Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Materials science Textbooks'

This dissertation discusses the development of alternative science curriculum materials for a secondary schooling context where English, the medium of instruction, is a second language for both teachers and students. The research is located in an interpretative ethnographic framework and the data gathered during the classroom-based trialing of the materials highlights the vital role of language in the teaching and learning of school science. An interactive reading model coupled with a discourse approach to text analysis explores some of the language difficulties which black students experience with their science textbooks. That many students fail to develop adequate reading strategies is identified as lying at the heart of many learning problems. It is suggested that the key to comprehension is instruction from a base of more accessible text materials. Furthermore, although science practical work does not automatically advance students' knowledge and understanding, relevant and contextualised learning activities do equip students to become more self-directed and reflective learners of science.

The purpose of this evaluation study was to compare students' perceptions of their science classroom environment when using science kits, textbooks or a combination of science kits, textbooks and teacher-created materials. This year-long study involved using a learning environment questionnaire, namely the My Class Inventory (MCI), interviews and observations to assess which of the three treatments leads to a more positive learning environment. Three questions investigated were whether (1) the learning environment can be reliably and validly assessed among Grade 3-5 students in Texas, (2) instruction using textbooks, science kits, or a combination of textbooks and science kits is more effective in terms of changes in student attitudes and learning environment perceptions, and (3) there are associations between student attitudes toward science classes and the classroom environment? Administrators and teachers in Texas are searching for ways to improve the scores received on standardized tests. For more than 40 years, research has shown that positive classroom environments can lead to improvement in achievement. Therefore 1 chose to investigate the above questions using a learning environments framework. This study was conducted in three urban elementary schools in North Texas. There were a total of 588 students in 28 classrooms with 16 different teachers involved in this research. The schools were similar in demographic features such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Analyses of data collected with the My Class Inventory (MCI) supported the instrument's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms.Also, simple correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the students' satisfaction. The Satisfaction scale was used as an outcome variable, following the lead of Majeed, Fraser and Aldridge (2002). Results h m the MCI, interviews and observations indicated that students preferred a more positive classroom environment in terns of Cohesiveness, Competition, and Friction. Importantly, the group of students using science kits experienced greater pretest-posttest changes in satisfaction and classroom cohesiveness than did either the textbook group of the combination group. This study supports previous research that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Qualitative methods suggested that students preferred a more hands-on presentation of science lessons rather than a textbook presentation. This was suggested in interviews with students and teachers and by observations of students in their science classes. This research evaluated three educational methods to determine which instructional method would produce a more positive learning environment and student satisfaction. These results suggest that the utilization of science kits achieves this goal as measured by student satisfaction and cohesiveness.

The purpose of this evaluation study was to compare students' perceptions of their science classroom environment when using science kits, textbooks or a combination of science kits, textbooks and teacher-created materials. This year-long study involved using a learning environment questionnaire, namely the My Class Inventory (MCI), interviews and observations to assess which of the three treatments leads to a more positive learning environment. Three questions investigated were whether (1) the learning environment can be reliably and validly assessed among Grade 3-5 students in Texas, (2) instruction using textbooks, science kits, or a combination of textbooks and science kits is more effective in terms of changes in student attitudes and learning environment perceptions, and (3) there are associations between student attitudes toward science classes and the classroom environment? Administrators and teachers in Texas are searching for ways to improve the scores received on standardized tests. For more than 40 years, research has shown that positive classroom environments can lead to improvement in achievement. Therefore 1 chose to investigate the above questions using a learning environments framework. This study was conducted in three urban elementary schools in North Texas. There were a total of 588 students in 28 classrooms with 16 different teachers involved in this research. The schools were similar in demographic features such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Analyses of data collected with the My Class Inventory (MCI) supported the instrument's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms.
Also, simple correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the students' satisfaction. The Satisfaction scale was used as an outcome variable, following the lead of Majeed, Fraser and Aldridge (2002). Results h m the MCI, interviews and observations indicated that students preferred a more positive classroom environment in terns of Cohesiveness, Competition, and Friction. Importantly, the group of students using science kits experienced greater pretest-posttest changes in satisfaction and classroom cohesiveness than did either the textbook group of the combination group. This study supports previous research that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Qualitative methods suggested that students preferred a more hands-on presentation of science lessons rather than a textbook presentation. This was suggested in interviews with students and teachers and by observations of students in their science classes. This research evaluated three educational methods to determine which instructional method would produce a more positive learning environment and student satisfaction. These results suggest that the utilization of science kits achieves this goal as measured by student satisfaction and cohesiveness.

Is there a symbiosis between gender equality and teaching materials? If yes, are we talking about representation, a percentual divide of pages or of anti-oppressive pedagogy? This study has its origins in the social science subject within the Swedish school system and focuses on analyzing the gender equality in textbooks. It is of importance as gender equality is a central topic in the Swedish curriculum on which the education is built on. The purpose of the study is to gain knowledge about how gender equality is portraited in textbooks addressed for the Swedish upper secondary school. The basis for this study sets in the anti-oppressive theory combined with a performative approach and the discourse of sencemaking. The anti-oppressive pedagogy addresses social values in relation to gender roles and the upholding of hierarchies. The performative approach works together with sencemaking to describe the textbook’s co-creation upon perceptions of reality. It states that if something is repeated enough times, patterns and values are made that outlines the gender roles in society. The method used in this study is a qualitative text analysis by means of evaluating the concept of gender equality as well as to investigate how it is presented, pictured and mediated through the texts.   The study shows that gender equality is limited within the textbook to a political goal with emphasis on labor legislation, and foremost about wages. Gender equality is also portraited mainly by means of statutory formal change, which neglects the operative gender equality. It also shows that women somewhat are excluded from representation even within the content of their own historiography. Men are given more content in total which could lead to difficulties for female pupils to find the text meaningful by means of representation. Sweden is viewed upon as a pioneering country when it comes to gender equality and is compared to other countries less influent work on the subject. This could influence the correlation of power between westerners, Swedes included, and the others in relation to the performative approach. Finally, the study argues for the balance between managing gender equality as a separate text episode as well as it being integrated in other sections of the textbook.

The main purpose with this study is to describe teachers’ use of textbooks and other teaching materials in upper secondary school (gymnasiet) in Sweden, and to discuss the use according to school subject and teacher style. Data was collected in two different ways. At first twenty classroom observations were made during lectures concerning the subjects Swedish (mothertounge), English (foreign language) and religion. Then four open interviews were carried out with the teaching teachers. The analysis was made using qualitative methods and with a perspective of didactics.

The results show that textbooks are not as dominating in the classroom as recent studies have proposed. Instead we can see a varied and flexible use of different educational materials, where teachers consciously and independently choose both which media to use and how to use it. Their aim is to shape a curriculum which helps the students learn, but it is seldom explicitly formulated by the teachers. That is among other things discussed in this study, together with the result that school subjects affect the use of teaching material more than teaching styles do.

Syftet med undersökningen är att beskriva användningen av läromedel och hjälpmedel på gymnasiet, samt att diskutera denna användning i förhållande till skolämne och lärarstil. Data har samlats in dels under tjugo klassrumsobservationer i ämnena svenska, engelska och religion, dels genom öppna intervjuer med de fyra undervisande lärarna. Dessa data har sedan analyserats med kvalitativa metoder och ur ett didaktiskt lärarperspektiv.

Resultatet visar att läroböcker inte har den dominerande roll i undervisningen som tidigare forskning pekat på. Istället ser vi här en varierad och flexibel materialanvändning, där lärarna mycket medvetet väljer både vilka läromedel och hjälpmedel som används och också hur de används. Målet för dem är hela tiden att utifrån de förutsättningar de har forma en undervisning som hjälper eleverna att lära. Att detta och andra mål för läromedelsanvändningen sällan uttrycks explicit av lärarna diskuteras i uppsatsen, liksom att ämnet verkar påverka användningen mer än lärarstilen.

Submitted by Wanderson Rodrigues Morais null (wanderson_rmorais@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-11T11:45:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Wanderson Rodrigues Morais - Dissertação.pdf: 2455132 bytes, checksum: dd7e7c0a210d1a82861e638dcbc87364 (MD5)
Rejected by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize uma nova submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: O arquivo submetido está sem a ficha catalográfica. A versão submetida por você é considerada a versão final da dissertação/tese, portanto não poderá ocorrer qualquer alteração em seu conteúdo após a aprovação. Corrija estas informações e realize uma nova submissão contendo o arquivo correto. Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2016-04-12T14:27:09Z (GMT)
Submitted by Wanderson Rodrigues Morais null (wanderson_rmorais@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-12T16:41:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Wanderson Rodrigues Morais - Dissertação.pdf: 2502465 bytes, checksum: 6caca6de2253fafdf237244dd28bca8b (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-13T13:15:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 morais_wr_me_bauru.pdf: 2502465 bytes, checksum: 6caca6de2253fafdf237244dd28bca8b (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-13T13:15:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 morais_wr_me_bauru.pdf: 2502465 bytes, checksum: 6caca6de2253fafdf237244dd28bca8b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
Este trabalho tem o objetivo de identificar as concepções de História e Natureza da Ciência veiculadas no ensino de Biologia por professores em serviço e pelos materiais didáticos que se utilizam. Um levantamento realizado com as atas eletrônicas do 7º, 8º e 9º ENPEC evidenciou ausência de pesquisas com essa temática, o que mostrou a necessidade de sua realização. Assim, a investigação pôde contar com a participação de três professoras de Biologia do Ensino Médio da rede pública, com a realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas para melhor compreender suas concepções e perfis como educadoras, bem como análises do material didático que utilizam. A linha teórica para compreensão e análise dos dados é formada pelas contribuições de Pimenta (1996) e Tardif (2002) quanto ao ensino e o perfil docente e Toulmin (1977) e Gil-Pérez et al. (2001), quanto às visões de Natureza da Ciência. Por meio dos métodos empregados, a visão de História da Ciência mais presente é aquela cronológica e socialmente neutra, apresentando variações entre as professoras e os materiais em estudo. Quanto à Natureza da Ciência, por sua vez, é retratada essencialmente como aproblemática ateórica e acumulativa linear, adquirindo um aspecto empírico-indutivista entre as professoras, assumindo algumas variações por conta de suas trajetórias de vida.
This work aims to identify the conceptions of History and Nature of Science conveyed in Biology teaching for in-service teachers and teaching materials that are used. A survey of the electronic proceedings of the 7th, 8th and 9th ENPEC showed no researchs on this subject, which showed the need for its realization. Thus, the research could count on the participation of three high school biology teachers from public schools, by carrying out semi-structured interviews to better understand their views and profiles as educators, as well as analysis of the teaching materials they use. The theoretical framework for understanding and analyzing the data is formed by the contributions of Pimenta (1996) and Tardif (2002) about teaching and teacher’s profile and Toulmin (1977) and Gil-Pérez et al (2001), for the views of the Nature of Science. Through the methods employed, the most present views of History of Science is those more chronological and socially neutral, with variations between the teachers and the materials under study. As the Nature of Science in turn, is portrayed essentially as aproblematic and atheoretical, as well linear cumulative, being empirical-inductive for the teachers, with some variations due to their life histories.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Laor Fernandes de Oliveira.pdf: 3432254 bytes, checksum: fa372bdda6383bcc5b2cefd471d3bbb4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-24
This work aims at analyzing the significations constituted by the teachers concerning the Science textbook produced by the SESI-SP school chain. By studying the significations constructed by these Science teachers, we believe that it s possible to learn important aspects of the teachers, the physical structure at the SESI-SP schools and, particularly, the science textbook in focus. As a tool for the study of the significations, the subjects completed a questionnaire, containing both multiple choice and open questions. After collecting the data, the multiple choice questions were tabulated and the chores of significations were created for the open questions, so as to enrich and deepen the issues raised in the literature. The work, based on the Sociohistorical Psychology, used the procedure of Chores of Significations, as described by Aguiar and Ozella (2006) for the analysis of the collected data. The conclusion was that the science textbook is considered an important resource for the subjects in this research, conferring privileged status and functions to the extent that, by using it, teachers organize, develop and evaluate their pedagogical work in the classroom. However, some significations showed the need for more continuing education meetings that address the understanding of the methodological approach of this course book and its use in the classroom, allowing teachers to become authors of their own practice. The need to improve the physical structure of school units, as well as a review of some of the activities proposed in the textbook in focus are other factors learned from the significations of the subjects of this research
Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as significações constituídas pelos professores em relação ao material didático de Ciências elaborado pela rede escolar SESI-SP. Por meio do estudo das significações construídas por estes professores de Ciências, acreditamos ser possível conhecer aspectos importantes do docente, da estrutura das escolas SESI-SP, de sua proposta educacional e, particularmente, do material didático em foco. Como instrumento para o estudo das significações, os sujeitos desta pesquisa responderam um questionário contendo questões fechadas e questões abertas. Após o recolhimento dos dados foram efetuadas as tabulações das questões fechadas e elaboração de núcleos de significação das questões abertas para o enriquecimento e a aprofundamento das questões levantadas na literatura. O trabalho, baseado na Psicologia Sócio-Histórica, utilizou o procedimento dos Núcleos de Significação conforme descrito por Aguiar e Ozella (2006) para a análise dos dados obtidos. Concluiu-se que o material didático de Ciências é considerado um recurso importante para os sujeitos dessa pesquisa, conferindo-lhe status e funções privilegiadas, na medida em que é através dele que o professor organiza, desenvolve e avalia seu trabalho pedagógico de sala de aula. Porém, algumas significações apontam para a necessidade de que sejam realizados mais encontros de formação continuada que abordem a compreensão da proposta metodológica desse material e sua utilização em sala de aula, permitindo aos professores se tornem autores de sua própria prática. A necessidade de melhoria na estrutura física das unidades escolares, bem como de uma revisão de algumas atividades propostas no material didático em foco são outros fatores apreendidos a partir das significações dos sujeitos desta pesquisa

Research has shown mathematics education is highly dependent on teaching materials. Here mathematics textbooks have a dominant role in Swedish schools. When curriculum determines the content of textbooks, it promotes confidence in both schools and teachers. The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare textbooks using Basil Bernstein’s theoretical concepts of classification, frames and sequencing to investigate how content and structure are connected to the calculation methods of addition and subtraction. The following questions are posed: In what way have the calculation methods of addition and subtraction of the natural and rational numbers been presented in four selected textbooks for grade 4 in Swedish public schools? What are the similarities and differences in content and structure in these teaching materials? The study finds a variety and selection of material presented in the selected textbooks. Consequently, it is important for teachers to take in to consideration the content and structure of a textbook in mathematics to realize its potential in the classroom.

Orientação: Profa. Dra. Margarethe Born Steinberger-Elias.
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa De Pós-Graduação em Ensino, História, Filosofia das Ciências e Matemática, 2017.
O uso de paráfrases é estratégico para a comunicação pedagógica em todas as áreas disciplinares. Este trabalho estudou o papel das paráfrases no ensino-aprendizagem de conceitos filosóficos sobre as ciências. Aqui o objetivo é apresentar resultado preliminar de um estudo sobre paráfrases utilizadas em manuais de ensino de filosofia recomendados oficialmente para o ensino médio na rede pública brasileira. Paráfrases são modos de reformular o texto na redação, tais como definições, explicações, exemplificações. O foco do trabalho é o modo como o conceito de "natureza", e "natural", são parafraseados no âmbito de uma história do pensamento filosófico sobre as ciências. Foram selecionados trechos de cinco manuais didáticos que abordam estes conceitos, a fim de investigar o papel e os limites das paráfrases como recurso facilitador da compreensão textual. A metodologia adotada revelou que o uso do termo "natureza" e "natural" envolve não só processos parafrásticos (modos de expressão variados de produzir o sentido dos termos estudados), mas também processos polissêmicos (múltiplos sentidos para um mesmo termo). Os resultados quantitativos apontam que as paráfrases explicativas são mais frequentes. Já a metodologia discursiva evidencia que as paráfrases funcionam como organizadoras das atividades dos sujeitos na interlocução. O trabalho discute estes resultados e suas implicações para uma visão da paráfrase como estratégia discursiva para leitura e compreensão de textos nos manuais didáticos.
The use of paraphrases is strategic for pedagogical communication in all disciplinary areas. This dissertation studied the role of paraphrases in the teaching- learning of philosophic a l concepts about the sciences. Here the objective is to present preliminary results of a study on paraphrases used in philosophy teaching manuals officially recommended for high school in the Brazilian public network. Paraphrases are ways of reformulating in writing, like definitions, explanations, and exemplifications. The focus of the research work is how concepts like "natural sciences" and "nature" are elaborated as paraphrases within a history of philosophic a l thinking about science. We selected excerpts from five textbooks that address these concepts, in order to investigate the role and limits of paraphrases as a facilitator of textual comprehension. The methodology adopted revealed that the use of the term "nature" and "natural" involves not only paraphrastic processes (varied modes of expression to produce the meaning of the terms studied), but also polysemic processes (multiple meanings for the same term). The paper discusses these results and their implications for considering paraphrases as a discursive strategy to cope with text comprehension of teaching manuals.

碩士
國立臺北教育大學
課程與教學研究所
99
This study is focused on Science and Technology textbooks of version E in primary school, which had passed the censorship of Ministry of Education in 2010. And based on the literature review, developing a “Indigenous Materials Content Analyzing Category”and “Postcolonial Discourse Content Analyzing Category” to analyze what the indigenous materials content and how they present in Science and Technology textbooks of version E in primary school; and based on content analysis, interviews with the editorial team of textbooks, discussing editors’ concepts of indigenous material and factors affecting. The main conclusions of study were listed as following: 1.Overall, Science and Technology textbooks of version E in subject category, the "natural habitat" was the highest proportion, but the "historical development" was the lowest proportion. 2.The subject category was highest proportion in eighth book but the lowest in fifth book in Science and Technology textbooks of version E. 3.The proportions of subject category were different in Science and Technology textbooks of version E. 4.In Science and Technology textbooks of version E, the sub-category of "Subjectivity of Taiwan" was lack. Only when discussing some sceicen concepts or principles, Taiwan's people, things, times, places or things as materials, but couldn't highlight subjectivity of Taiwan. 5.In Science and Technology textbooks of version E, the sub-category of "multiple render the text" mainly presented a variety of pictures but was lack of further discussion, and emphasized to present multiple ways in scientific methods, experiments, ignoring the text associated with the content of the discussion, there were the room for improvement. 6.In Science and Technology textbooks of version E, the sub-category of "critical thinking" was lack in text as a criticism. Only issues involving value judgments or experimental methods may talk about different results for thinking. 7.In Science and Technology textbooks of version E, the sub-category of "concrete" mainly contented environmental protection. 8.The editorial team of Science and Technology textbooks was considered scientific concepts as the main consideration, and the "usual" material-based, ignoring the indegenous materials. 9.Editorial team chose the materials were considered convenience, feasibility and correctness, thus, may compress the range of choices or other possibilities. 10.When editorial team chose the materials in textbooks, they considered the examination units and marketing requirements, because they hopeed pass through the examiniation and increase the marketing sales in the same time. 　　According to the above conclusion, some suggestions were provide to textbooks editord and future researchers.

A number of technologies have been in use in the science classroom; however, their effects on teacher instruction and student achievement also remain under researched (Parks & Slykhuis, 2008). In addition, there is a need to study leadership styles with regard to teachers implementing the use of online resources as core instructional materials. Thus, the concern of this transition, as mandated by Texas Senate Bill 6, from using textbooks in the classroom to online instructional materials, will have a profound impact on teaching and learning in the classroom. This study looked at the types of concerns teachers exhibit when going through this transition as well as the perceived principal leadership styles that facilitate, support, or hinder these concerns. An ex post facto, non-experimental quantitative methodology was used to conduct the study. Two valid and reliable evaluation instruments were used to gather data including Hall and Hord’s (2006) Stages of Concern Questionnaire and Burn’s (1996) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Both of these surveys were administered to the identified sample of Texas middle school science teachers using an online science curriculum program to teach the state science standards as the primary instructional resource. A regression model and analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical model was employed to determine which specific stage of teacher concern, with regard to adoption, was significantly correlated to a principal leadership style or behavior. The findings suggest that while no significant correlation exists between a teacher’s specific stage of concern when focused on how the innovation influences one’s self or task of teaching, there is a significant correlation between perceived principal transformational leadership actions and the impact of the curriculum on team collaboration. In addition, a correlation was found between a teacher’s perceived transactional leadership style of his or her principal and the use of the online curriculum program’s effect with regard to student impact and adaptability concerns of the teacher. The outcome of the study provides a lens from which to view how different leadership styles of principals impact the way teachers relate, use, adapt, and implement new online curriculum systems as a primary resource to teach science in his or her classroom in Texas and how it directly effects student achievement.
text

碩士
國立花蓮師範學院
國小科學教育研究所
89
Abstract This study applied national curricula standard concerning the indicators of environmental education abilities to analyze all contemporary elementary science textbooks, practice books and teaching guidebooks by content analysis method. The analysis were focused on the five domains of environmental education such as environmental awareness, sensitivity, knowledge, value and attitude, skill and experience. The total samples were 52 volumes of textbooks, 52 volumes of practice books and 52 volumes of teaching guidebooks. Moreover, the researcher employed semi-structural interview to gather more reliable information from the in-service teachers. The result revealed that the prevailing domains were environmental awareness and sensitivity in all publishers. The other domains were environmental skill, knowledge and value and attitude ordered sequentially by their prevaility. All publishers provided less information towards environmental experience domain. Different publishers had different focuses on these five domains. For example, National publisher put more emphasis on the domain of environmental skill, and NanYi publisher emphasized the domain of value and attitude, Newton publisher was dominant on knowledge, value and attitude. KanShang publisher paid more attention on every domain equally. According to the frequency of usage among different publishers in Hualien County, the most frequently used publisher in the first, the third, and the fifth grades was KanShan Publisher. Meanwhile, the most frequently used publisher in the fourth grade was the National Edition Publisher, yet other publishers were still used by some elementary schools in Hualien County. The new curricula standard will begin in September 2001 and the elementary teachers have to design teaching activities to meet the national curricula standard and enhance conceptual learning. Thus, in the future, elementary school teachers must have the ability of analyzing and integrating different information. Besides, in choosing science textbooks, teachers must not only take the content of textbook into account, but also integrate the environmental issues into the related learning and daily life. Keywords: Elementary school science textbook, content analysis, environmental education.

碩士
國立屏東師範學院
數理教育研究所
91
The main purpose of this study was to explore perspectives, teachers and students, of “Natural Science and Living Technology” textbooks by questionnaires, data of deep interview, comparison between different textbooks of current use, to analyze suitability of various categories, expect to be a reference for editors and teachers. The objects were 65 science teachers and 248 students in 4 grade. The devices were textbooks of “Natural Science and Living Technology”, and “The questionnaire of Moon Units”, teacher and student edition respectively, and data of deep interview for vague opinions. The major findings were： The textbooks of “Natural Science and Living Technology” in elementary school was satisfied most teachers, about 60% through 84.5%, but still have some problems to be solved by editors of current editions as below: 1. Structure：The prior knowledge of “Moon Unit” should be taught in advance. 2. Content：The materials of about lunar calendar, for example the date of new moon and full moon, were wrong; About the observation of Moon should orient to south led misconceptions. 3. Designing：Too long to observe “Moon Phases”. Too complex to manipulate. 4. Pictures and words：Scientific terms were undefined; pictures and words were inconsistent; words arrangements were at fault. 5. Arrangement：Some layouts were inappropriate.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 10 October 2016.
This research explores the potential influence of Life Sciences teacher curriculum support materials on unscientific ideas about evolution by natural selection. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement document, seven learner Life Sciences textbooks and their seven teacher guides were investigated by content analysis to find out firstly, the nature and extent of misconceptions about evolution; secondly, the nature and extent of latent problems associated with the topic of evolution; thirdly, the extent to which the Grade 12 Life Sciences textbooks pointed out common misconceptions and went on to provide the correct scientific explanations to counter the misconceptions; and fourthly, the extent to which teacher guides address teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching the topic of evolution by a) pointing out common misconceptions; b) providing the correct science to counter a specific misconception; c) pointing out pre-requisite knowledge which ought to be learnt first in order to understand the topic of evolution; d) pointing out typical difficulties students encounter when learning the topic of evolution. The Grade 10 and 11 textbooks and teacher guides were analysed for fragmentation and sequencing by use of a checklist. The results show the presence of manifest errors and latent problems in the CAPS document, textbooks and teacher guides. The CAPS document had one manifest error and five instances of latent problems. The section on alternatives to evolution was judged to be a manifest error because religious ideas are not regarded as science by the scientific community. The manifest error found in the CAPS document was also found in the textbooks and teacher guides. Frequent manifest errors occurred in the textbooks, averaging 11 per publisher. The CAPS document had fragmented evolution ideas and probably because textbook authors use this document to write their books, the evolution content in textbooks was also found to be fragmented. Whilst some of the teacher guides were found to address the issue of teacher PCK for teaching the topic of evolution in different ways, some of them were found to be deficient in that respect. The presence of latent problems across all the three curriculum support materials investigated is a cause for concern. Latent problems are problematic if not handled with care because they pose a risk of being misinterpreted, and this may in turn cause the development of evolution misconceptions. An investigation of whether the unscientific evolution ideas in the curriculum documents actually influenced learners’ evolution ideas was not part of this study. However, because textbooks are generally considered as authoritative sources of knowledge upon which teachers and students rely, the presence of misconceptions in these curriculum support materials poses a risk that users of such documents could pick up these misconceptions during teaching and learning. The study highlights the need for a multifaceted approach involving all relevant stakeholders (teachers, authors, publishers and the Department of Education officials) working together in an attempt to address the problem of evolution misconceptions in the Life Sciences curriculum support materials.
TG2016

The key purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how the social science education subject for the intermediate phase of schooling was conceptualised as a distance education learning material and what learning was intended through this learning process. The process of data collection was presented thematically within three sections. The first section presented data produced through the interview with the author of the learning material for the social science (SS) NPDE module. The second section presented a global analysis of the SS distance learning material. The third section presented a fine-grained analysis of a unit of learning within the history section of the distance learning material for the social science education. The findings of the study revealed that there was an error in the conceptualisation of the social science curriculum as an integration of history and geography. The learning material clearly shows that the construction of the social science distance learning material has clear and distinctive sections of history and geography with no indication of the integration. This study reveals a lack of alignment between curriculum intentions and the conceptualisation and construction of learning materials to support teacher learning. The analysis clearly indicated that pedagogical content knowledge development through distance learning material is minimal. On this basis the researcher proposes that should the intention of the learning programme be on developing teaching skills, then the content of learning materials need to be supported by other appropriate forms of learning.
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.