The performance of South African learners in science subjects

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Criterion for selecting a topic for use in the study

To adequately assess the comparative efficacy of the context-based approach and of traditional approaches in enhancing learner performance, it was considered ecessary to use a topic that was considered predominantly difficult from the learners‟ and educators‟ perspectives. In order to select the study topic, thirteen high schools that were not chosen for participation in the main study were randomly sampled from Pretoria to participate in a survey for selecting a life sciences topic considered difficult for learners to learn. Ten educators from ten of these schools volunteered to take part in the selection of a difficult topic. Two of the ten schools, from which educators had volunteered to participate in the survey, allowed their Grade 12 learners to take part. Sixty seven learners from these two schools participated. Grade 12 learners were considered suitable for the survey because they had already studied most of the life sciences topics in the South African national curriculum statement, and were therefore in a better position to make informed decisions about the difficulty of topics.
A list of life sciences concepts, such as gaseous exchange, human diseases, excretion in humans, chromosomes, DNA and gene structure and function, and genetic code, was compiled from the South African life sciences national curriculum statement (DoE 2008). Participating learners and educators were required to select from the list, ten concepts that they considered most difficult for learners to learn.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 ORIENTATION TO THE CHAPTER
1.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY.
1.2.1 The performance of South African learners in science subjects
1.2.2 Science teaching and performance in science .
1.2.3 Context-based approaches to the teaching of science
1.3 PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY – SCIENTIFIC MERIT.
1.8 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
1.9 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY.
1.10 MAIN ASSUMPTIONS.
1.11 SUMMARY.
1.12 ORIENTATION TO FORTHCOMING CHAPTERS
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW .
2.1 ORIENTATION TO THE CHAPTER.
2.2 APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE.
2.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY
2.4 ASSESSMENT OF SKILLS ACQUISITION AND LEARNER ATTITUDE.
2.5 SOME FACTORSAFFECTING PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL SCIENCE
2.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER THRE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH METHOD.
3.3 STUDY VARIABLES.
3.4 POPULATION AND SAMPLING PROCEDURES
3.5 SUMMARY OF JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE DESIGN OF THE CONTEXT-BASED TEACHING APPROACH USED IN THE STUDY.
3.6 DEVELOPMENT OF CONTEXT-BASED GENETICS MATERIALS.
3.7 CONTEXT- BASED TEACHING APPROACH USED IN THE STUDY
3.8 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
3.9 PILOT STUDY.
3.10 MAIN STUDY.
3.11 PROCEDURES FOR ANALYSING DATA…
3.12 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
3.13 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER FOUR STUDY RESULTS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 QUANTITATIVE RESULTS.
4.3 QUALITATIVE RESULT.
4.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY
CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
5.1 INTRODUCTION.
5.2 EFFECT OF CONTEXT-BASED AND TRADITIONAL TEACHING APPROACHES ON LEARNER PERFORMANCE
5.3 INTERACTIVE INFLUENCES OF GENDER AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCES AND TREATMENT ON LEARNER PERFORMANCE
5.4 EVALUATION OF THE CONTEXT-BASED APPROACH DEVELOPED IN THE STUDY.
5.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY.
CHAPTER SIX SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES