a possible problem in the teaching and learning of Physical Sciences in schools. On close analysis, the question on the topic of Work, Energy, and Power, in particular, is usually one of the most poorly answered in the Physics paper of the Physical Sciences examination. Some South African studies have concluded that there is poor mastery of the energy concept in the Further Education and Training Phase by both learners and teachers. Against this backdrop, this formative interventionist study sought to support Grade 12 Physical Sciences teachers in co-developing and enacting exemplar lessons on Work, Energy and Power that incorporate everyday and home language through pedagogical translanguaging and transknowledging. The five teachers from township and rural schools and I formed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) to co-develop lessons later enacted by the teachers. The study was underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm and complemented by the critical theory paradigm. A qualitative case study research design was employed. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, document analysis, workshops, lesson observations and participant-teacher reflections. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was my theoretical framework, while Mavhunga and Rollnick’s five components of Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge were used as an analytical lens. An inductive-deductive approach to data analysis was used. This study demonstrated how teachers in a PLC can work together to develop their individual pedagogical content knowledge in particular practice areas. The PLC created lesson plans that guided their use of pedagogical translanguaging techniques, such as code-switching, code-mixing, translation, and versioning of scientific terminology, to facilitate learning. In addition, the PLC created an IsiXhosa glossary for concepts related to Work, Energy, and Power. The study’s main contribution is that teachers involved in this study displayed transformative agency through co-constructing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for pedagogical translanguaging. The study thus recommends that if the goal of improving epistemological access for learners who are learning Physical Sciences in a second language is to be realised, in-service teachers should be capacitated to apply pedagogical translanguaging, which brings about transknowledging using PLCs such as the one-formed for this study.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post School Education, 2025
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (263 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post School Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Mapfumo, Alfred Khumbulani
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MAPFUMO-PHD-TR25-77.pdf | 6 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |