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RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study has been motivated, firstly, by the recent addition of the theory of evolution in the Life Sciences curriculum in South African secondary schools. Evolution accounts for about 25% of the content in Grade 12 Life Sciences curriculum, a percentage high enough to influence performance in Life Sciences examination. It has been examined since 2008, and reports of examiners indicate poor performance in it, which should be a matter of concern to Life Sciences educators. The poor performance by learners in evolution may be attributed to a number of factors, including the way the activities and assessment are aligned to each other and to the expected curriculum outcomes. The aim of this study was not to investigate performance but to look at how teaching and learning took place, which might indicate how the curriculum was perceived and enacted by the teachers and learners. In addition, the design of the current curriculum in South Africa is underpinned within constructivism, a theory that posits the recognition of prior ideas in teaching and learning. Prior ideas include any knowledge and beliefs that learners bring to the classroom which could reflect learners‟ belief systems. Some of the knowledge might be erroneous or clouded in misconceptions. Regarding the influence of social context on teachers‟ beliefs and practices, most of the research on beliefs, particularly of science and religion, has been done mainly in Western culture. However, studies done in other cultures (Dzama & Osborne, 1999; Liu & Lederman, 2007; Mansour, 2008a, 2008b; Mansour, 2010) have shown that teachers and learners from foreign cultures have difficulty coming to terms with Western (modern) scientific knowledge. Generally, the results indicated that students often bring alternative conceptions into science classes, and these conceptions may or may not be in agreement with the scientific conceptions being taught.
Teaching from a historical perspective
Laugksch (2000) has found that, in South Africa, Life Sciences (Biology) plays a less significant role than other sciences in the achievement of scientific literacy. He suggests possible mechanisms for this, one of which is that, in comparison to biology, there is a greater number of topics placed in an historical context in the Physical Sciences syllabus (Laugksch, 2000, p. 8). Evolution is a concept that covers the history of life and, as a concept, it has a rich history which embraces the nature of science. Laugksch (2000) suggests that the historical contextualisation of topics in Physical Sciences could be responsible for students having a better understanding of the nature of science than students taking Life Sciences. Therefore, the historical perspective in Life Sciences topics could be strengthened. Teaching about evolution requires an historical perspective, in order for learners to appreciate and understand the concept, and teaching it that way could possibly bring that historical contextualisation to those same topics for better understanding. For instance, the evidence for evolution can be understood from three perspectives: circumstantial, direct and historical (Dagher & BouJaoude, 2005). Appreciating the convergence of these three types of evidence enables substantive understanding of the nature of evolution and the theories that are used to explain it (Dagher & BouJaoude, 2005, p. 380). Research has shown that this can also help learners understand evolution itself. For example, Jensen and Finley (1997) conducted a study with the aim “to develop an instruction that would change students‟ mixed bag of ideas into a more Darwinian form” (p. 209) and thus “improve students‟ understanding of evolution” (p. 211). They did this by altering the curriculum and instructional techniques, using a historically rich curriculum and pairing problem-solving instructional strategies. As suggested by Gevers (2002, p. 50), “[N]o one can today dispute that the basic phenomena of evolution need to be explained, illustrated and related to important real-life matters such as the natural history of HIV infection”.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.3 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.4 AIM OF THE RESEARCH
1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.7 RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.8 DESIGN OF THE STUDY
1.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1.10 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 2 THE SCHOOLING SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA
2.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
2.2 THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (RSA)
2.3 THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
2.4 THE SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM
2.5 CURRICULUM REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA
2.6 LIFE SCIENCES (BIOLOGY) EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
2.7 EVOLUTION EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
2.8 IMPLICATIONS OF INTRODUCING EVOLUTION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
2.9 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3 TRENDS IN SCIENCE AND EVOLUTION EDUCATION
3.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
3.2 INTRODUCTION
3.3 A BRIEF GLIMPSE OF DEVELOPMENTS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
3.4 THE ENTERPRISE OF SCIENCE
3.5 BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
3.6 BELIEFS of teachers and learners about teaching and learning
3.7 EVOLUTION EDUCATION RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA
3.8 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE ON BELIEFS AND EVOLUTION EDUCATION
3.9 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR THIS STUDY
3.10 SUMMARY OF THE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
3.11 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH
4.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
4.2 BACKGROUND
4.3 THE DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH
4.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES
4.5 DATA ANALYSIS
4.6 QUALITY ASSURANCE TECHNIQUES
4.7 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
4.8 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5 INDINGS OF THE QUANTITATIVE APPLICATION OF THE STUDY
5. 1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
5. 2 FINDINGS FROM LEARNERS
5.3 FINDINGS FROM TEACHERS
5.4 FINDINGS FROM SCHOOL VISITS
5.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6 FINDINGS FROM THE QUALITATIVE APPLICATION OF THE STUDY
6.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
6.2 FINDINGS FROM INTERVIEWS WITH LEARNERS
6.3 FINDINGS FROM TEACHERS
6.4 FINDINGS FROM THE SCHOOL VISITS
6.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 7 ISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
7.2 BACKGROUND
7.3 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
7.4 DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
7.5 SUMMARY
7.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
7.7 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RESEARCH
7.8 RECOMMENDATIONS
7.9 CONCLUSION
