South African teachers experience challenges with the implementation of the national school curriculum -- the "Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement" (CAPS). In this regard, teachers may not feel empowered to effectively deal with the demands of the current educational policy. Concerns have been expressed about learners' poor…

This study investigated the impact of 'assessment for learning' on learner performance in Life Science. Simple random sampling was used to select four schools from the King Cetshwayo District of KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa, to participate in the study. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest comparison group design was used, involving four…

In Life Sciences (biology) education, both nationally and internationally, the study of animal and organ morphology has traditionally involved dissection since the early 19th century. This study focused on the inclinations of teachers and learners towards animal organ dissection, and its use in problem-solving in Grade 11 Life Sciences education…

This study considers how students change their coherent conceptual understanding of natural selection through a hands-on simulation. The results show that most students change their understanding. In addition, some students also underwent a transformative experience and used their new knowledge in a leisure time activity. These transformative…

In Life Sciences education internationally, including South Africa, the study of animal and organ morphology has traditionally involved dissections since the early nineteenth century. The major purpose of this study was to investigate how the engagement of learners with animal organ dissections may influence the development of problem-solving…

The purpose of this study was three-fold: to measure the ability of the "Medical Explorers" case-based curriculum to improve higher order thinking skills; to evaluate the impact of the "Medical Explorers" case-based curriculum to help students be self directed learners; and to investigate the impact of the "Medical…

In this article the authors resort to a qualitative analysis of the plot of science fiction stories about a group of scientists, written by two 11th-grade Earth and Life Science students (aged 17), and to semi-structured interviews, with the double purpose of diagnosing their conceptions of the nature of science (namely, as regards scientists'…