This research reports the assessment of pre-service teachers' reception and attitudes towards virtual laboratory experiments in Life Sciences with the aim of advancing adaptability to digital learning. Using sequential mixed-methods in a quasi-experimental design, 68 pre-service teachers in the 3rd year of a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) program…

Are the ways of engaging with the world that students develop through higher education particular to bodies of knowledge they study? In this article, we examine how students' accounts of the discipline of chemistry in England and South Africa changed over the three years of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a longitudinal phenomenographic…

The purpose of the study reported on here was to investigate the role of partnerships in helping in-service teachers overcome the difficulties associated with performing practical work prescribed in the Life Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), an educational policy intended to transform the South African school curriculum…

Background: Students' well preparedness for laboratory sessions is of importance for a number of reasons including them being able to engage in and learn from the session and in acquiring the necessary laboratory skills needed for the scientific community and for possible further work in industry. To enhance the preparedness of the students an…

This mixed method study investigated changes in 3rd year Bachelor of Education students' attitudes towards chemistry after learning interventions with virtual chemistry simulations. After participant students identified certain concepts from their 3rd year chemistry module as being abstract and not easily comprehensible, these concepts were…

Vivisection (live animal experimentation) is a controversial issue for many people. The purpose of this case study is to examine the attitudes of prospective teachers toward vivisection in education and research, to determine if gender has an influence on these attitudes, and to discuss the implications of these attitudes with regard to teaching…

Drawing on narrative data from a multiple case study, I recount the life stories of two resilient Black South African university students to theorize about the processes that encouraged these students, familiar with penury and parental illiteracy, to resile. I aimed to uncover lessons for school psychologists about resilience, and their role in…

This study, undertaken at the Walter Sisulu University of Technology (WSU) in South Africa, describes how problem-based learning (PBL) affects the first year 'analog electronics course', when PBL and the lecturing mode is compared. Problems were designed to match real-life situations. Data between the experimental group and the control group that…

Cooperative learning may improve students' motivation, understanding of course concepts, and academic performance. This study therefore enhanced a cooperative, group-project learning technique with technology resources to determine whether doing so improved students' deep learning and performance. A sample of 118 engineering students, randomly…

Given the emphasis on community engagement in higher education, academic departments need to become more involved in the community. This paper discusses a number of outreach activities undertaken by the chemistry department at Rhodes University, South Africa. The activities range from service learning to community engagement with teachers and…

An evaluation of a course aimed at developing university students' understanding of the nature of scientific measurement and uncertainty is described. The course materials follow the framework for metrology as recommended in the "Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement" (GUM). The evaluation of the course is based on…

Based on a questionnaire to academic staff, this article examines the reading and writing tasks assigned to undergraduate science students at a South African university. The article finds that although academic staff in science value clearly written and well-organised writing, few see it as their task to induct students into this literacy. Instead…